Staff can’t seem to handle waiting tables on a busy night. The service was terrible, but the Chicken Quesadillas were lovely with the perfect bit of spicy at The Regency Bar and Lounge last Friday night. The Lobster Mac-n-Cheese is usually very tasty as well.
TGI Friday’s Jamaica
Ph#: 876-978-8443; 927-8810
Address: 51 Hope Road, Kingston 6
Date of visit: 20/10/14
NB. Ratings fill 5 stars maximum
Parking: ★★★★★
Ambience: ★★☆☆☆
Decor: ★★★★☆
Comfort: ★★★★☆
Service: ★★☆☆☆
Speed: ★★☆☆☆
Food quality: ★★★☆☆
Serving amount: ★★★★☆
Plating: ★★★★☆
Value for $: ★★★☆☆
SuGa Endorsement: ★★★☆☆
SuGa Comments: It is always a little too cold for comfort. The quality of food is not nearly as good as early days after their opening. Thankfully the Pastas and Quesadillas are still decent. The menu is revised from time to time, for instance, Chicken in Chimichurri sauce was added. However, they need to offer more sides other than the dry rice served with it. The Chicken complemented with the Chimichurri sauce was tasty though. The service for at least the past 2 years continues to be horrible, from waitresses forgetting orders, waiting forever on food to arrive with no updates as to the status of it (always 35 minutes or more), to hardly any pleasant faces besides when they are forced to do their perky Birthday Jingles. Thank goodness the Oreo Madness is divine though the topping is a borderline toothache and it is definitely for two based on serving size, however there is a price option for half the serving. But what is up with NEVER having mint to make Mojitos?! Unacceptable. Support our Jamaican farmers and reaping homeowners. Disappointment to the franchise. Miami and DC still booming!
After hearing The Equalizer was oh so good, not going to the movies in months and saying, is Denzel Washington back? Hell yea, let’s go see. And indeed he is. BEST movie out right now. Catch it while it’s still out. The movie will have you at the edge of your seat the whole way through, thoroughly impressed with the smooth, ‘badassness’ of Denzel at his age. The movie shows Denzel living a strictly routine, OCD life but some suspect that it has become that way for a reason, what the hell did he do for a living way back?! Curiosity got a young hooker innocently befriending Denzel, but it didn’t kill her. It was the best thing she could have done after her life was threatened and the clock for Denzel went tick tock to go for an entire Russian mafia!
Now, after being pleasantly surprised by The Equalizer, I tuned in to see what else was buzzing on the movie scene. I kept hearing about this Gone Girl with Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck? Boringgggg. I still gave him the benefit of the doubt and watched the trailer. Ok, interested. I wanted to know, did he really kill his wife? Where is this Amy? Watched it. What a freak show! But a good one. What started out to be puzzling, became upsetting, then more dark and finally, hilariously twisted. The movie was inspired from the #1 Best Selling New York Times Novel, ‘Gone Girl’ by Gillian Flynn. It didn’t matter if Ben Affleck is a boring actor because his character was to be emotionless anyway. So it worked out. Wasn’t totally satisfied with the ending, it left you wanting more or a different angle after all it put you through watching it. Could there be thoughts for a Gone Girl 2? I won’t give anything away on this one, but men, this ain’t no chick flick, you should watch as well.
Fury with Brad Pitt and more men that are quite easy on the eyes is also out in the theatres. Cool trailer as well, involving soldiers in dangerous territory behind enemy lines. But the jury is still out on that one.
Now, November Man with Pierce Brosnan, another veteran actor and ladies sweetheart, showed he is just as fit as Denzel. The movie was full of action. Although it had a cliche CIA storyline, it was still enjoyable.
The Judge with Robert Downey Jr. is out today! Downey Jr. plays a successful lawyer returning home for his mother’s funeral, then faced the fact that his father, the town’s judge, played by Robert Duvall, is suspected of murder. They don’t seem to have the best relationship but ofcourse Downey Jr. tries to get to the bottom of it. What makes it look like more of a good watch, is the fact that Billy Bob Thornton plays the Prosecutor. I am sure Billy Bob will be entertaining, but is that just a set up for a disappointing movie plot overall? We shall see.
Its movie season people, break your usual routine and go see some. Pick, choose and refuse. SuGa’s first pick…..The Equalizer!Â
After hearing The Equalizer was oh so good, not going to the movies in months and saying, is Denzel Washington back? Hell yea, let’s go see. And indeed he is. BEST movie out right now. Catch it while it’s still out. The movie will have you at the edge of your seat the whole way through, thoroughly impressed with the smooth, ‘badassness’ of Denzel at his age. The movie shows Denzel living a strictly routine, OCD life but some suspect that it has become that way for a reason, what the hell did he do for a living way back?! Curiosity got a young hooker innocently befriending Denzel, but it didn’t kill her. It was the best thing she could have done after her life was threatened and the clock for Denzel went tick tock to go for an entire Russian mafia!
