We were checking out a street fair in Maplewood, and wound up walking by Pimento Grill. It's a Jamaican restaurant we have noticed when driving around, and we've been curious about it for a while but just never stopped to go in. So we figured a lazy meandering Sunday was the perfect time to check it out.
Perhaps we came too late after the street fair crowds had eaten (though it was only about 1pm), but they said they were out of everything except their curry goat. Any other order would take 30-40 minutes. We were hungry, so we opted to get the goat and a beef patty and come back another time to try some other dishes. We noticed that other people who had chosen to wait for their food to be cooked from scratch got frustrated and left. Perhaps it was taking longer than the 30-40 minute estimate? Even our order, which was supposedly readily available, took at least 10 minutes to come out from the kitchen.
The goat itself was tender and flavorful, and the beef patty had a good flaky crust and didn't skimp too much on the filling. The rice and beans were more like white rice with a few tiny beans thrown in, so we may skip that side dish next time. But the plantains were perfectly ripe and sweet, which created a nice balance for the saltiness of the goat.
We were admittedly a bit turned off by the fact that they ran out of
food on a day when they knew there'd be a lot of foot traffic. Street
fair = crowds. But we kind of respect the fact that the restaurant was
honest about making things fresh. It means they're probably not just
taking stuff out of the freezer and microwaving it. So we won't make it a deal-breaker and plan to return another day to try some other stuff off the menu. Perhaps we'll just call ahead in case there's going to be a long wait.
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