Greedy Girl : Are you ready for Restaurant week?

Tamarind

"Greedy Girl Eats"

Yall know my Greedy Girl restaurant reviews are slated to start in December. However I got invited to partake in a sampling of what Jamaica's restaurant week has to offer and I couldn’t refuse. Last night the Jamaica Yellow pages sponsored the Restaurant week Blogger bus. A few other bloggers and social media gurus along with myself, got a taste of what’s in store for the public come November 13^th when restaurant week 2015 begins. Organized by Market me Jamaica, I was joined by, Iceta Wright of Bawn Natural, Krystal Anderson, Jamaica Gleaner food writer and host of I'm not a chef, Jamaican Makeup artist and Vlogger Yanique Lambert aka Chunchi, Entertainer Rohan Perry aka QuitePerry , TVJ ER crew, Sleek Jamaica and Infuzion Inc. We sampled cocktails at C & C south beach restaurant, appetizers at Beirut Mediterranean cuisine, entrees at Tamarind Indian cuisine and finally Desserts at Roe Japanese restaurant. It’s a long post but worth the read if you’re an avid foodie and are dying to try some great dishes at great prices.

Restaurant week in Jamaica really has something for everyone; there are several prefix menu categories at varying price points. Restaurants in the “Epicurean” category boast three course menus for $4300, “Delectable” $3800, “Savory”- $2800 “Tasty”-$1850. “Nyam & Scram” participating restaurants offer 30% off your dining experience and this year they have included a new category ; “Morning bites” which also offers 30% off . Unfortunately prices do not include tax, drinks or gratuity that would be in a perfect world and we all know this is far from it.

I’m going to give the Greedy tip at the beginning of the post; do not limit yourself to the restaurants prefixed menu….

I’m a huge fan of dining out, however I’m not a 3 course kind a girl. I usually do appetizers and main or main and dessert. Ninety percent of the time at a restaurant I only order the main course especially if the restaurant serves large portions or if I order a drink. If you have checked a restaurant’s menu for RW and don’t like the prefix menu, but like something else from their regular menu, go to the restaurant any way and order the main course you want. Almost every time I have done this, ordering a 2 course meal from the regular menu costs the same or less than the restaurant week menu even more so if you order 1 course. In addition portion sizes are almost always bigger when ordering from the regular menu as opposed to the restaurant week menu (which according to some establishments is a tasting menu). I have done this several times at Both Restaurant weeks in NYC and Kingston Jamaica. Don’t get locked into the prefix menu.

With that said…first stop…

C & C South Beach Restaurant, Sports Bar and Event Venue

2 Brampton Road Kingston 5 630-4571 or 630-4163

Must try: The South Beach swirl and the flaming beef balls

This is a lovely location, with open air bistro style décor. After being seated we were served with three different drinks (I’m not a drinker so I only tried 1) which happened to be the favorite of the night. It was called the “South beach swirl”, a mix of absolut vodka, mango daiquiri strawberry daiquiri and blue curacao. It was so delicious all that sugar was the perfect mask for the vodka. After we had the drinks, a lovely bartender did a demonstration showing us how to make it.

I don’t know if someone pinched the chef and told him we were starving or what. But next thing I know, there are two huge baskets of some ‘tun up’ garlic bread and platters of meatballs on fire coming our way. I was like wheeeeeetttt! He threw absolut vodka over the cooked meat balls lit it on fire and then flashed it with cinnamon for a quick blaze, talk about flair. The coolest thing about it was that they were in the plate on fire while you were eating and the fire kept the balls warm; definitely using that trick on the blog. All in all we were having probably too much of a good time and had to rush out to the next spot all to the dismay of the waitresses who were having a full on photo-shoot with the celebrity that is Rohan Quite Perry.

For appetizers we headed over to Market Place…

Beirut Mediterranean cuisine

67 Constant Spring Road Market Place Kingston, Jamaica 395-7577

Must try: Falafel and Fattouch

We had samplings of three vegetarian appetizers, House made hummus served with fresh pita bread, Fattouch salad and Delicious crispy falafel. The hummus and pita were good, however I found the hummus (while beautifully presented) to be a little sour maybe too much lime juice in our batch.

