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| - Our family was led to the Jammin' Jerk Hut by a Restaurant.com coupon. The location is at the very end of a strip mall circa early 1980s, which is completely vacant, save for the very last three storefronts: the Jammin Jerk Hut; the next-door storefront, which is Flavor Flav's House of Flavor; and the room on the other side, from which we could hear live reggae music being played. I like reggae, but I was a bit concerned because my daughter is very sensitive to loud music and other noises.
We entered the restaurant to find two people inside, one of whom apparently is the proprietor, and the other seemed to be a friend of his. Interestingly, you could barely hear the music once inside.
The atmosphere is pretty nice for a small ethnic restaurant. It had interesting wicker furniture and art, and the room is painted bright colors. There was a documentary movie about Bob Marley and the Wailers playing on the TV.
We chose a booth and sat down. The proprietor came over to ask us if we wanted anything to drink. We ordered water. He asked what type of bottle. I asked for tap water. It was 114 degrees in Las Vegas that day.
"We don't have tap water," was the reply.
I reluctantly ordered a large bottle of Perrier water, not knowing how much it would cost. He touted the homemade Jamaican juices, so I ordered my daughter a pineapple-tamarind juice for a steep $4.99.
After several minutes, he returned with drinks and we ordered. We were interested in the curry shrimp, and my daughter was excited to see dumplings. They were out of both.
I asked what kind of fish the fish was, and he said he had tilapia and butterfish. We settled on jerk chicken and steamed butterfish. My daughter also got a Jamaican beef patty.
Then we waited, and waited. He was cooking himself and was busy with that back in the kitchen, or maybe he was grilling outside.
Meanwhile another woman entered. She asked us at one point if we had ordered, but otherwise appeared busy with other things, and then not so busy, but did not come back to check on us.
After at least 20 minutes, by which time our kids were very cranky, he brought some plantains in tinfoil, some jerk rice in a styrofoam container, and the jamaican meat patty on a ceramic plate, along with four small plastic forks wrapped in paper napkins.
I asked him if he could bring any more plates, pointing to the ceramic plate. He muttered something like "we don't usually do that" and left.
The plantains were very good, although not quite hot. The rice was good. The meat patty ($2.59) was delicious. It is very similar to an empanada, with a slightly spicy ground beef filling, but not too spicy for my daughter. She was very happy with it.
About 10 minutes later, he brought the jerk chicken and fish, on ceramic plates.
My wife thought the jerk chicken (about $11) was ok, but I thought it was excellent, as was the potato salad and rice on the side. The side green salad was fresh and good, although there was no dressing. I don't know if this was by design or by accident, but this dinner was already a big hassle and we didn't want to wait another half hour for dressing.
There was nothing wrong with the way the fish (about $19) was prepared, steamed with onions, carrots, potatoes, and seasonings, and it was definitely fresh, but it wasn't really my thing. However, I'm pretty sure he brought me the tilapia because it didn't taste like butterfish. It also came with excellent potato salad, green salad, and rice. It seemed expensive for what it was.
To summarize, the food was good, but the service was quite possibly the worst service I have ever experienced in a restaurant, anywhere. I don't usually care so much about service, but it really needs to meet a minimum level, which this didn't. Also, as long as I am in a fully developed country and paying first-world prices, I don't appreciate not having the option of ordering tap water.
After a few attempts of ringing us up, the total was about $53, less a $15 coupon, for a net of $38. Even with the coupon, it felt a bit expensive. I'm glad they didn't remember to add the standard 18% tip associated with a restaurant.com coupon because they certainly didn't deserve one.
I gave him my credit card and he disapppeared briefly. My wife was outside and she later told me she saw him in Flavor Flav's. Apparently they share a credit card reader.
From reading other reviews, apparently this place previously was a take-out only establishment. It would behoove both the owners and customers to go back to being take-out only. This would relieve them of the burden of service. I would order the jerk chicken and meat patty again, but only by phoning in a take-out order.
Or even better, why not sell the jerk chicken at a table at a farmer's market or swap meet, so they could just focus on one item without running out of things. I'm sure they would do very well and have many happy customers.
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