Jimbo's Mesquite Grill

 

We had a spouse's night out the other night at Jimbo's.  It was a lot of fun.  Jimbo's is in Simpson Bay in that same little complex as Zee Best.  The atmosphere was cute, all open with streams and ponds and plants everywhere.  The service was good, our waitress was friendly (a little slow paced but that's normal for the island), and at one point the owner came by to chat us up.  The food was meh.  This place is described as CaribMex food, so considering that I have very high standards when it comes to my mexican food I was thoughtful in my selection.  I decided it best to go with the combo fajitas (combo of steak, chicken, and shrimp) because they were labeled as "famous" and I figured who can really screw up fajitas.  They were MEH!  And expensive! $25!  Most of the choices I was considering were in the $25 range.  There were some dishes that were as low as $15 all the way up to the lobster/shrimp dishes closer to $40-50.  So this place is pretty expensive and definately not worth the quality (as are a lot of the restaurant choices here on the island).  I was with a big group of girls and this seemed to be the consensus.  On the plus side, they had two-for-one happy hour until 7pm and the margaritas were pretty good.  The Spouse's Organization paid for my dinner otherwise I probably would have never come here and I'll probably never be back.

Skip Jack's

Last night we were craving seafood so we went to Skip Jack's for dinner in Simpson Bay.  Josh found them online and they supposedly have the "best seafood" on the island.  I hadn't heard any recommendations for this place so far, so my expectations weren't very high going in.  It's a cute little place right next to Lee's and Harbor Queen.  First thing, fresh live lobsters right when you walk in.  They looked amazing.  You get to go choose your lobster right out of the tank and they cook it fresh.  The ambiance was nice, it was open air...no walls just floor and ceiling.  Right on the water, with beautiful views as the sun sets.  Their menu was awesome, tons of seafood dishes and steaks.  We were tempted to order the Caribbean Lobster ($20/lb on special, and the lobsters in the tank were each 2lbs+) and tempted to get the huge ribeye on the menu (market price, I think around $35 our friend said).  Instead we decided we didn't want to spend $200 on dinner so we went with more budget-friendly options.  I got the Blackened Grouper ($23) and Josh went with the Seafood Platter ($25).  My fish was delicious!  Very fresh tasting, the blackening seasoning was prefect.  They serve it with a chimichurri sauce on the side which was amazing.  They served it with a garden salad and choice of potato.  The garden salad was super fresh tasting, I don't know where they get their vegetables (not at the Grand Marche obviously).  I got the only Cab they had by the glass ($6.50), from California so of course it was excellent!  Josh's seafood platter was also very delicious, it came with grilled mahi mahi, beer-battered shrimp and scallops, and some sort of crab bake thing with cheese on top.  I'm not the biggest mahi mahi fan but this was excellent, no bells and whistles just nicely grilled with excellent taste. I'm also not quite a fried seafood eater but the batter was amazing and the seafood was all fresh.  The crab bake thing was good but nothing to write home about. The service was excellent, even though they automatically add gratuity we left our waiter extra because he was very friendly and attentive (which are two qualities that are somewhat lacking from customer service oriented employees on this island).  We ran in to 4 of our friends from school and ended up joining them for a bit after our meal.  They seems to really like their food too.  They got the Blackened Grouper, Ribs, the big ribeye, and the surf and turf (top sirloin and shrimp).  I tried a bite of my friend's top sirloin and it was surprisingly very good, nicely seasoned and flavorful for such a mediocre cut (in my opinion, I'm a ribeye girl).  In all we really enjoyed the quality of the food at Skip Jack's, as well as the ambiance and the service.  We decided we definately will return to try some Caribbean Lobster and ribeyes in the near futureJ

Papadan

I’ve decided I’m also going to review restaurants on my blog, because I like doing it and there is no Yelp here…I mean how else do you hold restaurants accountable!  Like the other day at Brother Jimmy’s all-you-eat ribs, lame.  And who can I tell without Yelp?  Nobody.  Well now I have a forum and I intend to use it!  But I’ll review Brother Jimmy’s another time because I’m going to give them a second chanceJ

