We are trying to hit as many places as possible for Bite30. The first place we decided to go was The Smiling Bison in Sanford. I have been to The Smiling Bison in Orlando (now closed) and Sanford several times and I have always enjoyed the experience, however, I always get the same thing to eat because they have a fantastic burger. Since we were going for Bite30 and the menu is prix fixe, I thought it was a good opportunity to try something different.
We started off the night with happy hour. The Smiling Bison has one of the best happy hours in Central Florida. They have great specials on drinks and also offer a bar bits menu.
Happy Hour at Smiling Bison
After happy hour, we moved on to dinner which consists of starters, main dishes and desserts. For starters, our choices included poutine with hand cut fries, mushroom gravy, and cheddar cheese curds.
Poutine with mushroom gravy and cheddar cheese curds
A second starter option was a tomato salad with local cherry tomatoes, black barley, charred onion and grapefruit vinaigrette.
Tomato Salad at Smiling Bison
My favorite starter was the House Made Summer Sausage with house sourdough, pickles and grain mustard.
House Made Summer Sausage
All of us enjoyed the appetizers so you really can’t go wrong with ordering any of the three. After we finished the appetizers, it was time for the main course. At The Smiling Bison you have a choice of four main courses, which includes a vegetarian option, several meat options and a seaford options.
My dining companion of Taste, Cook Sip, order Butter Poached Laughing Bird Shrimp with clam risotto, preserved lemon and calabrian chili. You can’t go wrong with shrimp and clam risotto!
Butter Poached Laughing Bird Shrimp
Another option for the main course is Braised Lamb Belly with curry potato salad and pen tendril vinaigrette. This was the most surprising dish for me. I didn’t think I’d like it, but it was my favorite main dish option.
Braised Lamb Belly
The final main dish that we ordered was the Pastrami Steak which is seminole pride eye of round, braised cabbage, potato-onion pancake and thousand island.
Pastrami Steak
The other option that we did not try is the Carrot Linguine with kale, mushroom conserva, egg yolk, and pickled celery. This is a great option for vegetarians.
For dessert, the options were Peach Cheesecake (my personal favorite), Coffee Bread Pudding (this was good, but I’m not a big bread pudding fan), and Old Fashion Donut Holes. The donut holes were hot and were very good.
Peach Cheesecake
Coffee Bread Pudding
Old Fashioned Donut Holes
Both food and service were excellent and I’d definitely recommend you try Smiling Bison when you’re in the Sanford area. The Smiling Bison is located at 107 Magnolia Ave, Sanford, FL 32771 and is open Tuesday – Saturday. They are open every day except Tuesday for lunch from 11a – 2p and dinner hours are 5:00p – 9:30p.
