The inaugural Bite Club meet was on May 16, 2024! Bite Club is a concept of mine in which I pick a place I haven’t tried yet and I check it out with some friends! We try new food together and hang out and it’s great!! I planned for us to start at The Moderne (a craft cocktail bar with tapas!) for happy hour and then go to our main event; trying out Zaru for the first time! As I am a logistical mastermind, I picked the two places since they are both great and only about 2 blocks away from each other hehe.
We walk into The Moderne and quickly grab seats at the bar. I don’t know how to pronounce ‘Moderne’ but let me tell you, they have an incredible happy hour! It is now on my list of best happy hours in the Orlando area!
They have taken the crown for the most cost-effective bang-for-buck craft cocktail Happy Hour!!
I paid $6 for a fancy Sazerac (not pictured). They put coffee in it!! Niiiiice!
A friend of mine got a very girly-looking drink that was very delicious lol (pictured here. Please note that the picture doesn’t do it justice, please excuse my photography skills lol).
I’m not making fun of him for it, because I thought about ordering it for my second drink haha.
Their happy hour is Sunday-Thursday 5pm-6:30pm and 11pm-close. They have different shots, tapas, and also $6 craft cocktails!! For $6 you would think they are cutting corners but honestly, the drinks are delicious and well-made with good ingredients! Definitely approved by Pete! I just wish they did the happy hour on Friday and Saturday too but I’m grateful for it either way because I can’t think of anywhere else in Orlando that has such a great deal!! While we were there one of us spotted a futuristic Telsa Cybertruck so I snapped a pic of it!
After we finished at The Moderne, we walked over to Zaru, which is off Colonial near Mills, diagonally across from Lazy Moon and Lineage.
The restaurant is on the smaler side, but still doable for parties up to about 6 people.
They only take walk-ins so depending on your party size, you might have a bit of a wait.
We waited about 20 minutes if I remember correctly.
The ambiance was very chill, with lots of plants and windows too, so plenty of natural light coming in. Gorgeous interiors in my opinion!
I spotted a sneaky little Michelin smiley face guy with his tongue sticking out, licking his lips.
That is indicative of Zaru being awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand Award, meaning good food, good value.
One thing that struck me as odd was that they don’t have any alcohol but not to worry if you are looking for a stimulating drink.
They had different caffeinated cold brew teas such as Hojicha and Gyokuro, along with soft drinks and a mocktail option. They had a special coffee drink that was a collab with the market next door but they sold out of it (picture below of door leading to market).
I got the Gyokuro and flavorwise it was very subtle but I appreciated it since I needed to chill after having some drinks at The Moderne haha.
The menu was one page but was very efficiently organized. The main draw is the udon and the add-ons.
I ordered the Nikutama Udon which came with sliced beef and onsen egg.
The server recommended tempura veggies in the udon so I added shishito tempura in addition to the shrimp tempura.
When I received my food I felt like I had just begun on a journey. The server explained everything that they served us, like a tour guide.
They gave us a little tiny dish of aromatics, which is sesame seeds and I can’t remember what else, maybe scallions and stuff.
I threw it all in there like they recommended, since it brings out the aromatics of the broth!
Also there were some tempura flakes in case you want a little bit of a texture change.
They also told me that the tempura is normally not just thrown in there, but that it’s something that you would dip into the udon broth. The tempura was perfect. Really, really good tempura.
The egg yolk fell apart but that is to be expected with an onsen style egg. I liked it though! There was some kind of marinated jelly that they gave us too which tasted interesting haha. One of my friends order Tatsuta-Age (marinated friend chicken) which was pretty tasty!! The picture is no good but it tasted great, trust me!!
They had this cute little card at our table describing some of their ingredients. I wonder if the water that they serve is the same perfectly balanced water that they use in the noodle making process hmmmmm.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience.
I like places like these because it is clean food (with good ingredients) for a decent price (for Orlando, since as you know prices are going up everywhere!).
The service was pretty good and the presentation of the plates was very nice too.
I would love to go back some time and try their other menu items including their gyoza, rice bowl, mochi, etc!
Pete's Lost & Found 
Gorgeous website and phenomenal content! I will continue coming to Pete’s Lost and Found for future inquiries!
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