Delivery
Yes
Payment
Accepts Credit Cards
Parking
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Attire
Casual
Alcohol
Reservations
No
Cuisines:
Lebanese
Price Point
$$
$ - Cheap Eats (Under $10)
$$ - Moderate ($11-$25)
$$$ - Expensive ($25-$50)
$$$$ - Very Pricey (Over $50)
WiFi
No
Outdoor Seats
No
Is this your restaurant? Click to add your description here.
06/25/2020 - Nix
I cannot comment on atmosphere (more of a take out place). The phone was answered by a very quiet girl who made the interaction awkward, but in the end who really cares because the result was that the food order was ultimately placed (except she wouldn't know who for because she hung up on me without taking my name). LOL.
As for the food/meal, we were all very disappointed.
We ordered my favourite dish, Oxtail, as well as Jerk Chicken. In the large order of Oxtail, we only ate 3-4 dime-sized ($0.10-sized) pieces of meat each. Majority of the Oxtail were bones & fat (chewing the meat off bone is usually very satisfying; this time not at all pleasant to have mouth-fulls of fat and no meat). On top of that, the taste of it was very lackluster. It tasted like it was smothered in those powdered beef gravy mixes you buy at the groceries (like Club House). This completely overtook the flavour of the actual meat in a bad way and didn't have any authentic taste to it (no spice flavours came through, just artificial brown gravy taste). At the price it is, totally not worth it (spent about $30 for a large oxtail & a medium jerk chicken).
I could've bought Oxtail and gravy mix from the grocery store (yes, I've seen fresh oxtail here) & threw it in a slow cooker if I wanted something mediocre and lackluster.
I was excited to try the cabbage slaw (as one customer had mentioned that he asks for extra), but again was disappointed in how bland it tasted. So you know that this review is not coming from people who load it on to eat anything: I hate too much salt in my foods & you'll never typically catch me adding salt to my ordered food, but I absolutely had to add salt & pepper on everything (the meat, rice and beans & cabbage slaw) to be able to somewhat be okay with eating it.
The Rice & Peas/Beans *sigh*. I don't even know how to put it, but here i go:
1) super mushy (liquid to rice ratio was totally off)),
2) missing the beans part of the dish (probably a total of less than 6-7 beans in the entire dish of rice) &
3) super bland (tasted like nothing was seasoned & that the rice was slow cooked in watered-down broth for too long) - I'm used to having rice & beans that are cooked with proper technique so each grain keeps it's individual form for better texture not mushed together in a glop like this.
Lastly, we didn't feel like even touching the Jerk Chicken after having the Oxtail. However, I wanted to give it a taste to be fair. After all, Oxtail may have not been their strongest dish & it would be sad to pass on a restaurant that may make the best of something else. Unfortunately, the same disappointment set in after dipping my finger on the chicken to taste the marinade. I only tasted the sauce & didn't consume the meat so I can't completely review the Jerk Chicken in it's entirety. It's in our fridge until next time. As for the sauce, though, it's average. Not bad, but not good. Kinda tasted like the jar jerk chicken sauce from groceries with more coarsely cracked black pepper. I personally would have liked to taste the various spicy peppers used in Jamaican cuisine opposed to black pepper for that jerk kick; especially since the restaurant is named Caribbean Island Spices. Tastes to me like they use grocery helpers and slow cookers because it doesn't taste like homemade spice mixes/marinades/sauces/gravies or what have you to me.
Needless to say, I will not be a return customer unless some more care and love goes into this otherwise beautiful Jamaican cuisine. This is not to say that it's not for you. If you do not cook at all, you may want this instead of everyday McDonalds. Despite my search for more spices/seasonings, Jamaican food is delicious and when you're in a pinch for a meal this place is okay. But definitely not bad for the average eater. Keep in mind, we originate from Toronto where there is an abundancey of various ethnic cuisines. From what we leaned, this is the only Jamaican restaurant in Windsor.
For people with Celiac or who are gluten-free: I had to take a digestive enzyme and had symptoms are eating the Oxtail. They might use/thicken that brown gravy with wheat products (especially if prepackaged brown gravy from grocery stores were used). But yes, I am very symptomatic after eating here. No blame on their end, I should be less shy about asking before ordering food).
See all restaurants in Windsor
