07-11-2018, 12:42 PM
With Izna still not open last night, we decide to try Mark's Caribbean Kitchen, on King between Queen and Frederick. Nice, bright space, and a full bar is available (although we stuck to Grace's Jamaican Ginger Beer). The menu effectively has a "Caribbean" (really Jamaican) section and a generic burger/seafood section; we stuck with the former. Meals come with the choice of rice, rice and peas (Jamaican style, with coconut milk and kidney beans), roti or dahl -- but note that it's not a roti wrap, the roti is server on the side.
The jerk chicken was excellent, tender and moist and with great flavour. I believe McK has their own jerk spice mix, this definitely did not taste like Walker's Wood (or lesser brands of jerk rub). Oxtail was super tender, again it tasted like they had their own touch on the spices, I suspect more allspice than usual. The side order of channa curry was very good as well, and really big enough to be a meal by itself for one of us (we ended up carrying a lot of food home). All three were pleasantly spicy but not burning hot. The mains were $15-18, the channa curry was just $7.
I had my suspicions earlier on, but I do believe the three Caribbean restaurants in DTK (McK, Rainbow and Ellison's) are different enough in terms of dishes and potential customer base that there is probably room enough for all three to succeed.
Now, about that Izna opening date ...
The jerk chicken was excellent, tender and moist and with great flavour. I believe McK has their own jerk spice mix, this definitely did not taste like Walker's Wood (or lesser brands of jerk rub). Oxtail was super tender, again it tasted like they had their own touch on the spices, I suspect more allspice than usual. The side order of channa curry was very good as well, and really big enough to be a meal by itself for one of us (we ended up carrying a lot of food home). All three were pleasantly spicy but not burning hot. The mains were $15-18, the channa curry was just $7.
I had my suspicions earlier on, but I do believe the three Caribbean restaurants in DTK (McK, Rainbow and Ellison's) are different enough in terms of dishes and potential customer base that there is probably room enough for all three to succeed.
Now, about that Izna opening date ...