A few weeks ago at about 8:30pm, I finally visited Asia’s Café, found in the middle of York Pharmacy on Half Way Tree Road. The restaurant will be opened for a year this December 15th. The news spread fast upon their opening since they are open 24/7 and serve breakfast, lunch and dinner options, sandwiches, salads and various pastries and beverages. It’s also convenient for patients visiting the pharmacy and nearby 24/7 doctor’s offices. The seating area is small so it’s usually order-to go.
For such a small establishment, I noticed a huge menu with affordable items. There were Breakfast items such as Eggs etc., Soups, Salads for $600JMD, OMG Burger for $550JMD, dishes such as Shrimp/Jerk Chicken Pasta and Chicken Lasagna ranging from $700-800JMD, standard Box lunch dishes such as Fried and Roasted Chicken, side orders such as Garlic bread, Potato wedges and Potato salad ranging from $70-$220JMD. They also offer both hot and cold Beverages, as well as Milk Shakes with different flavours for $450JMD. There is a good variety of pastry for $250JMD each including Brownies, Muffins, Banana Breads, Cookies, Cakes, Bread Puddings, you name it. Everything seemed more than reasonable except for some regular Chicken and Turkey Sandwiches that any mother could make and send their child to school with for $550 and $600JMD! Oh no. The same can be found in Mega Mart for $250JMD.
My friend and I ordered the Conch soup ($170JMD tx incl.), Roasted Chicken ($550JMD tx incl.) and Pineapple Jerked Chicken wrap ($550JMD tax incl.). The server came to us a few minutes after, telling us there was no more Conch, but we already made the order and we were ready to grab and go. While we waited, I scanned the room and saw some diners with a large ‘box lunch’ serving of Shrimp Pasta. The Penne looked dry. I braved it and asked one of the ladies how she found it and I said it looked a little dry. She responded, ‘It is awful! Not nice at all, it neida dry nor wet’. We laughed and she then shared her sentiments with the server who told the chef. He said he would redo their order, which was a decent response instead of the ‘I’m sorry to hear’ that can’t buy soldier lorry response. Hopefully there was some improvement.
Although the staff was neither pleasant nor hostile, they said all orders take 7-10 minutes and they stuck to their word, because my food was ready in no time. I saw a quick turn over with other customers as well.
The soup was a bit too salty and ofcourse lacking conch. The Roast Chicken was good but the rice and peas was dry. The Jerk Chicken wrap was tasty and spicy.
Asia’s Café is definitely a good place to get reasonable, decent food on the go, but they should leave the elaborate things to fine dining restaurants, hence reduce their menu size and improve on the quality of remaining items.
Asia’s CaféÂ
Ph#: 876-929-3568 / 876-929-5961
Address: Located inside York Pharmacy, Half-Way Tree, Kingston
Date of visit: 7/11/14
NB. Ratings fill 5 stars maximum
Parking: ★★★☆☆
Ambience: ☆☆☆☆☆
Decor: ★★★☆☆
Comfort: ★★★☆☆
Service: ★★★☆☆
Speed: ★★★★☆
Food quality: ★★★☆☆
Serving amount: ★★★★☆
Value for $: ★★★☆☆
SuGa Endorsement: ★★★☆☆