Root and Bone Visited 12/21/2015 4.5 Forks

Root and Bone  200 E 3rd St., New York, NY 10009

Finally, a good review to write!  I know I've had a few bad experiences lately but luckily my team outing was at Root and Bone so my streak has been broken.  My work team has had this holiday tradition of always having fried chicken for dinner, so this year instead of going to someone's home and ordering chicken, I suggested that we go to Root and Bone.  It's a win for me because I don't have that many fried chicken loving friends left in the city and I get to cross this place off my list of places to try, so it was an extra treat for me.

We got there at a totally random time for "dinner" - 3pm, so clearly it was empty when we got there. The place is adorable - very rustic, cozy, and charming - exactly you would expect from a Southern theme restaurant.  They used old elementary school chairs,  had Victorian plates as the place setting, had white washed walls and of course mason jars as cups.  As for the menu, it's also what you would expect from a Southern restaurant:  buckets of fried chicken, biscuits, mac and cheese, collard greens, meat loaf, etc.  We ordered 2 full fried birds (no waffles), shrimp and grits, biscuits, waffle fries and deviled eggs.  This meal was definitely not for the faint of heart.  The deviled eggs came out first and they were delicious.  Perfectly whipped and seasoned and the egg white seemed to have been flavored/dyed with beet because it was purple.  One order comes with 3 pieces, so definitely order at least 2 orders because you will find yourself popping at least 2 in your mouth without realizing it. Next came the waffle fries and as a true fry addict, there's nothing that gets me more than a really crispy and delicious waffle fry.  It was lightly sprinkled with herbs and served with some addictive aioli type sauce.

One of my co-workers didn't eat chicken, so she got the shrimp and grits and of course we all had to sneak a bite.  It was a huge dish and some of best shrimp and grits I've gotten in the city.  There were several large pieces of Gulf shrimp that were really well cooked and tender.  It was on a bed of creamy, ham flavored grits - so really a true delicious Southern meal.  Next came the biscuits - which sadly I didn't try because I was trying not to eat so many carbs knowing that I would demolish several pieces of chicken.  But it looked fluffy, dense and amazing.  It was served with roasted chicken jus as a dipping sauce and the biscuit was sprinkled with fresh thyme and sea salt - I could see myself eating the entire serving if left alone with it.  Finally, the star attraction:  the fried chicken.  We got 2 birds, so there was plenty of pieces to go around.  They looked and tasted amazing - juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside.  They are sweet tea brined for an element of sweetness, lemon dusted for a hint of acid and then served with a tabasco honey sauce.  The batter wasn't too thick and not too salty - even though I love chicken skin, to me great fried chicken means getting to the juicy center with just a hint of crispy skin on it., which is what I got here.   It was an all around heart stopping and delicious meal.

Overall, I'm super happy to finally get to check this place out and even happier that it broke my streak of mediocre and uninspiring meals lately.   Although I wouldn't normally think of this as a big group, team outing type of place, it was actually really nice to get there early and have the whole restaurant to ourselves.   If you and your stomach and heart can take a meal here, definitely check it out.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Rosie's Visited 12/19/2015 3 Forks

Rosie's  29 E Second St., New York, NY 10003

This prime location in the East Village has gone through several incarnations with the last one being a fairly good Greek place called Boukies.  Now it's turned into a festive Mexican place that as Lav accurately described as a "step up from Tortilla Flats".  They were particularly decorative for the holidays, so I will give them points for being cheerful, cozy and fun for the holidays. 

Even though I was easily able to get a reservation on OpenTable a few nights prior, the place was packed.  The menu is "authentic" Mexican - mostly small plates, tiny tacos, and several platos fuertas. Ordinarily I probably would have ordered something big like a carne asada, but I wasn't starving so I split the memelitas ($6), equites de calabaza ($6), tacos hongos ($8) and the tortitas de platano macho ($7) as well as a side of beans ($3)  with Lav.  I also got the ceviche verde de pescado ($15) for myself - I've been on quite the ceviche kick since coming back from Puerto Rico and feel like I need to take advantage whenever I see it.

