It’s in a nice location (City Centre) and has put a spin on the Jamaican dishes they serve. The service was pretty slow and the waitresses didn’t really seem inviting (I went on a Monday afternoon and they were not busy). The Mac and cheese was good but way too much seasoning was put on top. It would have been perfect if less seasoning was used overall but if more was used in the noodles. I loved the flavor on the chicken kabobs, just wish they had more chicken.
Having tried the main other 2 Caribbean restuarants in Birmingham City Centre, Jamaya is No.1. Let's start from the atmosphere, it is nicely decorated, full of vibrant colour and nice lighting, the staff are polite and nice on arrival, no miserable faces , smiles and laughs all round.
We were seated and shortly after our server James (i asked his name, but i have completely forgot so i could have got the name wrong #fishbrain) came,he was a young man who was very helpful with choosing drinks and also helping to decide with the menu and gave his recommendations. There is an extensive menu and everything is reasonably priced considering it is the city centre. The only thing is the menu is all chicken based save for the vegetarian/vegan options. You will find no curry goat, oxtail etc. However the way I see it if your only going to do chicken then you need to do it well and it was much better than that....
The drinks came relatively quickly and the food not long after that. The cocktails are amazing... I had 2, a blue one and a pineapple one cannot remember the names but both banging. They did mocktails which were also good.
For my mains we all had as follows:
Jerk chicken - perfectly seasoned, well cooked, soft, tender and tasty
Rice and peas - greatly done, moist and well prepared
Plantain- perfectly ripe and cooked just how I like it
Macaroni cheese - beautiful, full of cheese and baked to perfection
Sweet potato fries - crispy and nice
Coselaw - very good, creamy and nice
Fried chicken wings - banging, nicely coated, perfectly seasoned, crispy and tender some of the best wings I have tried
Festival - fluffy and light mmmm
Callaloo - well seasoned and nice
Jerk cheesy fries - my gosh i don't know what kinda magic they conjured up for these but I have never had such amazing fries... they were super crispy and had plenty cheese on which I like and the seasoning complemented it so well...
Even my son ate well and he is one tough critic.. we were meant to share the plantain, he boxed it off before I even got one.. had to try another's.
Overall an amazing experience, will I be back ... without a doubt.. now my favourite Caribbean.
Came here for the 1st time Sunday 1st Oct 2023.. and I was very impressed with the food I can’t wait to go back again.. we had the Fried wings they was 10/10.. the spicy mocktail my gosh that was divine..the cheesy chips finally proper cheesy chips.. the festivals cooked to perfection.. and don’t get me started on the Plaintain 1000/10 chefs kiss…plus the Mac and cheese tasted very good.. it’s been a while I have have that very satisfying feeling over over full and wanting to eat more because the food was soo good! I will be back here ASAP!!!!! one of the servers we had she was very miserable and not welcoming.. she’s in the wrong profession but other than that the atmosphere was lovely and the food and was tasty and hot in temperature and full of flavour
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