My first review is of Papa Dan’s Pizza. Actually I don’t even know if that’s the name of it because it just says “pizzeria” on his stand but I think he calls himself Papa Dan because on skype his name is Papadan.  In my head I always think of him as papadan, one word.  Anywho, Papadan is a transplant from France he has a wonderful French accent, I just love hearing him chat with customers in French. French is definitely one of the coolest sounding languages on the planet!  So basically Papadan stands in his pizzeria all day taking orders from an open window.  Here’s a tip: If you don’t want to wait for the pizza to cook and cool then skype in the order ahead of time.  Genius! He has many pizzas; from traditional like margarita and pepperoni all the way to non-traditional like pizza with pepperoni, blue cheese, and honey.  He said the honey-on-pizza is a Caribbean thing, which as newbies on the island we definitely wanted to try.  We did the pepperoni with blue cheese and honey.  I have to say the honey was great, until about 2 slices then it started to settle and coagulate in my tummy and I decided next time to just stick with just pepperoni.  Josh is a little sad about that because he really liked the honey.  Maybe papadan will do a ½ and ½ order…I’ll have to ask him.  The prices are around $13-15 for a regular pizza that will feed two people.  We even had leftovers, which we left on the kitchen counter for two seconds and the ants got (I think it was that damn honey). Josh of course says the pizza is good but not the best he’s had (he’s a pizza snob being from NJ).  My assessment is the flavor is great, the dough is alright, somewhere between meh and good.  I usually skip the crusts anyway unless it’s fabulous, just because I’d rather not waste my time on bread, I love the pepperoni. Another tip: if you like spice ask him for some of his special spicy sauce, and when he asked you “the really spicy one?” say yes, apply with restraint though or you will be sorry. My second visit I ordered a “student special” which is an individual sized pizza that he sells for half the price.  It’s actually a little bigger than an individual and we shared it for lunch and were satisfied.  In conclusion I would say we will probably frequent Papadan’s because it’s walking distance from our home and the school, he’s cool and the pizza is good.  Although our friend Jared who is a 4^th semester said we should also try the pizza at this place called the something pineapple…

Brother Jimmy's

I’ve been to Brother Jimmy’s two times now, once on sat with friends for the all-you-can-eat buffalo wings and beers ($18 per person).  We had a good time but our service was really slow and when we went to order a 3^rd order they cut us off saying there was a 2 hour time limit.  Well excuse me, but you’re waitress was super slow and we were being accommodating by not complaining and now we’re being cut off!  Lame.  Didn’t really feel we got our money’s worth. And when you’re a huge buffalo wing fan and you are prepared to have as many as your little hard desires, and you’ve had a couple beers, being cut off is infuriating! However we decided to give them a second try, mainly because I really like their X-Hot buffalo wings.  They are the best I’ve had on the island, but of course I’ve only tried two other places (sunset—sucked, and greenhouse—ok).  Anyway, as we are big fans of B wings when we have a craving we want the best around, regardless of lame rules or bad service.  So we went again this last weekend, only this time no all-you-can-eat special.  We ordered a bucket of wings for $15, and 4 beers for $16. We were plenty full with that and will probably skip the all-you-can-eat just so we don’t have to keep ordering smaller batches and worry about time limits.  I’ve also tried the ribs and I must say, very not impressed.  They were dry so dry that the ends were as hard as a rock, you only get ½ a rack and they are expensive. The sides sucked that came with it coles slaw, pickles, corn bread, and fries (I mean come on, how do you mess up French fries?!).  If you want good ribs, it seems that tons of places do all-you-can-eat ribs on this island, go with the Harbor Queen (or maybe it’s Queen Harbor) they are the best I’ve had on the island so far.

Carousel for gelato!

The Spouses Organization had a fun event the other day “Gelato Day” (self explanatory).  We went down to the Carousel where they sell gelato.  I don’t know if that’s the name of the place but it’s where the big carousel is on the island, which if you’re here I’m sure you’ve heard people talking about it...or, maybe I’ve just heard about it a lot because my S.O. sponsor is a gelato fiend! :)   One scoop is $3, two scoops $5.  I made a big mistake and got two scoops because I couldn’t decide and all the flavors I sampled were tasty!  They let you sample any flavor you want, but they don’t look happy about it.  They don’t look happy about anything come to think of it.  I sampled chocolate, strawberry and coconut...all VERY delicious.  I had a bite of my friend’s Kiwi and I thought it was meh, but she loved it.  My analysis: Just as good as the gelato in Italy, of course it has been 4 years since I was last there...but go, it will not disappoint.  Unless you get two scoops and are disappointed that you can’t finish both and half to throw half of it out like I did.