Ocoee eats by kitchen, not by district. The best restaurants in Ocoee, FL run from a New American wine bar off Maguire Road to Alpine schnitzel, counter service tacos two blocks from Starke Lake, Peruvian rotisserie chicken, Vietnamese pho on West Colonial Drive, and barbecue with a three region sauce lineup on Moore Road. This guide groups them by what you feel like eating, with the price tier, the closing days that catch people out, and the two places just outside the city that earn the ten minute drive.
Ocoee's Three Dining Corridors and What Each One Holds
Almost every Ocoee restaurant sits on one of three lines. Historic downtown, around Bluford Avenue and McKey Street, is the only walkable cluster, with a brewery, a taco counter and a pizzeria within a few blocks of Bill Breeze Park. The Maguire Road corridor in the southwest holds the two chef driven rooms. West Colonial Drive, better known as SR 50, carries the rest, and the City of Ocoee points out that this corridor is reachable from Florida's Turnpike, SR 408 and SR 429.
Price tiers are simple in a city of 47,295 people (2020 Census). Two restaurants sit in the $$$ range and both are on Maguire Road. Everything else lands at $ or $$, and several of the best plates in town are counter service. You will not find a tasting menu here, and you will not need a jacket anywhere.
Ocoee also sits ten minutes east of Winter Garden and ten minutes north of Gotha, which matters because a couple of the region's better kitchens are just over the line. Locals treat that as part of the map rather than as a separate trip, and the last section of this guide covers it. For the non food side of the same geography, our guide to things to do in Ocoee covers the parks, the lake and the event calendar.
New American Cooking at RusTeak Restaurant and Wine Bar
RusTeak Restaurant and Wine Bar is the best dinner in Ocoee and has been since it opened in 2012. The owners trained at the Culinary Institute of America, and the kitchen puts out hand cut steaks and seafood built around a wine list the room was designed for. Craft cocktails and a dedicated happy hour menu make the bar a real option on its own. It is at 1681 Amazing Way, off Maguire Road, and it is the one place in town where a weekend reservation through Resy is worth making.
One thing to plan around: RusTeak is closed on Sunday, and the kitchen runs to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. A Sunday anniversary dinner has to go somewhere else.
Alpine and German Plates at Daniel Gabor's Alpine Bar and Grill
Daniel Gabor's Alpine Bar and Grill serves German and Alpine cooking at 1568 Maguire Road, which is not a sentence you get to write about many Orlando suburbs. Schnitzel, gulasch and apple strudel anchor the menu, with rotating seasonal plates alongside them. The room is the second of Ocoee's two $$$ tables and the more distinctive of the pair.
Hours are the catch. Daniel Gabor's is closed Mondays, opens at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and opens at 11 a.m. Friday through Sunday. That late morning weekend opening is also what makes it one of the few sit down brunch options on this side of the city.
Mexican and Tex-Mex Tables Across Ocoee
The Ocoee Taco Company at 40 Taylor Street is the cheapest good meal in the downtown blocks. Counter service tacos come on corn tortillas with marinated steak, onion and cilantro, and there is no table service and no pretense about it. It runs 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. seven days a week, which makes it the reliable downtown fallback on a night when the brewery's food truck never turned up. The dining room is small, so peak lunch means a wait or a takeout order.
La Fonda de Ocoee is the family run option, with a traditional menu of street style tacos sold by the piece, fajita platters, chimichangas, flautas and enchiladas you can order with salsa verde, roja, ranchera or a sweet mole. Ordering tacos individually rather than in threes is the useful part, because a table can sample four meats without over ordering. Catering packs for five to six or ten to twelve people are on the menu too, and calling ahead is the move if you are on a lunch break.
San Jose's Original Mexican Restaurant at 8995 W Colonial Drive is the long running Tex-Mex format Ocoee families have used for years: combination plates, sizzling fajitas, no surprises. It sits near the eastern end of the corridor by Good Homes Road, and weeknight seating is easier here than at anything downtown.
Peruvian, Colombian, and Latin American Counters
Pio Pio Ocoee does Peruvian rotisserie chicken and the yellow sauce people come back for, and it is one of the better cheap dinners in the city at the $ tier. The setup is counter forward and built for takeout, so treat it as a family dinner run rather than a sit down occasion.
Mecatos Bakery and Cafe at 10151 W Colonial Drive is Colombian, and the thing to order is pan de bono, the mostly cheese baked bread, along with bunuelos, empanadas, stuffed arepas and Colombian coffee. It opens at 6 a.m. on weekdays, earlier than anything else in Ocoee, and stays open to 9 p.m., which makes it both the first coffee of the day and the late pastry stop after the sit down places have closed.
FrutaMix Ocoee at 253 Ocoee Apopka Road is a Mexican paleteria selling ice cream, tortas and fresh fruit snacks, and it is a far better August afternoon idea than another lap of an air conditioned mall. Several of these Latin kitchens also cater, and a climate controlled storage unit in Ocoee is where a small food business keeps paper goods and dry stock between events, since a Florida garage in July is not an option.
