2008/09/06
Down with CHEZ MARIA!
Marrying different kinds of food in one place is often times a very hard task to achieve...
I believe that what makes a fusion place successful is not only the combination of food on their menus, but the coherence of their particular concept throughout that facility.
People visiting a fusion restaurant must be able to read that particular food concept from the minute they set foot on that place. They must see it on their décor, their ambiance and, needless to say, on their menu.
This is the case of CHEZ MARIA. They have a fantastic Mediterranean menu, which is truly representative of that region. But I personally think that they have failed at delivering this concept throughout their restaurant.
As soon as you enter CHEZ, you are hinted at the golden days of this place. Two bars, inside and outside dining, servers posted at the door to welcome the clients and mellow music.
Unfortunately, Chez Maria’s good 'ole days are gone and their brazen disregard is showing. Poor quality food, smelly napkins and tablecloths, plastic chairs, slow service, careless servers and disregarded clients.
My LAST meal there was a disaster. I was sitting at a big table with friends and we were not all served at the same time. I was really distraught at seeing that the place was almost empty and the servers were not efficient enough to take good care of ALL the guests… and there were quite a number of these SERVERS! This is clearly a management error and I would not want to imagine what would happen if the place were at least half full.
Although I think that their hummus is the best in town and that they are able to do better than my last experience, I prefer not to visit CHEZ MARIA again for a long time.
They need to have their place overhauled. We should not settle for less than better service and servers, better attention to detail and concept coherence all the way through.
So, my dear blog readers, when thinking to go to Chez Maria, think it twice. There are other options in Kingston where your dining experience will be far better.
Let CHEZ MARIA's people know that they have to take their business seriously or they will keep on losing clients.
Keep on eating ...and reporting!
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39 comments:
Gosh! I agree with you. My last experience was terrible!!!!
I arrived with my family sat down outside and immediatly the server came and gave us the menu. After almost 15 minutes she came back to take the order and we waited more than 35 minutes to be served. The food was not as good as previous times.
I think that the management has to revisit his concept, to train the waiters (always nice and smiling) and make changes in the kitchen.
Chez Maria once again suffers the same problem of most of the restaurants in Kingston,
I have been to Chez Marías several times, but fail to understand why I return. I think it is because the first time I went I found everything excellent - great quality food and portions, and a friendly server who was extremely attentive - perhaps because we were the only guests there!
However, since then I have been disappointed every time! Portions have been dramatically decreased in size - I was told my pasta dish had been made smaller as the price of pasta had incresed! (Guys, we all know how much a bag of pasta costs)! And there is a particular server there who at first I thought was quiet, but now know is downright rude. All of the others I have dealt with have been very very pleasant, I just wonder why they keep sending me the rude one! Yes, it definitely seems that the management have been asleep for too long here - this place oozes with potential, and my first experience there tells me that it has all the essentail ingredients of an amazing little restaurant! Food however can be hit-and-miss. In general you will either love or hate your dish! Pizzas are really nice in general, as are most pasta dishes (beware of the small portions of pasta - prices have gone up you know!!), the hummus with minced meat is fantastic, as is the steak with creamy mushroom sauce - avoid the Frito mixto like the plague, it is awful, I have seen people order it twice and tried it on these occasions myself - carbonated pieces of almost unreognizable seafood!
Nevertheless, With more attention to detail and a re-think of the fusion menu, this place could be brilliant again, and I hope it will as the premises has a sort of old-worldly charm and with a little attention paid to cleaning up around the dining areas, it could make all the difference!
I totally disagree with you both. I love their food and service. Yes I understand that somethings may take a while but jeez people use the time to talk and socialize nuh. If its fast food you want then go eat some Burger King .
Enjoy the experience .....
I feel I need to agree with the first two postings here. This place is nice, but service is really pathetic sometimes. I think I also got the rude server last time I went there. And yes, sizes of meals have decreased.
Do I sense some sarcasm from the author of the third comment? I can assure you that going to a fast food outlet is certainly not the answer to the concerns expressed in the first two postings here, as they are also shared by the blogger. Jamaica is already too dependent on fast food places - no more KFC's please!!!! All we want from Chez Marias is a little bit more attention to detail and service. And yes, it is lovely to enjoy some banter with friends and family there, but I can also assure you that NOBODY who goes to a Jamaican restaurant expects to be served promptly, but Chaz Marias is obviously taking the biscuit here.
