ShishCo Mezze & Grill

ShishCo Mezze & Grill brings a counter service Mediterranean menu to Lake Avenue, the small commercial strip that has become Maitland’s most concentrated cluster of independent food and drink businesses outside the office parks. The format leans toward the kind of grilled skewers, mezze plates, and wraps that work equally well as a quick weekday lunch or a casual dinner, and the counter service model keeps things fast without sacrificing the made to order feel of a scratch kitchen.

The mezze approach means the menu tends to build around small shareable dishes, hummus, grilled meats, salads, and dips, alongside heartier plates for anyone who wants a full meal rather than a sampling. That range gives it flexibility as a lunch spot for office workers from the nearby business district as well as a dinner option for residents looking for something lighter than a sit down entree at one of the more formal restaurants along South Orlando Avenue.

Its location on Lake Avenue puts it within a short walk of Lake Lily Park and a cluster of other small independent restaurants and bars, which makes it easy to combine a stop here with an evening built around the neighborhood rather than a single destination restaurant. Parking on this stretch is straightforward, and the block’s scale (a handful of storefronts rather than a large shopping center) keeps the pace unhurried compared to the busier retail corridors elsewhere in the Orlando area.

Mediterranean counter service restaurants like this one tend to work best for repeat customers who settle into a favorite order, and the mezze format rewards that kind of familiarity since there is always something new to try alongside a go to dish. For newcomers, the format is approachable: point at what looks good, mix a few small plates, and adjust from there on a return visit.

As one of a growing number of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern focused restaurants that have opened along Maitland’s Orlando Avenue corridor and its side streets in recent years, ShishCo Mezze & Grill fits into a broader shift in the city’s dining scene toward more varied, chef driven counter service concepts rather than the chain heavy retail that still dominates much of the surrounding highway frontage.

For anyone building an evening around Lake Avenue, ShishCo pairs naturally with a pre or post dinner stop at one of the bars a few doors down, or a walk over to Lake Lily Park to eat outdoors once the weather cooperates. The counter service pace also makes it a practical choice for a weeknight when a full sit down meal feels like too much commitment but a home cooked dinner is not on the table either. Portion sizes on mezze plates tend to run generous enough to split between two people without leaving the table hungry, which is worth keeping in mind when ordering for a group used to single entree portions at a traditional restaurant.