Grace's Cottage (Turks & Caicos)

April 26, 2013

This was my second visit to Grace’s Cottage, but the last time I was there was 5+ years ago. Grace’s was the most formal restaurant of the bunch with cushy seats and white tablecloths. The service here also started slow, and from reading Yelp, it didn’t seem abnormal, but it picked up and our waitress was attentive and polite. Anyways, a little tired of sweet tropical drinks and thinking back to my Las Terrenas, DR trip last year, I ordered a cheap Presidente beer. Presidente is eternally associated with beaches, fun and relaxation for me (kind of sounds like a beer commercial in the making!).

There was a special menu that night featuring local/Caribbean cuisine. Lucky me – because I really wanted to keep my meals as local as possible and jerk chicken was on the menu! The spicy vegetable soup to start slightly above average and wouldn’t have been that flavorful without the spice. That particular spice blend, though, was quite good.

Others had the conch fritters, which is probably the most local protein I can think of. I tried a little morsel of these, but the Gansevoort’s ceviche highlighted the conch much better.

The jerk chicken, however, was everything that I wanted it to be. It was juicy and was packed with the most concentrated flavor of chicken and spices. I wanted double the portion, almost asked for some, and then remembered that this vacation is about balance. Also, rice doesn’t tend to excite me but this rice was mixed with black-eyed peas and a hint of spice. It was subtle with that difficult-to-pinpoint subtle flavor that makes you want to keep eating it (kind of like my experiences with good pad thai).

My banana cake was light in texture and banana flavor, which made it a pleasant ending to the meal, but it was not as good as the bread pudding that was brought to the table.