My last visit to Chez Maria's was with a small group of people. They had finished their main courses by the time I got mine! Although my meal was nice, this is still suggestive of very bad service - there was no apology for the tardiness of my food either.
Sorry guys, Chaz Maria's needs to improve to retain the respect it used to have.
Chez Maria is one of my favourite restaurants- for Lebanese/Medi cuisine the food is vastly superior to Habibi Latino, and I find the prices generally quite reasonable compared to similar places in Kingston (although they're all way overpriced). I've never had any service-related problems, the staff has always been friendly and attentive. I do agree they could use a little more training in some things, but for me at least the shortcomings are minor. I do agree with the criticisms re. furniture and decor and those sort of things- the place could be made considerably more interesting.
Food wise, some comments:
The best pizza in Jamaica that I've had
I don't eat the pasta typically so I can't comment
The calamari is not good- way overcooked (Cafe Aubergine on the other hand has excellent calamari)
Wouldn't mind a few specials and menu updates from time to time
The Lebanese stuff like the fatoush, shankleesh, baba ganoush, lebneh, hummous, etc. (pardon my spelling) is OUTSTANDING
Great idea for a blog! Keep up the good work...
And re Chez Maria, I'd have to agree with last poster...the Lebanese food is 100% consistently great and Gregory at the bar is 100% consistently great with SERVICE.
I agree totally...a restaurant should define itself to one particular type of menu. Chez Maria is a hodge-podge of cuisines and it reflects in their ambience and their service. i would not return there any time soon. They need to rethink their restaurant, and stick with the Lebanese. The name also is pretentious.
I am looking forward to following up on this site as I have a keen interest in restaurants but feel that Kingston and Jamaica tend to leave me high and dry.
I hope that restaurant owners join this site and use it as a free tool to help improve their restaurants. I also look forward to adding future comments on my opinions of dining out in Jamaica.
BTW...keep the polls going...add new ones!
I would like to big up Chez Maria, you have the best Lebanese and Italian cuisine. The Hommos, Babghanouj, Fattoush ... out of this world, your Pizza is great thank god finally I can eat real Pizza.
The Fillet Mignon with the cream and mushroom sauce is perfect can't stop eating it over and over.
I had a problem one time with a waiter and the management came and dealt with the situation, actually that waiter is no longer there.
Chez Maria keep up the hard work and I am looking forward for you next special fish night or Shawarma Night.
Chez Maria your the best, I visited your restaurant four years ago and today I still come and eat sometime lunch and dinner.
I meat the familly that owns Chez Maria and I can say that they are great people to meat and get a touch of Lebanon and the Lebanese culture.
God Bless
I don't know what some of you people are talking about, chez maria is a great restaurant did anyone of you check the gleaner critics about Chez Maria? if not check it out
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070419/cook/cook4.html
Chez Maria in my opinion is one of the best restaurants in Kingston.
I've been to many "authentic" Lebanese restaurants in the US and Canada and I can assure, as a person from that persuasion, that none of them have ever been as good or consistent as Chez Maria. The fact that almost all of the local Lebanese dine at this spot speaks volumes for the quality of the food.
Gregory as bartender is one of the best you'll find. He is both pleasant and efficient. Some of the Italian menu items and the Calamari are not recommended and a few of the staff should be replaced, but hellooo we ain't in NY city folks, remember that most restaurant staff have never sat at the other end of the service. Yes, you can find faults with Chez Maria but if you want the best Lebanese food,and tiramisu in Jamaica, look no futher.
I personally think that both Chez Maria and Habiba Latino serve poor examples of quality Lebanese/ Med food.
I look forward to the day when someone opens an authentic Lebanese restaurant in Jamaica as to date, there are none that I would go to more than once.
I am a Lebanese that came 3 years ago to work in Jamaica. I never knew that I could find a Lebanese restaurant in Jamaica, but when I was introduced to Chez Maria I was very happy to meet the Lebanese owners and eat the real Lebanese food. I don't know if the person in the previous comment knows anything about Lebanese authentic food! Did you go and eat Lebanese food in Lebanon? And for your info "Habiba Latino" is Habibi Latino and it is not Lebanese food but a copy, the food is cooked by a Syrian/Jordanian chef, not even the owner is Lebanese!
