Guide · Updated August 2026
The Mills 50 food guide
Mills 50 is the one Orlando district where you can eat well without a car. The name comes from the intersection of Mills Avenue and Colonial Drive — State Road 50 — and the food radiates outward from it in every direction, mostly in single-story commercial buildings that have been there since the 1960s. This is the heart of Orlando's Little Vietnam, settled by refugee families in the late 1970s and 1980s, and the Vietnamese groceries and pho houses are still the district's spine. What grew around them over the last fifteen years is what makes it worth a full day: Laotian, Korean, Sichuan, Ethiopian, Cuban, and a twelve-seat omakase counter that is arguably the most serious restaurant in Central Florida.
A practical note before you go: nothing here is a destination in the theme-park sense. Parking is street-side or in small shared lots, several kitchens are cash-friendlier than card-friendly, and the best places close early or sell out. Go hungry and go in the middle of the day, when the district is doing what it actually does — feeding the neighborhood.
The order below is a route rather than a ranking. You could reasonably walk it north to south in an afternoon, with stops.
01
Kadence
JapaneseMills 50, Orlando$$$$
The reason food people fly into Orlando. A tiny omakase counter working through a fixed progression, booked well ahead. It sits inside Mills 50 but belongs to a different category than everything else on this list.
02
Halong Bay
VietnameseMills 50, Orlando$
Start here if you want to understand the district. Pho, bun bo hue, and the herb plate that comes with them are the baseline against which the rest of Orlando's Vietnamese cooking is measured.
03
Viet-Nomz
VietnameseMills 50, Orlando$
The quicker, counter-service side of the same tradition — banh mi and rice bowls built for a lunch break rather than a long sit.
04
Sticky Rice Lao Street Food
ThaiMills 50, Orlando$
Laotian, not Thai, and the distinction matters: sticky rice eaten by hand, larb with real funk, papaya salad pounded to order. One of the few kitchens in Florida cooking this food without dialing it back.
05
Taste of Chengdu
ChineseMills 50, Orlando$
Sichuan cooking that commits — mapo tofu that numbs, dan dan noodles with heat behind the sesame, cold appetizers worth ordering blind.
06
Shin Jung
KoreanMills 50, Orlando$$
The district's Korean anchor: grilled meats, a full run of banchan, soju, and a late kitchen. The dining room is plain and the food is not.
07
Izziban Sushi & BBQ
KoreanMills 50, Orlando$$
The all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue and sushi combination, which is exactly as chaotic and as fun as that sounds. Go with a group.
08
Nile Ethiopian
EthiopianMills 50, Orlando$
Injera platters and slow-cooked wot from a family kitchen. The vegetarian combination is the best way in if it is your first time.
09
Tori Tori
JapaneseMills 50, Orlando$$
Yakitori and a serious bar in a dark, small room. The counter is the seat you want.
10
Hunger Street Tacos
MexicanMills 50, Orlando$
Mexico City-style tacos with masa made in-house. Order the suadero.
11
Black Rooster Taqueria
MexicanMills 50, Orlando$
A short, tight menu of tacos and tortas from a converted bungalow with a patio — a different register from Hunger Street and worth both.
12
Tako Cheena
Asian FusionMills 50, Orlando$
Chinese-Mexican fusion that predates the trend by a decade. Kung pao chicken tacos, wonton nachos, neon.
13
Pom Pom's Teahouse
EclecticMills 50, Orlando$
A sandwich shop with a wildflower garden and no interest in matching furniture. Late hours, big portions, cult following.
14
Se7en Bites
SouthernMills 50, Orlando$
Southern baking — biscuits, hand pies, layer cakes — and lines out the door on weekends. Come at 10am on a weekday.
15
Cafe de Leche
CubanMills 50, Orlando$
Cortaditos and pressed cubanos at a corner counter. The right last stop before you drive home.
If you only have one meal: Halong Bay for pho, then a cortadito at Cafe de Leche. If you have a night and a reservation months out: Kadence, and nothing else.
Hours in this district change often and several kitchens close between lunch and dinner. We do not publish hours we have not checked against the restaurant directly, so call ahead — the listing pages link out where a phone number is known.