Now, after being pleasantly surprised by The Equalizer, I tuned in to see what else was buzzing on the movie scene. I kept hearing about this Gone Girl with Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck? Boringgggg. I still gave him the benefit of the doubt and watched the trailer. Ok, interested. I wanted to know, did he really kill his wife? Where is this Amy? Watched it. What a freak show! But a good one. What started out to be puzzling, became upsetting, then more dark and finally, hilariously twisted. The movie was inspired from the #1 Best Selling New York Times Novel, ‘Gone Girl’ by Gillian Flynn. It didn’t matter if Ben Affleck is a boring actor because his character was to be emotionless anyway. So it worked out. Wasn’t totally satisfied with the ending, it left you wanting more or a different angle after all it put you through watching it. Could there be thoughts for a Gone Girl 2? I won’t give anything away on this one, but men, this ain’t no chick flick, you should watch as well.
Fury with Brad Pitt and more men that are quite easy on the eyes is also out in the theatres. Cool trailer as well, involving soldiers in dangerous territory behind enemy lines. But the jury is still out on that one.
Now, November Man with Pierce Brosnan, another veteran actor and ladies sweetheart, showed he is just as fit as Denzel. The movie was full of action. Although it had a cliche CIA storyline, it was still enjoyable.
The Judge with Robert Downey Jr. is out today! Downey Jr. plays a successful lawyer returning home for his mother’s funeral, then faced the fact that his father, the town’s judge, played by Robert Duvall, is suspected of murder. They don’t seem to have the best relationship but ofcourse Downey Jr. tries to get to the bottom of it. What makes it look like more of a good watch, is the fact that Billy Bob Thornton plays the Prosecutor. I am sure Billy Bob will be entertaining, but is that just a set up for a disappointing movie plot overall? We shall see.
Its movie season people, break your usual routine and go see some. Pick, choose and refuse. SuGa’s first pick…..The Equalizer!Â
On Saturday, September 20th, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) had overseen over 100 cleanup sites island wide, including 10 underwater with the participation of 1000s of volunteers.
Gabby from SuGa volunteered by the entrance at the Palisadoes strip. Registration was smooth and very organised, since the majority of volunteers were pre-registered and already had armbands.
The garbage collected was significantly less this year compared to last year, which is a good indication that JET’s environmental workshops and various awareness programmes throughout the year are starting to pay off.
Kudos to JET, as well as the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the National Environment & Planning Agency (NEPA) who partnered together and organised a massive cleanup at Hellshire Bay Beach.
Keep Jamaica Clean, ‘Nuh Dutty Up Jamaica’ !
Last Saturday, Yaad Flava representatives had persons flocking their booth to enjoy their Jerk chicken seasoned with their Jamaican Jerk Gourmet Blend topped off with their Ketchup or Barbecue sauce. The Ketchup had a spicy flavour that would give meats such as chicken, franks and burgers a unique flavour, if you didn’t want it to taste like traditional ketchup. Some persons add ketchup to everything, so mix it up a little. Now the Barbecue sauce was really peppery and would work well with anything you put on the grill. I was also surprised to hear that their well seasoned Jerk Chicken was only left for 5 minutes with their MSG free Jamaican Jerk Gourmet blend seasoning before cooking..
The packaging and labels looked official and calorie counts will be added at a later date according to the representatives. The products are reasonable, some about $600JMD and are all available at Sovereign Supermarket in Sovereign Centre on 106 Old Hope Road, Kingston 6.
Pics for previous Tea Tree Crêperie review
Nice atmosphere and good service. Keeping in mind Tea Tree makes everything from scratch, the Nacho Platter took too long to come out, so much so that the Crepes arrived two minutes after. We understood different persons were attending to the order, so there was a lack of communication since the person who made the Crepes probably thought the Nacho Platter was out some time before. Â They apologised sincerely.
The Nacho Platter was alright. It could have had more crisp and had cheeses with more flavour. The popular Smoked Marlin Crepe was good. Nice flavour, Â accentuated with the pepper jelly. The Crepe au Poulet with chicken breast, mushrooms, white wine dill sauce and mozzarella was bland though. The preferred option was the Calzone Crepe that had chicken breast, white wine tomato sauce layered with 4 cheeses, black olives etc. but they did not have the white wine tomato sauce.