The memelitas were 2 small masa tarts filled with charred nopales (essentially cactus or prickly pear), poblanos, tomatillo salsa and queso fresco.  While I wouldn't say it was overly spicy, there was definite heat to the dish but overall the nopales was kind of eh.  It was a fine starter to the meal but it wasn't anything that I found very exciting.  Next came the taco hongos (mushroom) and the ceviche. This particular ceviche was made with swordfish which I found very unusual - swordfish has a VERY strong fish taste and while I can take that level of fishiness, it's not something I would necessarily recommend to put in a ceviche.  While I didn't mind this dish, I would have preferred that they stuck with a milder fish for the dish.  The tomatillo salsa and jalapeño really gave this dish some heat - almost too much heat.  Next I tried the mushroom taco and it was definitely on the small side. The pieces of roasted mushroom were flavorful but they weren't really chopped up very well and I was constantly breaking apart the taco because I'd have to take big bites of the mushroom.  The tortitas de platano macho was plantain fritters with chihuahua cheese in it and it was a tasty gooey bite.  It's hard to go wrong with sweet grilled plantains and cheese.  The equites de calabaza was cubed butternut squash with cotija and chipotle mayo.  It was a tasty dish but I wasn't really sure how or why it was Mexican besides the fact that it had cotija cheese sprinkled on top of it.  Lastly I had a bit of the beans and they were soupy, smokey and tasty - it was just too bad we couldn't have them with the rice because that was cooked in chicken stock, otherwise that would have been quite a killer combination.

Of course we saved some room for dessert and got the churros which honestly were overcooked and dried out.  It completely paled in comparison to the fresh and amazing churros I got in Puerto Rico. But I will say as someone who doesn't really love chocolate, the chocolate dipping sauce was quite nice.

Overall, this is solidly mediocre.  When I hear/see "traditional" Mexican food, I expect to be hit in the face with bold flavors that's not just a bunch of chopped up jalapeños.  I feel like here, they just added a lot of tomatillo salsa to spice up their dishes, which ins't a terrible thing but also not the most creative.  As for the service, our waitress was nice but I felt constantly rushed, which is one of my biggest pet peeves when eating out.  I recognize it's a busy Saturday night but from a hospitality standpoint, it never feels good when you feel like the place just wants you out as soon as possible.   She kept trying to take our plates away before we were finished, dropped off our check before we asked for it, and then someone even came to take our check before we had even put our credit cards down.  I know it's the holiday season, but really they need to chill because I had to wait for my table even though I had a reservation, so the person behind can wait too.  Total bill:  $62/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Quality Eats Visited 12/11/2015 2.5 Forks

Quality Eats  19 Greenwich Ave., New York, NY 10014

My streak of terrible steak experiences continues...first with The Clocktower and now Quality Eats.  I had always had Quality Meats on my list to check out but due to its Midtown location and the fact that I don't really eat steak all that often, I've just haven't gotten around to it.  But when they opened a cheaper version in the Village called Quality Eats, I thought what the hell?  

Quality Eats is touted as "discount" steakhouse which kind of sounds gross but I've always believed that cheaper cuts of meat and seafood can still produce great food if cooked correctly and you get to save a few dollars.  You don't have to have a porterhouse or rib-eye to have a great steak meal.  

Holly and I went super early on a Friday night because according to their website they only had an 11pm reservation left.  Even though it's a steakhouse, it was very funky and casual - there were no white table cloths or formal settings.  We got there at 6pm and they said that we could actually have a prime front seat table as long as we were out by 9pm.  Easy enough.  Most of the menu still had a regular steakhouse feel - shrimp cocktail appetizers, creamed spinach sides - as well as some non-regular steakhouse dishes like patty melts, scallops and grilled octopus.  We started the meal with the crab and avocado ($16) and grilled bucheron cheese ($13).  I had a really hard time deciding on which cut of meat to get but the waitress highly recommended the long bone short rib steak ($25) so I went with that and Holly got either the hanger or skirt steak (sadly I can't remember right now which one).  We also got the haricot verts ($7) because we desperately need a vegetable as well as the baked potato monkey bread ($6) just because it sounded like a fun dish.

