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Island Spice Grill
2120 Emmorton Park Rd Edgewood, MD 21040 Island Spice Grill is a Jamaican restaurant specializing in all things Jamaican, from the meat patties to their delicious ox tail. The last time I was there was about seven years ago. A lot has changed since I last went. My buddy wanted to try something different and he mentioned this place, now when I was there last I had a very favorable impression of the restaurant. No reservations about service or the food. Well, can I take those statements back? I started with Jerk wings and when they came out it was pretty apparent that the jerk sauce was poured over the wings. The lighting wasn't so good so it looked like the jerk sauce was black. I took a bite of the wings, and the wings may have been deep fried hours ago. The wing meat was stringy and not even crunchy. I could get better wings with jerk sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings, or CR Wings in Bel Air. I ordered the Pineapple Ginger Chicken which was grilled chicken sauteed in pineapple ginger sauce. The sauce was tasty but the chicken was probably deep fried earlier in the day because the chicken breast was also stringy and tough. Now, I know during the weekends alot of restaurants have to prep for a busy weekend, but if your going to prep your food, you need to understand the mechanics of the ingredients your prepping. Chicken breast is naturally tough when cooked and if your frying it with a batter it will dry even more and be tougher so you need to marinate chicken breast correctly which they didn't do. As for the wings, that should be made fresh per order. Wings cannot be deep fried and set aside in the warmer try. I invite them to go to CR Wings of Bel Air to try their wings versus theirs. Plantains that came with the chicken should have been diagonally sliced. At least that's the way it's served at other Caribbean restaurants and the cabbage came with the order thinly shredded. It was noticeable that the cabbage was shredded by machine which is mostly hand sliced for authenticity and more flavorful. I know the Island Spice Grill opened a restaurant by the Avenue in White Marsh and I think they opened another one some place else but it seems to me their focus is controlling expenses and allowing it to interfere with the quality of their product. One of their signature dishes is Oxtail, now I had their oxtail a long time ago and it ranks up there as one of the best tasting but for $ 29.00, you gotta be kidding? I was shopping at Lotte Supermarket in Catonsville, MD and saw a package of 1 lb oxtail for $ 12.00. If they cut each piece of oxtail in half, that entire package would probably be 1 1/2 orders. Go figure, you can blame inflation for higher prices but $ 29.00 is a little high. On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being excellent I give Island Spice Grill a negative 100. It's very disappointing. Sometimes when you successful as one restaurant, maybe expansion may ruin the reputation but cutting back. Chef Woo Can www.chefwoocan.com YouTube: Chef Woo Can #jamaicanfood, #islandspicegrill, #oxtail, # Caribbeanfoodinharfordmd, #caribbeanfoodinmd, |
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