For week two, we chose last week’s first choice, Tropical Flava. Due to a special New Year’s event, we selected another destination, so we were eager to try this Jamaican restaurant by the time the weekend rolled around. Joining us were two of our friends, Sarah and Eric.
Tropical Flava offers a variety of chicken, pork, and seafood dishes. You will also find a beef (oxtail), curried goat, and some vegetarian choices. Here are the entrees we selected:
Jerk Pork
Oxtail
Curried goat
Escovitched Fish
All the entrees were served with either rice and beans or plain white rice, plus a side of their slaw and fried plantains. The slaw was very good and not your typical mayo-drenched fare. My curried goat was wonderfully tender and the curry sauce was not very spicy (especially compared with the jerk seasoning!) Matt saved some leftover jerk pork for sandwiches the next day. Sarah’s oxtail was also very tender and full of flavor much like the goat. Eric was quite pleased with his escovitched fish, and savored every bite.
We ordered the jerk chicken wings appetizer, but it was forgotten until we were nearly done with dinner. The waitress apologized and brought them out in a takehome box, but I had to sample one still – delicious! For dessert, we went with the tropical cheesecake (a blend of mango and passion fruit) and red velvet cake. The cheesecake was good, and the velvet cake was moist and rich.
The quality of food at Tropical Flava is top notch and we look forward to a return visit some day. Don’t let this “hole in the wall” location deter you from giving them a visit.
What sorts of vegetarian dishes were on offer?
I wish I could remember everything, but since I’m a meat kinda guy I focused primarily on the chicken and pork dishes. Almost got the goat, but since Hillarie wanted it, I decided to go with something different to give us better options.
Also, I’m not a huge fan of coleslaw so I didn’t eat any. But the fried plantains were awesome! Almost ordered some for dessert.