The crab and avocado came with nice lumps of jumbo crabmeat, slices of citrus and cilantro.  There was no filler in sight and this dish passed my high MD taste test bar.  The bucheron cheese (goat's milk cheese) was served like a baked brie dish and it came with Arcade Bakery's amazing pear baguette that you can spread the cheese on.  I thought the cheese was a bit on the light side - I prefer much stronger and stinkier cheeses.  I was excited for my steak and I could have SWORN when I ordered it she asked if it was ok that it comes out pink and I said yes but when it came out it was cooked all the way through to basically the point where it was very very well-done.  It was totally brown.  Now this is completely my fault for not saying something and sending it back like Vince did when we were at The Clocktower.  Instead, I painfully tried to cut through this overcooked piece of meat and wept silently each time I did.  There also just wasn't a lot of meat on the bone in general.  I know this is not supposed to be a gluttonous cut of meat but I felt like I had about 3 bites and then the rest of the bone just had tons and tons of inedible parts to it.  I've learned my lesson here and even if it's embarrassing, I should always say something if I don't like the food - especially if it's steak. Meanwhile, Holly's dish looked exactly like what I would have preferred, a nice pink fillet.  She mentioned that it could have used some salt on it which is much more easily fixable than overcooked steak.   As for the sides, I really didn't understand the monkey bread.  The waitress had described it as a something between a baked potato with cheese and bread and that it was served with bacon butter. But when I tasted it, all I could tasted was bread - I couldn't taste the potato or cheese aspect of it.  I did spread a bit of the bacon butter on it which was delicious but it was definitely felt like overkill.   As for the haricot verts - they were actually may favorite part of the meal as they were perfectly tender and snappy.

Despite all this, we felt compelled to get dessert as well.  So we opted for the Birthday Cake ($8). Taste wise this was quite yummy - it's got chocolate malt ice cream on the bottom with confetti birthday cake and then topped with vanilla icing.  But execution wise this was super messy.  It's all built on top of each other and it was served in a tiny ice cream cup with no plate underneath, so every time we tried to take a bite everything would come spilling out all over the table.  Once we got a plate to catch everything it was easier to maneuver the cup and it really does bring you back to your childhood of having ice cream with confetti cake.

Overall, I was pretty underwhelmed with my meal here but honestly some of it was my fault for not calling out that my steak was overdone.  It shouldn't be that my favorite dishes at a steakhouse are the haricot verts and dessert.  That being said, I do like what Quality Eats is trying to do here by bringing more affordable cuts of meat to the public and making steakhouses less stuffy.   Now knowing what I know about their meats,  I would possibly still go back to redeem my meal but maybe stick to some of the more filleted meats or possibly even the scallops, which the table next to me got and it looked amazing.  Total bill:  $98/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

County Visited 12/10/2015 2 Forks

County  34 E 20th St., New York, NY 10003

I'll admit that this review might be a bit on the harsh side - I almost hardly ever really go below a 2.5 fork rating, but there was just so much about this place that annoyed me that it was time for me to give some restaurant the brunt of my anger.  

The B-school gals and I met up here for Beth's birthday and I will say that what it has going for it is that it's in an extremely convenient location on 20th street.  It's kind of crazy (or is it?) that I have never seen or heard of this place before given how close it is to so many things I've visited before. 

Our table was located incredibly close to the door but it was fine enough and fit all of us but it was incredibly loud sitting right by the hostess table and the door.   The menu here is, as you would expect from a place called County, very "farm to table" style and rustic.   We were all starving and ordered the fresh made ricotta ($14) and the salmon tartare ($17) to start.  I'm usually a big sucker for fresh ricotta (especially the one at Locanda Verde) and this one was good but not amazing.  It was served with mint, honey and warm grilled bread but it just didn't taste as farm fresh and light as I would have liked.   The salmon tartare was served on a bed of crispy rice which was so thick that it was all I could really taste in the dish. 

