Everyone, and I mean literally everyone I know has been talking about Miss Lily’s recently, and I smugly am able to tell them how much fun it is because I went at the beginning of November!  (Yep… This post has been in draft for quite a while!!!)

For those of you who don’t know my history, I’m an island girl at heart.  I lived in Bermuda for 5yrs and got quite a taste for jerk chicken as there was a few Jamaican restaurants/cafes to chose from.

When Ting Irie opened I was all all excited until a) I discovered they weren’t licenced because no rum is wrong, b) I tried their very nice but not excellent jerk chicken, and c) realised I couldn’t have the goat curry because they put coconut milk in it.  So when I heard there was a new Jamaican place opening it went on my list of places to go, fairly near the top.

The perfect opportunity arose when we hosted a mini-Hen Night for one of my coworkers.  It wasn’t meant to be a big thing but we wanted somewhere fun…. and it really was!

We walked in, drunkenly announced it was a Hen Night (she had taken off the veil etc. for the ride over!) and we were taken straight to our table by these lovely ladies who told everyone we crossed paths with why we were there.  Everyone smiled and said congratulations, and all that jazz.  We were made to feel so welcome and part of the gang!

Now, I’m afraid I can’t tell you what drinks we had, nor which shooters the nice people gifted us to help us celebrate, due to the fact we had several bottles of champers before we got to this point.  I can however tell you they went down an absolute treat and were rum based!

I do remember the food though because that’s much more my thing… and I text people (The Boy, my mother, my bestie,etc.) pictures and comments during the meal.  Sounds a bit rude by the girls know that I write this blog and so were reminding me to do it too!  Also, because of my love affair with food and this blog, they let me do all the ordering!  Hoorah!

We started with the Hot Pepper Shrimp.  This was, by the way, voted the dish of the night and we ordered a couple more plates to keep munching through the rest of the evening.

They are absolutely amazing.  They are hot and spicy… very.  This is not a dish for you if you do not like hot food.  They were on the outer edge of my capacity, and I do love a bit of heat!  But as well as hot, they were sweet.  I am not a huge fan of sweet/savory mixes (unless it’s popcorn) but this was really good.  I think because it wasn’t overly sweet.  Just a hint.  Oh, and the prawns were chunky and crunchy.

My one complaint is that the portion isn’t twice the size!!

(I am actually drooling a bit typing this.  That is how good they are.)

The second appetizer we shared was the Jerk Chicken Roti.

Now, I am not really a roti fan and haven’t had it too often so I can’t compare it to anything really.  That does mean however that I can pronounce it the best I’ve ever had!  Haha!  It was very flavourful.  The paratha was soft and a bit goey.  The dipping sauce was spicy and bbqie.  It was a hit!!

Just not as much as the prawns.  Did I mention that we ordered more?!

Next up, aside from a couple more drinks, was the main course.  I was very excited to have ordered some of my favourites!

First up was the jerk chicken.  Not a hit – well, for jerk chicken.  It was really very nice as a slightly spicy bbq chicken though.  I would absolutely order it again now I know what to expect.

This does however lead me back to the same argument I had with myself when I was at Ting Irie.  Do I only know a Bermuda adaptation of jerk?  Is this the real thing?  I don’t think so with this one.  There was too much BBQ sauce.  It worked as a dip for the roti as a starter, but I don’t understand why it was smothered over the chicken.

Next up was the curry goat stew.  I much prefer goat curry.  The stew element didn’t work for me at all.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anywhere near as good as it could have been. I actually wouldn’t order this again.

We tried a couple of sides too… crispy orka and potato which had the potential to be divine, but was over cooked that night, and the jerk fries with scotch bonnet mayo. I would love to know what else went into the mayo, because there was an odd taste to it that didn’t work with the fries.  The fries were really good, and more jerk flavoured than the chicken!!

Sadly we didn’t have time or space for any dessert.  We had spent too much time dancing in our seats, and gossiping so that the next table seating had arrived.  It’s a shame because we would have sat there and had more to drink and probably more of those shrimp, but it is totally THE place to be at the moment so we were just very happy to have managed to secure a booking in the first place!

Thank you for a cracking night Miss Lily’s and I will totally be back again… Unless you take the shrimp off the menu in which case we are falling out and never speaking again!!

Last word from the bride to be….