Please before talking about authentic Lebanese food go down to Lebanon and try the food first.
We are lucky to have a Lebanese authentic restaurant that has Lebanese chefs and we as small Lebanese community coming straight from Lebanon love the food and can assure everyone that it can't be more authentic than that. Keep up the good work Chez Maria and remember that you can't please every single person; some people will never be pleased even if they eat at a Lebanese restaurant in Lebanon.
Certainly good criticism in the previous comment, yet at this stage in our discussion of Chez María's and the popularity of the blog in general, I fear we may become aware of possible restaurant owners leaving fantastic comments about their own places. But in this case I am sure the comments are genuine, most people love the Lebanese offering at Chez María's. Pizzas are good too - needs a good overhaul though, and I don't think we can forgive waiting staff because they haven't eaten in many restaurants before - this is a proper profession which needs adequate on-going training - obviously this doesn't happen at Chez María's or most establishments around Kingston for that matter. And when you think about it, unfortunately, those who choose waiting as a full-time preofession around the world I imagine do not frequent restaurants on a regular basis due to high prices and relatively low wages in comparison, therefore why should Kingston be an exception to the rule? Service is a huge problem in this city. With some efficient training, staff should help to eradicate this majorly disappointing feature of the Kingstonian dining experience.
I agree with this last comment.
The big pitfall of Chez Maria is the service. The food of this place is relatively good, but the service is really atrocious.
This is not only a standard and lack of training. The owners and managers ARE responsible for taking care of this issue.
Pay closer attention to the service you offer. A good restaurant always depicts an effort in maintaining quality standards, which really translates into coherence in the delivery.
Chez Maria started well, but they have fallen to be consistent. This is BAD management!
I remember one of my first visits to Chez and was surprised of the quality of ingredients and the food and also the decent portions.
One of my last times, on top of enduring the rude service, I had to put up with the somewhat stupid explanation of one of the servers pertaining to the amount of food that was served to me.
She dared to say to me that food was expensive in the market, hence they had cut down on the protions.
Owner: this is not the clients' fault and it is not something that we need to know.
It will be enough to increase the price on the menus or find a suitable situation, but paying 1200for a laddle of pasta IS not really adequate!
C'mon, be serious!
I've only been twice...the first time was a disaster with terrible spaghetti carbonara (it looked and tasted like noodles in glue) and really bad service (the servers served patrons that entered the restaurant after us...it was so bad, people began to wonder if it was because they were White - yes, it's sad when the race card gets played)
The second time i went I had the pasta with artichokes and capers and such (i'm now a vegetarian) and it was lovely. The service was still lacklustre at best, with the server mixing up our orders and seeming clueless (HEART or wherever servers are training - unnu need to pull up your socks)
Ok...first of all i will speak for the people in Kingston that all love going there.I have been going there for years.It's like being in the old country and having mom cook the food for you right there in the kitchen.Besides most of the people in Kingston going to these well know restaurants are not always going for the food.They feel it's a good place to be and be seen...maybe get their picture in the paper.;-)Anyway,we all have to eat so that what it's really about.
Seems like we have a few hater's of the arab food in town.Most of the people in Kingston go to marketplace thinking that it's the best place to eat.We all know people go to a place like that just to been seen.They really don't know food.So CHEZ MARIA get's a 10 an A+.Stop the haterzzz!!!
Such a variety of opinions.. My experience however - Good food, slow servers and a kitchen that can't keep up with large parties. I'm sure going there with 2 or 3 persons would be fine.. but prepare to wait if you turn up with 10 or (as I did) 25 people. When it finally arrived however, I found the food very good. I had no problem with either portion sizes or the quality of the food itself.
There was also the server who deposited a full tray of drinks all down my back. I won't hold that against Chez Maria however as they were all noticeably concerned and sufficiently apologetic.
Overall (excluding the drinks down my back), I gave them a 6/10 - all because of the very long wait my party had to endure.
I think the small portions issue here is a relatively new thing, so those of you who haven't been in a while may not have noticed, and for some weird reason the problem seems to be confined to pasta dishes! I asked for Shrimp Alfredo last time, and while there were plenty of shrimp, there was VERY little pasta. Maybe the price of pasta HAS gone up??!!!