The majority of Crepes range from $1400JMD to $1600JMD. There is an extremely wide range to choose from, whether you are feeling for something savoury or sweet, so you can choose something new every time. It’s a nice daytime spot to take the kids or have a chat with a friend or two.
Tea Tree Crêperie
Ph#: (876) 927-8733
Address: Unit #5. 8 Hillcrest Avenue, Kingston.
Date of visit: 13/9/14
NB. Ratings fill 5 stars maximum
Parking: ★★★☆☆
Ambience: ★★★★☆
Decor: ★★★★☆
Comfort: ★★★★★
Service: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Food quality: ★★★★☆
Serving amount: ★★★★★
Plating: ★★★★★
Value for $: ★★★★☆
SuGa Endorsement: ★★★★☆
Monty’s Cafe on Old Hope Road is known for cheap, decent box lunch eats and have now added wraps to their menu like almost all of Jamaica.
First of all, many assume that wraps are healthy. Wrong! Â Not all of them for sure. Healthy consists of baked, roasted or grilled, fresh, non-processed cuts of chicken, salmon, steamed fish, turkey or tuna.
All these shrimp and lobster wraps around the place that sound so appealing are high in cholesterol. The plain wraps are full of bad ‘simple’ carbs versus whole grain or whole wheat wraps, keeping in mind they are still all flour and everyone that may have certain goals are not always fully aware of their carbohydrate intake for the day. Let us also not forget the dairy aspect and that cheddar or mozzarella cheeses often used to add taste to the wraps are high in saturated fat (the ‘bad’ fat). Sometimes the amounts used are just added for taste, not considering portion control. Please ‘healthy’ restaurants, bring on the fresh, grated parmesan and reduced fat feta.
With all that said, Monty’s Cafe took the cake. I saw a Chicken wrap they sent to someone and I was appalled. It was a small, plain tortilla that consisted of FRIED chicken, lettuce and one or two pieces of tomato with a horrible salad dressing all over the lettuce for $425JMD. The customer was told it came with a salad, which to their disbelief was a toothpick with a piece of tomato and a shred of lettuce rolled up. Seriously?! A 5 year old could do better. Notice there is no picture? SuGa’s LCD screen has already cracked twice. Precaution necessary. I hope nobody makes the mistake of buying such a disaster. Some places should just stick to chicken and rice and peas.
The Wine Shop is not the bar or one of those places where everybody knows your name, which is a good thing. So it is a place currently under the radar that persons can go for dinner and not only shop for wine. They are open until 11pm from Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays and have both indoor and outdoor seating.
Their menu has a wide range of items and appetizers that go well with wines, for instance, Hummus and dip, Bruschetta, Smoked Marlin plates, Jerk Sausage, Lamb chops and Penne Pasta bowls with different choices of sauce and meat.
The service was good, not great. The Hummus and dip arrived in a reasonable period of time. The dip’s taste was quite basic. The entrees took too long to arrive, more than half an hour for 2 Pasta dishes and Jerk Sausage. The serving sizes were big so quite filling to make up for that wait if hungry, but the quality was mediocre. The Jerk sausage was decent, but slightly overcooked. The Shrimp Penne Pasta bowl with Cream sauce was salty and the Grilled Chicken Penne Pasta bowl with Cream sauce was bland. I was disappointed that they did not have Basil Walnut Pesto sauce for the Pasta bowl, maybe that would have been good.
In terms of the wine, they have a wide range available to choose from for groups or couples buying by the bottle or buying for the home, but for rum drinkers that just need to buy a glass with dinner before they hit a real rum bar, the choices were way too limited. Literally, a restriction to 3 or 4 types of wine, not even a Riesling?! Unacceptable.
So quite a cosy, inexpensive little spot, but though a wine shop, no pun intended, the quality of food can be improved upon.
Hummus – $450JMD +tx
Jerk sausage (with Lyonnais potatoes) – $950JMD +tx
Shrimp Penne Pasta bowl with Cream sauce – $1150JMD +tx
Grilled Chicken Penne Pasta bowl with Cream sauce – $1550JMD +tx
*Pop Up Gourmet Card accepted (10% discount)
The Wine ShopÂ
Ph#: 876.620.5098
Address: Shop 7B, Southdale Plaza, South Avenue
Date of Visit: 5/9/14
NB. Ratings fill 5 stars maximum
Parking: ★★★★★
Ambience: ★★★☆☆
Decor: ★★★★☆
Comfort: ★★★★★
Service: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Food quality: ★★★☆☆
Serving amount: ★★★★★
Plating: ★★★☆☆
Value for $: ★★★☆☆
SuGa Endorsement: ★★★☆☆