2008/08/31
CAFE AUBERGINE @ The Market Place
This place is really WONDERFUL.
Perhaps, it may not be suitable to visit on a daily basis, due to the pricy menu, but it's certainly fitting for special occasions... and they will let you feel that way.
Aubergine has all the ingredients for success: impeccable service, outstanding ambiance, attention to detail and FABULOUS food.
We made a stop at the outside BAR for the aperitif and we immediately knew that we were off to a good start. The people at the restaurant had prepared one exquisite table inside one of their rooms and it was nicely dressed and lit with candles all over the place. APPEARANCE, as I have always said, is extremely important and it rounds up the dinner or lunch experience.
I recommend several dishes from this restaurant: their onion soup and their bouillabaisse (restaurant’s trademarks and simply delicious), their pates (luscious and rich in flavour), and their excellent escargots (utterly delectable).
As main course, some of us went for the SURF and TURF, and it was one of the best Filet Mignons that I have tried while others tried the DUCK and their PORK medallions. Everything was extremely delicious!
I have dined at Cafe Aubergine in other occasions and the experience has always been FANTASTIC. They have transferred all the charm and flavours of their place in Moneague to Kingston with flying colours.
Even their other more casual restaurant option, CAFE ROMA, is a success! Try it for lunch and you will see what service is all about. Please, ask for the TIRAMISU for dessert!
Two thumbs up for Cafe Aubergine, waiters and charming owners!
So, dear blog readers, comment, share and, most of all, keep on EATING!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Dear Jamaica Gourmet,
I must agree with most of your comments regarding this place, however I would like to add one or two negative comments to provide a little balance to your criticism if you do not mind.
While the food is undoubtedly excellent at Cafe Aubergine, I was not entirely satisfied with the service on my previous visit a few days ago. While finding the place extremely pricy, I feel the service should be impeccable to match. For example, one of our party burnt her on her plate which was literally boiling - I checked. She had not been warned by the waiter, nor had I who had chosen the same plate - these dishes were obviously being stored in the oven while everyone else's meals were being prepared. I also felt that the pork dish we had ordered was excellent, but because of the extreme heat of the plate, the meat tended to dry out very quickly as the cooking process continued on the plate itself! This should not happen at a place such as Aubergine's. You are paying top dollar in Jamaican terms, therefore you should only accept the best quality and service.
Servers were for the most part very attentive, as was one of the owners, a very pleasant gentleman who made the dining experience very enjoyable. However, upon taking away our plates, my server did the usual Jamaican thing by waving his hand at me, ushering me to hand up my own plate across the table and the head of the guest in front of me!! This has happened to me numerous times in Jamaican restaurants and literally drives me crazy. I can understand this happening at TGIF's, but it is not acceptable at Cafe Aubergine! Attention all restaurant owners - when training servers, please remind them to refrain from making random hand gestures at the customers in order to grab their attention. A simple "Excuse me" would suffice. Plus, at Aubergine's, I think the money I'm spending should at least buy me the privilege of having my plate being taken away for me.
As for the pricy menu at Aubergine's, I think it is a tad excessive. Food is really excellent there, but is still slightly overpriced. Prices force the average customer to refrain from eating there on a regular basis - I would love to dine at Aubergine's more frequently, but it is unjustifiably too expensive.
All being said, I would like to share with you that my dining experience at Aubergine's was one of the finest I have experienced in Jamaican restaurants. If the service was fine-tuned it would make it undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best, restaurant in Kingston. Our party went there to celebrate a friend's birthday, and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself. He was pleased, therefore I was ultimately very satisfied with Aubergine's. I will definitely go back!
Café Aubergine is one of my favourites spots in Kingston and in the Market Place and I agree with the original post. The food is quite excellent (something different in Kingston), the service is one of the best in the city, the ambiance, the music.
I prefer to go in the evening and eat outside on the terrace, I feel in Europe sometimes. We need more entreperneurs in Jamaica to have the vision that Mr Mafood had in 2006 to open more sites like the Market Place.
However I will recommend to the nices owners of the Aubergine to pay attention to the AC because especially in summer it gets extremely hot.
Sorry for Phillip to have had this bad expereince that I´ve never had myself.
Unfortunately I have to agree with Phillip on this one!
Coming from Europe, I must admit that I have eaten better food, with much better service and for a lot less money in and out of Europe, just not in Jamaica yet, something I hope will change soon, and the way things are going I'm sure it will change for the better as this country has all the potential.
Lets just face it - Café Aubergines is too expensive for what it gives to its customers. The place is beautifully decorated and is well thought out, but it is about as far removed from a European dining experience as you can get - sorry anonymous and the author of the first review - if Aubergines want to be European, it needs to clean up its act.
In response to...
"The place is beautifully decorated and is well thought out, but it is about as far removed from a European dining experience as you can get - sorry anonymous and the author of the first review - if Aubergines want to be European, it needs to clean up its act."
I understand the European standards and this is not what's at stake. It's not by comparing Aubergine to the old continent's culinary tradition that they are going to be on top of their game.
I believe that we should judge it for what it offers or, to some of us, should offer.
I agree when you say that it's a very expensive restaurant and I certainly think that the managers should be on top of every single detail if they want to keep it that way.
The waiters' attitude as well as the other details Phillip described must be immediatly addressed.
They have to to make people believe what they are selling. If the product is fine dining, let us live the experience of what fine dining is by performing flawlessly.
We have to revisit the standard criteria and set aside the European measuring tape.
This is what's at stake.
Aubergine is not good enough because seems to be less than any European restaurants (I have seen some atrocities in Europe as well). They are not good enough because they are unmindful of what fine dining should entail.
That's exactly what we have to demand: raise up to the standards that we want to create for Kingston's fine dining.
I have had the opportunity to dine at Cafe Aubergine and in the two instances that I was there I had excellent food. I can't speak to European restaurants but I can speak to Jamaican restaurants and I have been to a few and I love the atmosphere here, especially the piano room; it much more cozy.
You are all correct in saying that the food is expensive but when you look at the location of the place, the food will never cost the same as a chicken feed. Overheads must be high. I've learned in my years of working for others that if you don't treat your employees as prestine as you do your business you will get lack lustre attitude. Some employers do not consider their employees as important image starters to their business. Image to them is all about the decor of the place.
I had a friend who was a bartender there and I can't use him as an example but he doesn't lie and if he says they are not treated with respect then he's not talking about himself. I always thought it was me because everytime I dine at a restaurant the waiters tend to drop there guard and relax too much.
My advise to Cafe is simply this, you have done marvelously on the appearance of your restaurant and you have excellent chefs, take the time to take care of your employees, motivate them and respect them and most importantly have them understand the image you need them to portray to your clients. Then everything for them will be worth the price.
Dear Jamaican Gourmet,
First of all thank you for this blog. As for Cafe Aubergine, I do agree there is excellent food there, is it the best in the world? of course not but there is quality and something that is missing from a lot of places "service." As for the restaurant, the lunch and evening menus are fantastic and there is variety, the only dish I had there I have been underwhelmed in is the duck. Stay away from it, otherwise from my guests and myself we have been satisfied. Another problem is the heat during the day, sitting outside is not an option as it is incredibly hot. This kind of dampens the cafe feel as you think you should be eating outside as much as possible.
Post a Comment