Thai, Vietnamese, and Pan-Asian Kitchens
Soong Thai at 9448 W Colonial Drive is one of the corridor's more dependable independents in a stretch dominated by chains, serving Thai curries and pan-Asian classics. Strip center parking is easy. The left turn back across Colonial is not, so approach from the right side of the road if your route allows it.
Hai San Restaurant at 11105 W Colonial Drive does Vietnamese pho and traditional dishes at the $ tier, out at the western end of the corridor near the Winter Garden line. It is two minutes past the mall cluster and worth those two minutes.
Cheng's Asian Bistro at 10962 W Colonial Drive runs Asian fusion in family sized portions, aimed at a weeknight table with kids rather than at a date night. A table of four rarely needs four entrees. The Fifth District Noodles and Tea covers the quick serve end with ramen, noodle bowls and boba tea, and its limited seating suits a solo lunch or a takeout run better than a group.
Italian Cooking and Pizza in Ocoee
Bella Napoli Pizzeria at 950 S Bluford Avenue is the longtime Ocoee pizza staple, on the southern edge of the downtown district. The pies are the kind kids eat without negotiation, and the location is close enough to walk from the downtown blocks, which is rare in this city. On a festival night when McKey Street parking is gone, it is the better takeout call.
Ispirazione Italian Cuisine is the sit down Italian room in a city where pizza otherwise owns the category, with traditional cooking and cannoli. It suits a planned dinner more than a walk-in, and it fills the gap between Bella Napoli's counter and the two Maguire Road restaurants.
Barbecue, Bar Food, and Brewery Nights
Ellie Lou's Brews and BBQ at 336 Moore Road is run by a pitmaster with decades behind the smoker, and the sauce lineup refuses to pick a region: sweet and smoky Memphis, mustard and vinegar Carolina, and a ghost pepper and habanero Southern Lava for people who want to suffer. The sides carry real weight, from collard greens and blue cheese slaw to cheese grits, okra and mac and cheese. There is a solid tap list and a daily happy hour, and the patio is why the Wesmere crowd stops here instead of driving to Winter Garden.
Toll Road Brewing Company at 101 W McKey Street was Ocoee's first craft brewery when it opened in 2018, and its Starke Lake Amber Lager is named for the water two blocks away. Food comes from rotating trucks rather than a kitchen, so check what is parked outside before you commit to dinner there. The biergarten is dog friendly, and live music, trivia and game nights fill most of the week. The brewery does not publish hours on its own site, so call before a weeknight trip.
Rock 'N Rev at 8969 West Colonial Drive is a music bar and grill with comfort food and a genuinely full calendar: live bands, trivia Mondays, free poker, karaoke, line dancing and tribute acts. It serves lunch and dinner six days a week and typically closes at 10 p.m., which is also roughly when weekend bands start, so read the event list before you show up expecting music. Our Ocoee nightlife guide goes deeper on the late end of all this.
The Backyard Food Truck Park at 2214 West Road is an outdoor lot with a self serve craft beer and wine wall, a covered patio, hammocks under the trees and lawn games, with the menu changing as the trucks rotate. It is closed Mondays, opens at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and at noon on weekends, and the postal address reads Apopka even though it serves the Ocoee side of West Road. Truck operators who work parks like this one need somewhere to keep trailer gear, prep equipment and seasonal stock, and a 10×20 storage unit is the size that handles it.
Breakfast Counters and All-Day Menus
Keke's Breakfast Cafe Ocoee at 282 Moore Road is the volume breakfast operation: buttermilk pancakes, Belgian waffles, omelets, Eggs Benedict and avocado toast on sourdough, plus paninis at lunch. It runs 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily with no dinner service. The 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. weekend window is the worst of the wait, so arrive before 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday or plan to stand outside.
Breakfast Club of Ocoee is the local independent alternative, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its own site does not publish hours or an address, so call before you drive over rather than trusting a listing. TooJay's Deli at 10185 W Colonial Drive, across from Orlando Health Health Central, is the New York style deli with a full bakery attached, open all week for breakfast in a city where most breakfast rooms shut by mid afternoon. Our Ocoee brunch guide covers the weekend version of this question in more detail.