While neither of these dishes itself were terrible, what really kind of put me over the edge about this place were the main entrees.  I had just gotten back from Puerto Rico, so I was craving some traditional American food and when I saw a cheeseburger on the menu, I jumped on it.  It was only later that I processed that it was $25!!  WTF?!  In my book, the ONLY burger worth paying more than $20 in this town or anywhere else is at the Spotted Pig and that one is $22.  Unless this burger is covered in truffles and gold, it's really quite ridiculous to price a burger in that price range.  I must have been in a starving haze because I also didn't realize it was a double patty (which I guess is why they felt justified in charging $25).  I've never really understood why it's necessary to have a double patty if the single burger is meaty and flavorful enough.   The other gals all got the branzino ($29) for their main entree. 

After getting our appetizers, we had waited quite a while for our entrees to arrive and when they did, they were totally not for our table, so we had to wait some more.  When the correct food finally did come out, I was disappointed at what we were getting for such a steep price.  Yes, the burger was quite large.  It was 2 patties with cheddar, arugula, smoked chili mayo, pickles and applewood bacon. This thing was so unnecessarily large, salty and probably enough calories to last me a week.  After eating half the burger with the bread, I just started eating the patty itself but with every bite I couldn't help to think to myself that in no way was this worth $25.  Don't get me wrong, I'm more than happy to pay high prices for food that I think is worth it, but a burger just isn't one of them especially when you can get supremely better one at Black Tap and even Shack Shake for half of the price or less. The fries that came with were also pretty dry and overly salty as well.  I took a look at the girl's branzino and usually when I see that fish on the  menu, it's served whole but here they just gave a small fillet. It also didn't seem to justify the high price tag for such a small portion.   

Overall, I was so not impressed with this meal and if I'm paying $100 (included us paying for the birthday girl), I expect excellent service and high quality delicious food.  Instead, the service was super slow and the food unmemorable and highly overpriced.  Bah humbug.   Total bill:  $105/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp   

Vieques, Puerto Rico Day 3 Visited 12/4 3.5 Forks

Belly Buttons  Calle Flamboyán, Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765   3.5 Forks

I'm usually not a big breakfast person but when I'm vacation (especially a beach or active vacation) I usually indulge in breakfast since I know I'll be doing lots of activities later.  We kind of did the reverse this time where, we drove down to the black sand beaches first to check them out and then went for breakfast in town.  While the breakfast at the W actually looked pretty good and surprisingly affordable for hotel food, we wanted to stay local and stopped by Belly Buttons on the way back to the hotel.  

It's located in Esparanza towards the end of the street.  Similar to a lot of the other casual bars in the area, it's got a open outdoorsy feel to it and is super casual with a bunch of beach chotskies surrounding the walls and ceiling.  Luckily, they seemed like one of the few places actually serving breakfast food, which was great.  We got there around 11AM, right when they were switching over to lunch but the waitress said that we could still order breakfast sandwiches if we wanted to.   We split a Greek salad ($10.95) to start, we each got a breakfast sandwich ($4.95 or $6.50 if you want bacon or sausage) and Deanna and I split an order for fries ($3)  because that's all I seem to crave them I'm on vacation.  The Greek salad was a bit of a bummer - it was not really real traditional Greek salad with big ripe juicy red tomatoes and large chunks of feta, this was more of a garden salad with some crumbled feta and olives thrown in there.  It's fine, I mean we are in Puerto Rico and not the Mediterranean, so I can't really expect it to be perfect.  The waitress had raved about the local baked fresh bread on the breakfast sandwiches and yes, it was soft and delicious but not sure if it's something I would rave about.  It was, however, a very solid and satisfying breakfast sandwich - the egg was nicely fried (not over cooked) and there was a layer of gooey cheddar cheese and for me a thick salty sausage patty.  The fries were also salty, crispy and delicious but totally unnecessary.  