Having read ALL the comments above (and I certainly have recommended Chez Marías to friends in the past, so I'm not a 'hater'), it seems fair to suggest that Chez Marías is not the place that it used to be, and has taken a slight nose-dive service-wise over the past few months - fair to say?? Those of you who really adore the place are possibly regulars - fair to say?? I have heard on the grapevine that if they know you at Chez Marías you get much better service, which is understandable to a certain degree, but upon reflection is no way to run a restaurant - the food served to those who go less frequently should be just as good as the meals served to say friends or acquaintances of the owners - fair to say?? I agree that getting to know the people who own your local restaurant is a great bonus, and fair play to the owners at Chez Marías for really taking an interest in their regular customers, yet somehow I fear that those who have only been once or twice do not share an even remotely similar experience of the place.
To those people who love Chez Marías, I understand where you are coming from - food tends to be really nice, and the ambiance of the place is great, but you must also allow the place to receive some fresh criticism from those who are commenting on the restaurant from a more recent perspective, those who have eaten there for the first time in the past year for example. All the negative comments above generally highlight two recurring negative aspects here - SERVICE is quite obviously inconsistent (and at times dreadful), while food portions have become smaller for some key dishes. Indeed, these comments are meant to be constructive - many complain about service, while admitting to loving the food, and vice-versa, and nobody has stated that they will not return, so those who love the place should be a little more openminded when somebody expresses an opinion contrary to their own.
As for 'wanting to be seen at Market Place', I find that while this may be true in some cases, the vast majority of us would rather go to somewhere like Chez Marías if there were more places like it on offer. I personally find Market Place awful - while I love the concept, the complex itself is unappealing to me (not to mention parking when it gets busy), so I would much rather go elsewhere, yet I genuinely love some of the restaurants such as EAST, hence I'm obliged to frequent Market Place. Most of us want good food, and will go wherever to get it.
I will certainly go back to Chez Marías, but will definitely pay more attention to how I'm being served, along with the quality (and quantity of course) of food, thanks to all of the comments above.
I initially heard about Chez Maria from a friend of mine, who said that "It was the worst dining experience that they had ever had!"
A few months later I was invited to go there by a group of friends. I went along hesistantly, but with an open mind.
I was not impressed by the decor, the music or the staff, but the food was good. The hummus was divine! I had the chicken parmigiana, which was excellent. Seasoned and oh so tasty!
I became a regular at Chez Maria even though, the food quality was inconsistent and the service was poor.
The "straw that broke the camel's back" came when, I decided to eat there on Saturday.
I cannot recall the name of the dish I ordered(wonder why...), but it was a pasta with chicken and sausage in a pink sauce.I love it, and order it all the time.
All I have to say is I took one bite and it was so spicy my head was on fire!! I guess the pieces of scotch bonnet gracing my plate should have tipped me off...
I called my gracious waiter, who removed the dish.
On receiving the bill, I realised that we had been charged for the dish that I had not eaten. I asked the waiter, who pretty much couldnt explain why I had been charged for the dish.
Jamaican restaurants need to realise that customer service is key. There is no way I will be putting up with poor service. I have therefore blacklisted Chez Maria, and will not be eating there anytime soon.
I sympathize with these last two reviews - I agree completely with their opinions as the two of them seem to have liked Chez Maria, but not so much any more. I find myself in the same situation. I used to love going there but have been unhappy with the service and while I enjoyed my meals, some of my family have not. My fiance chose the shrimp spring rolls as a starter and they were just horrible, so I shared my delicious hummus with him - is this inconsistent or what! My pasta dish was good but a bit too small, and pizzas were nice. Having complained about the spring rolls, we were still charged for them, and when I made a fuss the waitress told me that I had eaten most of it (the reason we had eaten most of it was because we let the family taste how awful they were, and initially didn't want to seem rude by complaining). They were not expensive, but of course this attitude made me angry, and I had to complain to the management which left a bitter aftertaste as I hate to complain, but in this case I felt it was necessary. So beware when returning food to the kitchen at Chez Maria as they will still charge you for it. As I write this, I think I have come to a decision. I don't think I will be going back there for a while.
You guys live in a dream world...
Where in Kingston you can find international cuisine?!?
Honestly... you can find 'nice' or 'ok' places but no place here - including the "so called best place to eat MAC's" - is amazing, impressive, international quality... forget it!
