The Food Factory — Restaurant in Oviedo

First of all, this place is officially in a soft opening period, and we shouldn't be able to review it at all as they work out the kinks. Second of all, sleepy little Oviedo finally has the non-chain bar space that it has desperately needed for as long as I've lived here. Third of all, this is huge for me because it's literally a three minute walk from my apartment's door.

Let's start at the top. The space is really cool. Seating options of all types, bar stools, traditional seats with backs at six tops, and more comfortable couches than I've ever seen at a food hall before. That's only the inside, though. Outside, there are dozens and dozens of tables surrounding the middle courtyard where you can play with cornhole, giant Jenga, Connect 4, or just run around on the fake grass with the kiddos and have a good time.

So the seating is good, check.

The decor in this massive space is really cool, too. It's a sci-fi/steampunk vibe with math and prohibition accents. Cogwheels on the wall, a giant projector screen that's playing probably a rotating classic film (I got to watch Flash Gordon), a random physics equation on the wall, and then some multi-media artwork on the wall that I've actually seen at a local art fair before. Plenty of cool stuff to look at, sets a good vibe for your stay.

Ambiance also good, check.

So when it comes to ordering your drinks, you can either sit at the bar and get direct bartender service, or you can just wait for any of the multitude of staff to swing by and take your order. There was plenty of staff the Saturday night I went, so we never waited long. Very nice people.

The drink menu is the best menu I've ever seen. Maybe that's blowing things out of proportion, but I will say I am highly appreciative of what these folks have done. If you visit real bars in real cities, they all have robust mocktail menus that are actually crafted and not just a version of the mocktail without the booze.

The Food Factory has a full page of cocktails, and an equally full page of mocktails. Finding that in Orlando is tough, so finding it in Oviedo is a blessing. Some of them are the booze-less cocktails, but some of them are unique. Both I tried were delicious, and they were served in real glasses, not the Shirley Temple in the plastic cup you usually see with mocktails.

While you're sitting and chilling, you can scan the QR code on your table to electronically order your food from any of the surrounding micro-restaurants and have them deliver the food right to you. This is very handy, as you can't expect all the restaurants to round the whole place periodically. But beware, if you do that, you will incur a 10% fee.

I opted to go to the micro-restaurant myself, place my order, get my buzzer, and then just go fetch my food when my buzzer buzzed.

So yea, as for the Food Factory itself, slam dunk five stars. Definitely something that was desperately needed in Oviedo to compete with Avalon Park and Sanford. And I will say, once this place gets up and running 100%, it will blow those halls out...

My husband, my kids and I have been coming here since it opened in July of 2023. This place was great at first. It has a court yard for our kids to be able to play in and it did have games. The food was nice and my husband and I were happy to find a place that was family friendly and allowed us to have a couple of drinks (very good drinks) and food while our kids were able to meet other kids and play around, with limits (there were boundaries we set for them).

However, the last few times we have been there this once family friendly place has shortened the leash on kids. They once had Jenga or blocks, Connect 4 and Corn hole. All the games are now gone. From seeing the other reviews and from asking the waitress we know they removed the games because some customers complained about the kids on reviews here and were completely out of control. Totally understand and if I were running a business, that would make me question having kid toys as well.

Then another time we went we brought our own toys but then were told that they couldn't bring certain toys or games.

Then last time we went our kids were playing tag with another kid. There was only one other family outside in the patio area, the other kids family. A waitress told us that the owner did not want them running around. Now, granted if there were other people around besides only the other kids family we would tell our kids to not to go in and out of the tables and not run around but the space was empty.

The place seemed to start out wanting to be a family friendly place but now seems they have slowly decided to go in the direction of being an adult place. On a Saturday or Sunday, when you have kids, you want to go to a place where you don't have to watch them like a hawk every second.

There are plenty of places to do that. We thought this was going to be one of them. They appear to be deciding they don't want to be that kind of place. That's fine. I would caution the owners that people who are happy about a place are less likely to write a review than people who are not. The people who have complained about the children and how they act there might, in fact, be a minority of your customers.

We might come back on a date night for a couple of tacos but we will not be hanging out for hours on a weekend, anymore. So, instead of going every weekend and spending $200, we will go there a few times a year and spend $60. We will be going to other places on weekends where we do not have to police out children about every little thing.

Best of...

Here’s my honest review as a former employee. The place went down hill when the new GM, who only cares about money, was hired. I have been in the food/bar industry for a while now and I have never had to deny someone of a drink, and while I was working here a group of well over served individuals came in and I didn’t feel comfortable serving them. I went up to the new GM and expressed that they were over served and I didn’t feel comfortable. The conversation went like this, verbatim, “Where do you work?” I replied “A bar”, “Where did they come” I replied “A bar”, “Are they throwing up or passed out?” I replied “no” then he said “serve them”. And so I did. As these over served people harassed me. Made flirtatious and harassing comments to me as well as taking a rag off of the bar and twisting it up and trying to smack my butt and kept attempting to touch me…. Some other concerns I had was the change of menu, these are no longer “craft cocktail” as everything is prebatched. How the servers of the bar buss everything of the micro restaurants. Our pay is structured so we make our $8.98 hourly, tip 15% out to the bar, and we are in a tip pool. I would come into work, consistently range in between 20-23% tip rate, make one of the highest in tips, and then have to share with everybody else. Yes everybody helps everybody, but that’s how it is in any food/bar establishment where they keep there own tips. If I made $120 in tips I’m probably walking out with $70. Meanwhile there’s been so many cuts in staffing due to “labor costs” while the new GM is just bringing on the old coworkers he used to work with at a different bar. So many hard working individuals have been cut from that staff, so he can make this his bar. He does not care about his staff. He cares about money. This man would constantly give me attitude (and I was not the only one), roll his eyes, aggressively sigh, make slick comments. The whole bar has lost all of its original values. Including but not limited to; the children’s games in the courtyard, the no styrofoam/plastic ban, live music and more. The worst thing they did was let go of the amazing co owner Ruth. As she gave many of us (including myself) the opportunity that no one else did. She believed in us, stood by her staff, and never ever would have let middle age men harass me. I hope y’all figure out the kinks but you lost some of your best most...