23rd September 2006

We had managed to convince our newly arrive ex-French colleagues that it would fantastic idea to babysit for us, with a quick bribe of a half decent south African shiraz and a promise to reciprocate in the near future. Nordy Lass was turning 21 again and a bit of a gang were getting together to go down to Café Aubergine, newly opened in Kingston.

Café Aubergine (the original) is stuck half way up a mountain between Kingston an Ocho Rios. By all accounts, it is well worth while taking the time to stop and enjoy good food in a quiet and beautiful location. All very bijou but on the few occasions where I have passed, I have been too focused in getting to my destination before the kids re-awaken to contemplate a break in the journey. I was looking forward to the meal.

The setting in for the new café aubergine did not endear itself to me immediately. It is located off Constant Springs Road along with a number of other restaurants in an open air plaza. I just got the impression of a shopping mall food court.

The menu though had a decent selection and the wine list had a number of mid range (Jamaican standard) wines, though with no wine producers name, selection is a bit of a shot in the dark. The produce wasn’t fresh however and service was typically Jamaican. Rare steaks came out medium, Moules Marinere came with a tomato sauce and quite a selection of the dishes came back completely different that their description on the menu. The chilli and thyme crust on my lamb chops was very tasty, but not the rosemary and garlic that I ordered. Reasonably priced so I didn’t come away feeling diddled as I often do after eating out, but I failed to see why everyone else raves quite so much about the place.

Our ‘plumber’ had returned yesterday for the briefest of poke arounds before informing us that we needed a new washing machine.