Comment: MAC's is the most ridiculous place I've ever been. Expensive and the food is crap! The little deli is even worse! That food is there for ages - afterall, the average jamaican can not afford to buy there every day -and the girls in the staff think they work for Pastis in NY... tsc tsc tsc... poor people...
What jamaicans need is to stop pretending you have good restaurants. If you want good food, go to Miami...
Back to reality now, guys...
Ps: Chez Maria has a nice staff, the owners are good people and the food might not be heaven on Earth but is decent and the price is reasonable...
I lOVE CHEZ MARIA! FOOD, SERVICE and QUALITY are EXCELLENT!!
I go there at least twice a week!
It's the best Lebanese restaurant in kingston!
No need for me to go anonymous, it is patently clear, that some of the comments are being made by STAKEHOLDERS of Chez Maria. It is a pathetic and puerile attempt at shoring up the obvious defects in service and lack of quality of some of the dishes.
This approach is worrisome for several reasons. It suggests that Chez Maria is not customer-centric. The defect here is clear, instead of addressing these concerns, the approach is to heap scorn on those who are merely seeking quality and consistency. Secondly, another obvious misunderstanding of the Jamaican consumer is giving less while charging more! One only has to remember that the world's most famous fast food chain - MCDONALD'S - had to ignominiously exit after several years of trying to woo Jamaicans from the Big Whopper to the their itty bitty burgers. The fact is, while we will leave the food in the plate or ask for it to go (now who still does that) we like to believe that we are getting our money's worth.
Finally, based on just the scandalous attempts by these people, I would never set foot there!!!
Fair enough - Chez Maria's may offer good Lebanese food, but its not my thing - I prefer Italian food, and what I have seen and eaten there is not all that good.
Chez Marias is NOT EXCELLENT, and
SERVICE is DISGRACEFUL - how can so many reviews above be wrong - explain that for me please? As pointed out in the last comment, we are not looking for perfection, but a little consistency and good service would go an awful long way!
We decide to write a small comment to let you know that Chez Maria is reading but not posting this our first post.
I would like to apologize for any bad experience that some of our customers experienced.
I would like to assure all of you that we are happy to hear all the negative post much more than the positive post, because they are pointing to a problem that we are (5 family members) working on day and night to improve, and I can definitely tell you that it is a big challenge. We will not give up we will keep on trying until we can give our customers the best service we can give, It's not because we are in Jamaica that we have to use it as an excuse for not having a good service. Jamaican staff can do better and as good as international waiters but they need more time to learn.
I would like to ask each person that had a bad experience to please talk to one of the members of the family so we can fix the problems efficiently.
We are not going to claim that we are the best restaurant, all what we are trying to do is to give you the best quality food and service we can. We appreciate your help in informing the management about any bad service in the future because we care about our customers and we want to improve.
Chez Maria’s Management.
My hats to you Chez Maria!
Comments like the one that you have just posted give me that motivation that I needed to go back to your restaurant and enjoy.
This is all that we are looking for... a dining experience that end up in a pleasant one.
Thanks for your post and for your intention to improve your service and food quality.
Thanks to all the persons who added up to this review and I invite you to try Chez Maria and give them a feedback on their efforts!
Again... thank you.
Jamaica Gourmet,
Our thanks to you for your post about Chez Maria. Your post and the comments show that people like Chez Maria and want us to improve on some areas.
I like your motivation and yes I want everyone to keep on visiting us and why not talking to us personally and tell us where we need to improve and give us their opinion and advises.
We do not know it all and we need to hear from our customers, we work hard to please them, not only by giving them quality food but also good service.
Each person has good and bad idea’s we need to listen to all of you and see how we can make use of the ideas, so please communicate with the management.
Every single customer feedback is important and we take time and consider each critic seriously and work on it.
As a matter of fact since I can’t be beside each waiter, I created a small form that takes couple seconds to fill, where I am asking customers about the service and food with a small comment/suggestion area. This will hopefully help us to improve on every single complaint; we want each one of you to leave with a big smile and satisfaction.
Thank you.
wow, that is a great response from Chez Maria...just for that i will go there more regularly. i had not added my voice before because i've generally enjoyed CM, its ambiance, its food. i like the two different cuisines offered, the pizza is a welcome change from the Hut and Domino's and the Lebanese food is great. i haven't been for quite a while ever since i had one of those slow food experiences.
so i'm glad that CM is so open to criticism. This can only be a good thing, how else do you know that there's something to improve? In a nation quite hostile to criticism this is so refreshing!
