Jamrock

As a Jamaican who looooves her country’s food, I was thrilled to find a place serving Jamaican favorites in Rome. Sadly, though, the meal was incredibly disappointing. It’s not that the food was terrible, but it should absolutely not be calling itself Jamaican food. It sort of looked like it, but completely missed the mark on taste and flavor. I wish this wasn’t the case because it’s a nice atmosphere and the owner seemed like a great person – and I LOVE that someone loves our food and culture enough to open a place dedicated to it, but I know Jamaican food and this wasn’t it :(
I started with the curried chicken patty, which was actually very tasty, but did not taste like Jamaican patties. I had the jerk medley (shrimp, chicken, pork) for a main and I wouldn’t say the food was tasty – it was decent. The shrimp actually was inedible, though – it was mushy, the way shrimp gets when it’s either too old or has been thawed and refrozen multiple times (food poisoning waiting to happen). The chicken and pork were also decent and nothing spectacular, but again, the main point is that they did not taste anything like Jamaican jerk or any other type of Jamaican food. Jerk seasoning should have a number of strong ingredients (allspice, cinnamon, thyme, brown sugar, nutmeg to name a few), but the accompanying sauce tasted like I-don’t-know-what with WAY too much black pepper, compensating for the lack of the proper pepper?
The rice and peas was lacking in depth and flavor and the rice was a bit over cooked. We had friend plantains and festival on the side; the plantains could have been more ripe, but perhaps that’s a personal preference. The festival was pretty decent, but I’m really biased because my mom makes the best festival ever.
My husband got curried chicken, which he said was good, but again, it was NOT Jamaican curried chicken.
A friend got fried chicken and… it was not proper fried chicken. We are all convinced it was Shake ‘N Bake seasoning from a box.
I’m not sure where the recipes or inspiration are coming from, but they are not from any Jamaican cook or cookbook. I’m actually really puzzled, because a Google search would produce great recipe results for authentic Jamaican dishes that would turn these dishes into what they are meant to and longing to be.

Such a hidden jem! I would have never known about it if I didn’t meet the chef out on the town one night. At first we thought we were lost because of the location, but luckily we heard a bit of reggae music.
I had the jerk chicken which was amazing. It comes with this sauce that is incredibly spicy, which my friends absolutely loved (I’m a wuss when it comes to spice)
Overall, great experience!

I love this place! The food is amazing, the owners super cool and firendly. The space is great, with amazing photographs from Jamaica, super clean comfortable. It has an insane amount of rums and the best sober drink list ever! I love the fried chicken that is not greasy, i was convinced it had to be baked because it was soo good. The plantains chips are perfect, as are the patties. A lot of yummie vegetarian options as well. Great for dinner, after dinner drink and maybe dessert, a drink before going out, get toghthers, parties, anything. These is even a DJ console!