Hillstone Restaurant on Lake Killarney

Hillstone Restaurant in Winter Park had invited a handful of media to private party to sample a variety of items from their menu. Sherry Martin greeted us at the front and she escorts us through the dining room. The dining room is dimly lit with a warm and romantic ambience. Hillstone features an open kitchen design with large windows overlooking the lake.

They restrict the use of cell phone while dining with them. So if you are chatterbox on the phone, wrap it up before going inside. They want to offer their guests the best dining experience possible and I respect that.
Although it may sound a bit pretentious, the restaurant is casual. They also have an outdoor lounge where a guest and just hang out, relax, listen to music. Their luscious landscape is accessorized with lawn chairs and a covered dock where guest can take their drinks out to and watch the sunset.
The Hillstone family had us seated outside on the dock for sunset dinner. Unfortunately, it was a raining day so no sunset tonight.

For starters, we sampled their Chicago Style Spinach Dip, Wood Grilled Artichokes and Home Smoked Salmon.

Home Smoked Salmon

They smoked the salmon in-house which is neat…I think they smoke the salmon every . The good-sized salmon comes with little triangle toast with some white sauce. I obviously did not care for the white sauce because the salmon tasted perfect on the toast on its own. You can definitely tell that it was smoked. It was moist with a mild flavor. Very tasty.

Wood Grilled Artichokes

These little chard beauties pack a wonderful flavor. The trick to eating artichoke is to pull the petals and scrap with your teeth or you can just skip the petals and eat the heart. Grilling artichoke gives the artichoke hearts a tender and succulent flesh. It is a very simple dish but carries an extremely unique flavor. I would order this again.

Chef Special: Cajun Spiced Grouper with Mango Chutney

 

The menu offers burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads and plated dinners along with a handsome wine list to go with it too. I decided to go with the special of the day, which was Cajun Spiced Grouper with a Mango Chutney or Salsa. I was not very impressed with the Cajun Grouper. The dish embodied a more tropical flavor than the promised Cajun Spice flavor. It was mediocre and regretted not ordering the steak instead. By the way, if you order a side salad with your entrée be forewarned that it is not your typical size. This side salad comes in a big plate!

Hawaiian Rib Eye

Al ordered their Hawaiian Rib-eye, which was marinated for 48 hours in a blend of soy sauce and pineapple juice and then grilled over hardwood. This perfectly grilled steak not only looked good it tasted good too. The rib eye had a nice crust with a very juicy and tender center. I have to admin that I had total food envy!

At this point, I was full! I had all those appetizers along with my personal meal consisting of a big plate of salad, half of the grouper and half of the rib eye steak. I was done and throwing in my dinner napkin.
Of course, Hillstone wanted to make sure that we fully experienced their whole menu. They brought a parade of desserts, one of each, for us to try.

Desserts

One of each: Warm Five-Nut Brownie, Apple Walnut Cobbler, Key Lime Pie, and Hot Fudge Sundae.
Surprisingly, the Hot Fudge Sundae was my favorite. It comes in a large teacup filled with vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream and roasted sugar pecans. The hot fudge comes served in a large gravy bowl for your complete indulgence. I was surprise to find myself hogging rest of the fudge seeing as that I am not a chocolate-lover.

Side note:
Vegetarian Friendly! They offer a vegetarian burger that has a mixture of brown rice. You won’t be missing meat eating this burger. The texture and taste was very much like a meat burger but if you eat the patty itself you will notice that it is not meat. Regardless, it was delicious! Best Vegetarian Burger I have ever tasted!

The name Hillstone comes from the parent group, Hillstone Restaurant Group, and also from their wine vineyard in Napa Valley.

For those of you who were loyal fans of Houston’s, you should know that Hillstone is Houston’s. Hillstone offers the same service with the same menu but with an added bonus of seasonal, inspired entrées. Executive General Manager Todd Martin explains that by changing their brand, it provides him and his staff to have more flexibility and creativity for the restaurant’s menu. So never, fear Houston’s is still here! Err… I mean Hillstone.

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