Sometimes the key to good service is a better wage than other restaurants offer. CM might consider this in addition to the training of course.
Looking forward to my next visit!
i look forward to
Annie Paul,
We appreciate your post, you are right when you said that we are open to criticism. This is one of the key to be successful, by opening our heart and listening to our customers’ complaints we are able to know a lot on what is really going on and fix the problems.
Our goal is to put a smile on each customer face, we feel hurt and sad when we hear about some unintentional behavior, that’s why we need to hear from each one of you.
Positive comments are great but don’t help to fix a problem, that’s why we ask our customers to talk to us and meet us.
Chez Maria is a family business and at anytime you can see at least one of the owners around to try to communicate and talk about everything, some customers for example ask us sometimes to join their table, offer us a drink and ask us about Lebanon and about the Lebanese life style. Some people ask me about the experience that my wife and I went through when my son was stuck in Lebanon in the 2006 war. And many other subjects and we enjoy it.
Chez Maria will always try it’s best to give the best they can, this is our only business that we depend on to live, we cannot afford to make any mistake that will put an end for Chez Maria, you can imagine how important this business is to us.
Thanks again for the post and support and we are looking forward to see you all and why not meet, listen and talk to you all, don’t be a stranger we are couple feet away from your table.
OMG... these posts saying bad things about Chez Maria just show how Jamaican customers have NO CLUE about good food - just think about your "top 5 fave" rests here... i wouldn't be able to name 3!!!
Jamaica - the country of "ackee and salt fish" (ewwww!), the country of "jerk-everything"... C'mon! WAKE UP, JAMAICA!
I'll definitely go back to Chez Maria. MANY TIMES!
I would like to commend the personal comments from Chez Maria's owners, and am delighted to hear they are reading these reviews. This demonstrates that all of our queries may be addressed where possible, and what more can we ask for than the chance we have to personally critique their restaurant when we go there, so for this I say WELL DONE!
To the owners, I have a few personal comments I will address in person, but as I will be away for a while I will do so here in the meantime.
Reading different peoples opinions regarding your restaurant reveals that you have a very well established and loyal client base. However, first and foremost, it seems that service is causing great concern for many of us who have not met members of your family personally. Having read the above comments, I'm sure you are now keeping a closer eye on the service staff, but I would like you to consider the following in relation to this area:
1- Please, if possible, where food or drinks are returned, please remind the servers to immediately strike the item(s) in question off the bill. Most of us think long and hard before complaining about food or asking for it to be sent back, therefore please do not allow servers to add insult to injury by charging for unwanted product(s)on the bill afterwards. One of your servers refused to remove an item we wanted to return from the bill, stating we had 'tasted it'! I understand and appreciate that you will welcome our queries with open arms, but this simple complaint is something which should happen at waitress-customer level, without the customer having to feel awkward about approaching a member of management for a more successful response.
As you may have read above, many of us have been disappointed with some of the portions being served -pasta being the main concern. I too was disappointed with the shrimp Alfredo which was absolutely delicious, and plenty of shrimp, but very little pasta, not as it used to be! In this case I suggest, as another reviewer has, adjust the price slightly to cover the extra cost of ingredients. Please please please tell the servers to stop using 'the price of food in Jamaica having gone up' as an excuse! We know this already, many of us unfortunately have to pay the exorbitant prices at Loshusan and Sovereign Center on a weekly basis. As another reviewer put it, that is not my problem.
As for servers - this goes for Jamiaca in general, it should cost them nothing to give us a smile, and when being thanked, to acknowledge our praise, or when being asked a question, to stop and give the customer their full attention. Where service charge is applied, I tip less (about 10%), unless the service has been good (lets say I haven't tipped more anytime recently in Jamaica) but this disgusts many servers, and I have had to endure their silence until we leave the building! I do feel however, with more direct attention and observation from the owners/management, it should keep them on their toes and in return help them get a better tip.
Food wise, almost everything I have tried at Chez Marias is delicious - your pizzas and pastas are excellent, as is your selection of Lebanese food. Not to mention the hommos - it is the best in Jamaica! There are two items I personally didn't like, and funnily enough they have been discussed above too. Please try your Fritto Misto again, maybe you may see why I was not really satisfied with it. Also, I love spring rolls, but yours are not that nice in my opinion, so maybe you might try them again and see if you like them for yourself, or if they deserve a place on your wonderful menu alongside your otherwise great-tasting food.