Two Kitchens Worth the Drive Out of Ocoee
Yellow Dog Eats sits at 1236 Hempel Avenue in Gotha, about ten minutes south, and gets miscredited to Ocoee by local directories often enough to be worth correcting. The gourmet sandwiches and pulled pork come out of a rambling old general store building, the Buffalo Nachos are the signature, and the peanut butter pie is worth ordering before you know whether you have room. It is open daily 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. with happy hour Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Plant Street Market at 426 W Plant Street in downtown Winter Garden is a 20 vendor food hall roughly ten minutes west, and it solves the problem of a group that cannot agree. Crooked Can Brewing is inside, along with Axum Coffee, Bruno's Oysters, Ceviche Mix, This Little Piggy BBQ, JAM Hot Chicken, Michael's Ali Coal Fired Pizza and David Ramirez Chocolates. It runs to 11 p.m. most nights and midnight on Friday and Saturday, it is pet friendly with outdoor seating, and Saturday mornings overlap with the Winter Garden Farmers Market, so park once in the Boyd Street garage. If you are building a whole afternoon around it, our day trips from Ocoee guide picks up from there.
Parking, Closing Days, and Summer Heat
Downtown Ocoee is the only part of the city you can eat in on foot, and it works because Toll Road Brewing, The Ocoee Taco Company and Bella Napoli sit within a few blocks of Bill Breeze Park. Parking is street spaces and small public lots, which is fine on a normal Tuesday and gone on a festival night. Everywhere else needs a car, and the SR 50 restaurants are much easier to reach if you plan the approach so you are not turning left across six lanes.
Mondays and Sundays are the two days that break plans here. Daniel Gabor's and The Backyard are closed Mondays. RusTeak is closed Sundays. Keke's stops serving at 2:30 p.m. every day. The safe seven day options are The Ocoee Taco Company, Yellow Dog Eats in Gotha and Plant Street Market in Winter Garden, and reservations only really matter at RusTeak.
Summer changes where you sit, not whether you go out. August averages a high of 90F and July brings 30.8 muggy or oppressive days (Weather Spark), so the biergarten and the food truck park are evening propositions from June through September. Afternoon storms in the wet season are usually short and hard rather than all day. Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30 with peak activity around September 10 (NOAA National Hurricane Center), and a storm crossing the peninsula can close independent kitchens for a day or two even this far inland, so call ahead during a watch.
One more local habit worth knowing: the Ocoee Farmers Market takes over Bill Breeze Park on Fridays from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. year round, and the late afternoon slot is deliberate, because the heat breaks around 6 p.m. and you can eat by the water. Vendors who work it every week keep tents, tables and coolers in a 5×10 unit rather than in a garage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where to eat in Ocoee, Florida?
For a proper dinner, RusTeak Restaurant and Wine Bar on Amazing Way or Daniel Gabor's Alpine Bar and Grill on Maguire Road. For something cheap and fast, The Ocoee Taco Company downtown or Pio Pio for Peruvian rotisserie chicken. For a table with kids, Cheng's Asian Bistro or Bella Napoli Pizzeria. For beer and barbecue, Ellie Lou's on Moore Road or Toll Road Brewing downtown.
What are the best restaurants in downtown Ocoee?
Downtown Ocoee is compact, and three places carry it. Toll Road Brewing Company on McKey Street is the brewery with rotating food trucks and a dog friendly biergarten. The Ocoee Taco Company on Taylor Street is the cheap, seven day taco counter. Bella Napoli Pizzeria on South Bluford Avenue handles pizza and takeout. All three are walkable from Bill Breeze Park.
Is RusTeak Ocoee open on Sunday?
No. RusTeak Restaurant and Wine Bar is closed on Sunday. It serves 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and weekend tables are worth reserving through Resy. If you want a Sunday sit down meal in Ocoee, Daniel Gabor's Alpine Bar and Grill opens at 11 a.m. on Sundays and runs to 9 p.m.
What is The Ocoee Taco Company known for?
Counter service tacos on corn tortillas with marinated steak, onion and cilantro. No table service, no frills, and the lowest check in the downtown blocks. It is open 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. seven days a week at 40 Taylor Street, which makes it the fallback when the brewery around the corner has no truck parked outside. The dining room is small, so peak lunch usually means takeout.
Are downtown Winter Garden restaurants worth the drive from Ocoee?
Yes, and locals make it constantly. Downtown Winter Garden is about ten minutes west, and Plant Street Market alone puts 20 vendors under one roof with Crooked Can Brewing inside. Go on a Saturday morning and the farmers market runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. a few blocks away, so one parking stop covers both.
Storage for the Move, the Catering Run, and the Off-Season Gear
Working through a restaurant list is a lot easier when the house is not stacked with things you are not using. Value Store It's Ocoee location rents month to month with no long term contract, and the office is open seven days a week. If you have just moved in and are eating out because the kitchen is still in boxes, 10×10 storage units hold about a one bedroom's worth while you unpack in your own time.
The rest of the lineup covers the sizes on either side of that. A 5×5 locker takes holiday bins and small appliances, a 10×5 unit gives you the same fifty square feet in a different shape, and a 10×15 space or 10×30 storage handles a full house or a small business inventory. Boat storage and car storage cover what will not fit on a driveway, which matters in a city built around a lake with a public ramp. If you are not sure which size you need, the storage unit size calculator will get you close before you visit.
