If army barracks looked as luscious as this, no one would mind national service. We got a spot out on the boardwalk that overlooked the tropical rainforest. Each table sat prettily under an innovative metal gazebo. Strangely, the over-attentive wait staff were all dressed in school uniforms and looked about 15-years-old. My companion complained that the music which came from the speakers surrounding the boardwalk was too loud and the management promptly turned it down without making a fuss. However they were also overzealous in attempting to remove our cutlery. We started with a peter-platter, an antipasto plate with dried beef and cotton-wooly mozzarella, and the barrack bodacious salad with fresh figs in chimichuiri honey. The former was average but the latter was something special. The jamaica jerk pork that the waitress recommended came with a melt-in-your-mouth peach and cranberry chutney, but the meat was a bit tough, while the perfumed chicken breast roulade was more tender. The appetizers and mains had too much chutney and sweet ingredients like onion confit, port soaked raisins and caramelized pineapples—a bit of fruitiness works well with savory dishes, but here it was overdone. It was the inventive desserts like chendol panacotta and the free flow of herbal blended teas like jungle julip and cocoa that will keep us coming back.