I will certainly be back to your restaurant soon, and best of luck with tweaking the changes at Chez Marias. It really is a great place, and with a few minor improvements, and the major problem of your servers, it could be amazing!
I agree with the last post - those shrimp rolls are nasty!! Like most of the other food tho
Honestly some of us Jamaicans don't know anything about "Savoir Vivre". Some of you people need to learn that there is some words that can't be used when talking about food. Like the word "Nasty", please go learn about Savoir Vivre and how to express your self criticizing. No wonder that who uses the word "breed" for human will use the word "Nasty" for food. If you don't like something about any food in general, learn to say the word NOT NICE or DOESN'T TAST GOOD. Food is a blessing thing that we have on this earth and we should not use certain words.
For example I don't like chicken foot should I say its "N...." NO WAY but I will say it doesn’t taste good or it’s not nice.
I am a very good customer of Chez Maria I appreciate their hard work in bring to this Island a new cuisine and the food is great.
Chez Maria I know you are reading those negative comments where some of them people has some haters against your food, maybe because they hate Middle eastern people, but keep up what you are doing, I appreciate your open mind in listening to us and trying to do better to please us.
By the way for who are complaining about the serving pasta, I can assure you I share my plate with my husband each time and we are full, how can someone be mean with pasta while the dish has lots of shrimp, come one ask for extra serving of pasta if it is not enough. 2 days ago 4 of us shared 2 seafood Alfredo dishes and we were full.
Jamaica Gourmet, I think Chez Maria deserve better, I hope you will visit them and let us know about all their hard work in trying to please us.
Jamaica Gourmet,
How can you allow posts with this type of Nasty language!
OMG... am I seeing right:
"I agree with the last post - those shrimp rolls are nasty!! Like most of the other food tho"
I can't believe there people nasty like that!!!
"tho" what is that word?
It look like that there someone duty to post negative post each time Chez Maria get a positive one, HAHAHA
Some anonymous are the same, reposting to make sure that the negative posts are enough to cover the positive ones.
Anonymous posting over and over, ask for extra pasta, hahahahahaha
There is a restaurant downtown name SUE FA, they serve lots of rice and gravy and a small piece of chicken may be this is the type of restaurant you need to visit.
Chez Maria I am from Portugal, we love your food, thumbs up to you and forget about those persons that hates you.
I love your post it and respect Jamaica Gourmet for their respond.
Happy to report that i visited Chez Maria (incognito) with a friend from Miami last night and we had a great eating out experience. the amaretto sours were perfect, the baba ghanoush delectable and the sicilian pizza out of this world. i brought home four slices which i look forward to devouring today...
negatives: the pita bread was a little dry; i got bitten by some vicious mosquitos that took set on me. we were out in the garden and because of the heat i did have on a minimal top. just a warning so you can go prepared, i mean there is litte that CM can do about this, i would hate for them to spray the place with toxic chemicals.
BUT the service was very good, the waitress actually asked us to fill out a form assessing her performance so CM is certainly acting on the criticism it got.
will be back soon and next time i might identify myself.
Congratulations Chez Maria, I am admittedly one of the few people here who has not been entirely satisfied with my experience there, but I was back over the weekend and things are definintely on the up. I have always loved your food, my only disappointment rested with the service. This time service was much improved, our waitress was friendly, smiling, and very efficient. Food was a little slow coming out, but it was busy, and I actually appreciate the extra time as it gives us the chance to enjoy the whole experience of dining at your restaurant amongst friends. Mosquitos were annoying us a little, but it was worth getting bitten to enjoy the beautiful garden setting as the sun went down, Kingston at this time of year is great, and even better when you can enjoy the electric evening sky with a nice meal and good company - I'll be back very soon.
I reluctantly went for dinner at Chez Maria again the other day, but things were much improved. There seems to be a few new memebers of waiting staff who were polite and friendly (such a change from my previous experience)and the management seemed to be really making a great effort to ensure all diners were being looked after. What more can we ask for?!
Foodwise all was great, with one exception - my portion was small, but I also have a big appetite, so can't complain really! I'll be back again asap!
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