Emeril's Tchoup Chop

Tchoup Chop is an Asian Pacific restaurant from US celebratory chef Emeril Lagasse situated in the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando. The name is a nod to New Orleans' famous Tchoupitoulas Street, where Emeril's flagship restaurant is located.

The menu reads well with creative dishes. We ordered from the a la carte and a set menu, the portions were on the large size, which we now expected in the US but yet managed to over order again! 

A starter of seared ahi tuna poke nachos was huge with piles of wonton chips, guacamole and Hawaiian chilli pepper alioli. This was a great snack with meaty chunks of tuna.

The signature starter was the Tchoup Chop crunchy shrimp with hot and sour chilli glaze. Three big hunks of fried shrimp with a tangy sauce.

One dish we could of done without if we knew how big the portions were was the surf & turf maki, blue crab, cucumber, Hibachi skirt steak, Asian chimichurri and white truffle oil. Whilst sounding great we didn’t think it worked as a dish with the steak being too tough served as sushi and being a tad dry overall.

Our mains were the most interesting. Kona coffee spice pork tenderloin, shishito pepper, corn bread, spaghetti squash, cherry agro dolce and apple cider ginger butter. This was inspiring and the mixture of flavours worked surprisingly well.

Less successful was the baked seafood cobbler, edamame mushroom ragout and truffle scented lemon herb streusel. Whilst very fragrant it became a chore to eat towards the end as the streusel became clay like when mixed with the ragout.

A dessert of baked Hawaii in a jar, coconut cake, vanilla ice cream, meringue and caramelised pineapple was a very end to the meal.

Overall some interesting concepts with some hit and misses, but bold enough to experiment.

Bice Ristorante, Orlando

During our summer holidays to the States the pick of the meals in Orlando was had in Bice Ristorante set in the Portofino Bay resort of Universal Orlando. The restaurant is part of a network of restaurants founded in Milan over 90 years ago. The seaside Italian village setting of Portofino Bay was certainly an ideal location for the restaurant which with its ceilings and classic interior exuded a cool charm. 

Being the first leg of our trip we were conscious of budgeting, especially with New York being the destination for the second half of the trip. We were in luck as September was billed as the ‘Magical Dining Month’ with many Orlando restaurants offering tempting set price menus at the very reasonable price of $33 for three courses (approx. £21).

The a la carte options had teasing options such as veal shank for $48 (£30) but we stuck with the set menu. The starters included spinach salad with roasted maple leaf duck confit, grilled pears, toasted almond raspberry vinaigrette and porcini and black truffle risotto served in a Parmigiano phyllo dough basket.

Mrs Nom enjoyed the salad and declared it incredibly well dressed. My porcini  and truffle risotto was pungently fragrant with the right bite as well as being a generous portion, so much so that I had to leave most of the basket.

My main was center cut pork chop Milanese with Sicilian eggplant caponata, topped with grilled pineapple, papaya, hearts of palm and Roma tomatoes. The fried pork chop sizable and not the best choice combined with the risotto as I struggled to finish it. I enjoyed the eggplant and tomatoes but less so the accompanying papaya, the flavours didn’t seem to mix well to me.

Mr Nom chose agnolotti filled with Maine lobster and ricotta cheese served in a Tarragon pink vodka cream serve and asparagus tips which she quickly polished off, the small sample I managed to obtain revealed light pasta with a superb rich filling.

We couldn't pass up dessert and apple strudel ala mode rum chocolate coffee cake with nutella filling provided agood end to the meal.

Service was very attentive with waiters in cream jackets, how they kept them clean I'll never know. Due to Mrs Noms overuse of the credit card earlier on in the day it was blocked for unusual behavior and we were discreetly informed as to not cause embarrassment, not that we would be that bothered but some certainly would create a scene. Probably one of the more high end restaurants of the family orientated Universal resort and recommended for a hearty Italian meal.