Such an unassuming place in a strip mall off Rt. 3 in Cromwell, we were so pleasantly surprised at how damn good the food could be! We walked in to a small space with brightly colored paintings adorning the walls (all for sale, incidentally) and were told to choose a table. Dinner started with house salads for us, topped with plantains (I haven't had plaintains since Mexico! What a nice surprise!) We then had the festival dumplings which were served with a creole sauce and a jerk sauce--for us, the jerk sauce was the clear winner, though the creole was also excellent. The dumplings were golden-fried crisp on the outside and soft and bready in the middle--and so filling! For entrees, I had a hard time deciding what to try (that just means we'll have to go back!) but I ended up choosing the Zesty Curry Chicken-Tender pieces of chicken marinated in caribbean curry. The chicken was amazing--such flavor and so tender I barely touched my knife to it and it was falling apart in my plate. The rice and bean sides that my dish came with were excellent but I was envious of other diners who had the macaroni as their side (next time!). Tom ordered the Jumpin Jambalaya--a rice combination with shrimp, sausage and chicken tossed in creole sauce and spices--he got a huge dish full of this and it was amazing. I really wanted to try their rum cake for dessert, but sadly we did not get that far. So much food and all of it so good. You can tell that these recipes are tried and true and the restaurant is a labor of love. We'll be back, for sure.
www.imperialcaribbeanrestaurant.com
1 comment:
This sounds like my kind of place! I love your blog!
Post a Comment