The star of the night was the fattouch salad. Everyone loved it, while I agree it was extremely delicious and flavorful I only had a few reservations. It was a bit heavy on the parsley and the lettuce was not crispy enough for me. I have a thing for crispy lettuce and the lettuce had a bit too much dressing on it. That made it get slightly limp. Long and short, would I order it again? Definitely.

My personal favorite was the falafel, best falafel I ever had. My vegetarian mother loves falafel, I thought about her with every bite, it was perfectly seasoned soft in the center, not grainy, crispy exterior, loved it! The portion sizes were pretty good too. These three appetizers were really filling; I had to try to not eat more than two falafels to save space for dinner let alone dessert.

It’s time for dinner. As stuffed as we were we were off to…

Tamarind Indian cuisine

Shop 28 18-22 Barbican Road, Orchid Plaza, Kingston, Jamaica 977 0695 or 702 3486

Must Try : Garlic Naan, Methii Malai chicken Green Thai curry shrimp

The moment you step into this place you are greeted with the most amazing smells. I was super excited about this restaurant since I have a soft spot for all Asian food (Yes friends Indians are Asians too). Word to the wise don’t come here full. Their restaurant week offerings are quite extensive. Choose what you want in the different sauces; chicken, fish, shrimp or vegetable. They are served with white rice and naan bread. We had several options on the table I ordered the Methi Malai chicken and garlic naan. Large chunks of super tender chicken breast stewed in a cashew cream sauce and fenugreek leaves. The Methi Malai is exceptional the sauce is so creamy and rich its almost like there is cheese in to how rich it is.

Let not talk about the garlic Naan, do you see how ‘fenke fenke’ my pic looks that’s because I was too busy eating it then realized I needed a shot of it lol. No words can describe how delicious their naan is. It was hot, crispy exterior, chewy I literally had my head down and my hands in the bread wiping it in the sauce.

I tried two other dishes which were quite good The green Thai curry shrimp was excellent very very rich in coconut and herb flavors.

I also tried the Singapore shrimp, that was really good but it’s quite sweet, something I was not expecting.

Other persons enjoyed their Butter chicken and Chang Mai curry noodles I didn’t try either of those because honestly I didn’t want to rid my taste buds of the Methi malai flavor and I was stuffed. If their entrees are so good I can only imagine the appetizers. In NY we frequent Asian fusion restaurants and Tamarind is up there with the bests. Really good Indian food.

Butter Chicken

Chang Mai Curry Noodles with chicken

So what do you do after you have had three cocktails meatballs, garlic bread, hummus and pitta, fattouch, falafel, methi malai chicken with garlic naan and Green thai curry shrimp? Why have dessert of course. In the words of krystal Anderson “Weh dessert a guh?”

At this point we had to be rolled out the door, so we rolled on over to…

Roe Fine Japanese sushi and tea house

29 Barbican Road, Sovereign North, Unit 5 Kingston, Jamaica 876-632-6669, 876-784-4770

Must Have: Tempura ice-cream Rum cake and Ice-cream

Bwoy…me nuh know weh fi start wid diss ya one ya. We had four options for dessert. Cheesecake, for those of you who follow my blog you know I don’t eat that sweet cheese, so on to the next. The most heavenly Rum cake served with a small scoop of vanilla drizzled with caramel sauce. The ice-cream and cake pairing was so delicious and the cake had like a crunchy brown sugar topping that worked for me texturally with the ice-cream. My favorite of the night.

Another goodie was the tempura ice-cream. How does one fry an ice-cream and get away with it? Must be magic. Its like an ice-cream cone ball filled with ice-cream, and it had a cinnamon flavor too. I really liked it,even though it was a little hard to eat in the martini glass it was served in. That baby needs a plate a knife and a fork, definitely my second favorite.

Lastly was the ‘box you dung a grung’ strongest coffee ever, Melty pudding. Taste good but lord the coffee tun up inna it, all this morning my hands still had a essence of coffee to it. My aunt would have loved that dessert; it’s a bit too much for me but lovely all the same.

I can say I left the night wanting to go back to each and every restaurant to try the other things on their menu. Was a good time. Restaurant week is a great excuse to put away the pots and save your cooking gas for Christmas dinner.