MOOR — Restaurant in Kissimmee

Yellow Fin Tuna Tartare ($15) is mixed with wasabi peas, atop fresh watermelon and drizzled with sriracha vinaigrette. The tuna is fresh and flavorful. The wasabi peas add a hint of heat giving it a more Japanese flavor profile. The watermelon, unfortunately, did not really match with the dish. The sweetness made it more “California” rather than focusing on the fresh tuna. The presentation itself was stunning. Rating: 4/5

Blue Crab Lettuce Wraps ($11) is served with mango salsa, radish, and baby onion. This is a fun dish where you can play with your food! Lettuce wraps are an easy way to build your own little wraps to your taste. The blue crab is sweet with a slight briny flavor. The mango salsa adds the right amount of sweetness and acidity to the wrap. Julienned pieces of radish add a textural crunch. Rating: 5/5

Swordfish from Pompano Beach, FL (one of the “Off the Hook Fresh” fish of the day) is served with seasonal risotto. This is one of the juiciest and freshest pieces of swordfish ever. It’s thick cut and the beautiful char from the grill gives it more of a meaty feel, like eating steak. The mushroom risotto is the perfect pairing with a starchy, creamy texture and earthy flavor. Rating: 5/5

Gulf White Shrimp ($32) is sautéed with andouille, brown butter and served with Anson Mills Grits. Great southern flavors come together nicely in this dish. The fresh shrimp easily pops from the tail shell and has the meaty texture of lobster. The andouille adds a little bit of heat and the brown butter yields a sweet, almost caramelized flavor. The grits are out of this world. They are creamy and just the right consistency, not too runny and not too stiff. Rating: 5/5

Key Lime Pie is layered inside of a preserves jar with graham cracker crust, key lime filling, and brûléed meringue on top. The presentation is so cute! The flavors are text-book key lime pie with buttery graham cracker crust, creamy and refreshing key lime filling, and sweet, fluffy meringue....

There we were, three families on vacation with 6 boys aging between 10-12, trying to enjoy at least one adult focused meal as a group. During our stay at the Gaylord, we decided to have our Saturday night dinner at the Moor. The boat themed seafood forward restaurant inside the atrium of the Gaylord looked pretty cool. While we were super disappointed they couldn’t seat our party of 12 on the boat part of the restaurant, the rest of the evening made up for it. Our waitress Oana was knowledgeable, kind, patient with our kids and on top of things.

Everything we had for dinner was truly delicious. The kids devoured the octopus appetizer while fighting over the fried shrimp and calamari too. The wedge salad was delectable with a great crunch, and the scallop appetizer with the squid ink risotto was full of umami and goodness.

Our dinner covered much of the main menu offered. The boys declared “best steak” ever as they eagerly chewed through some medium filets along with shrimp pasta and soft buttery dinner rolls. The adults enjoyed the grouper, whole snapper, seafood stew and fried pork chops. The seafood stew was my favorite hands down; truly satisfying and generous in portion. The fried pork chop was also huge and the salad mix of arugula and fennel along with artichoke was balanced and flavorful. Few cocktails we had with dinner were good; nothing extraordinary. We shared the chocolate cake and pecan tart for dessert; they were both well made and presented beautifully.

At the end of the meal, Oana kindly packed us leftover dinner rolls at our request. We knew about an hour after this very fulfilling and filling meal, the boys would say they were hungry again as they always do.

In the end, we agreed our money and time was well spent, and we truly enjoyed our meal at the...

Complete with lit rigging and full sails, the proud wooden ship Gaylord is moored just outside MOOR, the flagship—pun firmly intended—restaurant of the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, a hotel complex so vast that it contains a water park, tropical gardens and re-creations of Key West, St. Augustine and Everglades environments under its 4½-acre glass atrium. Within the Key West dome is a manmade water feature filled with Florida native fish (big ones) and a walkway that leads to the sailing vessel and the fine restaurant that sits on its dock. Once doing business as Sunset Sam’s Fish Camp, the rejuvenated MOOR is called a “sea to table” restaurant, proudly listing the locations of their “off the hook fresh” seafood, which changes daily. Fish may include mahi-mahi from Fort Pierce; hogfish, a sustainable, spear-caught reef fish with fabulous taste and texture, from Madeira Beach; and tripletail, a surprisingly abundant and delicious warm-water fish from Cape Canaveral. Among Fisher’s masterly statements is the she-crab soup, a staple of the Carolinas, rich with long-simmered court bouillon, Atlantic blue crab, cream and sherry—something the chef probably learned to make at his mother’s knee. Shrimp and grits may have become as ubiquitous as French fries, but Fisher’s version of Gulf-caught white shrimp atop Anson Mills white corn grits has complex flavors of andouille sausage and drizzled brown butter to lift it above...