Overall, this is a good local island beach hang if you want to grab some affordable casual food away from the hotel.  The menu is standard fare with basic sandwiches and burgers, but it's what you would expect of a place called Belly Buttons that's on a tiny Caribbean island.  Total bill:  $50 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Tin Box   Carretera 201 S/N, Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765

Although the Caribbean is known of fresh seafood, I usually don't associate it with oysters, raw bar or sushi.  The seafood is usually more grilled or fried fish and shrimp.  So I was pleasantly surprised to find a place that had a different spin on seafood than the rest of the island.  The Tin Box is also located in a random part of town, where 2 of the big main roads intersect in the middle of the island, so it's not in either of the 2 big towns.  When we arrived, the place was strangely full of older fratty men - almost like they were all on a boating outing and just came back to shore.  It felt like I was at a Jimmy Buffet concerts for some reason.  None the less, it's a nice places to check out and I'm sure it's even nicer during the day when you can see the treehouse-like structure. 

The menu is an interesting mix of raw bar, BBQ, ribs, po boys,  sushi, and other entrees.  Totally random. After eating a lot of grilled fish and french fries, I was craving sushi, so I was able to get my fix in here.  They have a fairly extensive sushi menu of a bunch of different kinds of rolls.  I narrowed it down to the lobster roll ($12) and the snapper with seared tuna roll ($13).  Deanna got the marinated tofu skewers ($16) and Allison got a side of cornbread and roasted potato ($3 each). Obviously this isn't going to be some traditional authentic Japanese style sushi and if you go into it with that level expectation, you'll be fine.  The lobster roll didn't really taste a lot like crab, it seemed more heavy on the kani crab meat instead and it also had bits of arugula in it, which was a first for me.  I'm not a huge fan of leafy greens in my sushi but it also didn't bother me that much either.  It was wrapped in soy paper which was a nice touch and covered with spicy mayo.  It wasn't bad and with 8 pieces, it was pretty filling.  The other roll had snapper on the inside and topped with seared tuna - this roll was a bit too heavy on the rice for me.   I did try a bite of the tofu skewers and they were actually really good!  If you are a vegetarian, I would say this is probably one of the better veggie friendly dishes you'll get on the entire island. 

Overall, this place is a nice change of pace from the busy commercial streets in Esparanza and Isabel. Who knew that you could actually get oysters and sushi on an island like this?  Total bill:  $68 for 3 with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Vieques, Puerto Rico Day 1 and 2 Visited 12/2-12/3 3-4.5 Forks

El Blok   Hotel El Blok, Calle Flamboyan 158,  Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765  4 Forks

I had been dying to go to Vieques for a few years now after hearing how laid back and gorgeous it was.  Plus there was a new W Hotel there (which I know, kind of seems to ruin the unspoiled nature of this island but I did really enjoy it there), so I was lucky enough to get a decent IATA rate in Dec for a few days and check it out.   It's a fairly quick plane ride from NYC to San Juan (3 1/2 hours) and then it's a 20 min puddle jumper plane ride away to Vieques.   So you can leave your house and be on the beach by the afternnon which is amazing.   

Surprisingly, for a tiny island that you can drive around in less than 45 minutes there are lots of food options.  I was scared at first that I would be stuck to the confines of the hotel, but there were actually so many great places that I left with a few places still on my list to check out.  As I was doing research before the trip, one place that kept coming up as one of the newer/nicer places was the restaurant at the newly designed El Blok Hotel.  Surprisingly, they were also on OpenTable, so I booked a reservation for the 1st night we were there (although the restaurant was pretty empty, so it wasn't really needed).   Unfortunately we got to the restaurant at night, so we couldn't really see the cool design but it's definitely very modern and unique in structure.   The restaurant is run by Jose Enrique, a 2 time James Beard award winning chef, and the menu is a modern take on traditional Puerto Rican food.   Allison and I ended up splitting the ceviche and swordfish and Deanna got the soup of the day, a large salad and a side of fried eggplant nuggets.  The ceviche was tuna based and was definitely different than the traditional version - this one had coconut milk in it which made it a bit sweeter instead of tangy and sour, but I enjoyed it none the less.  The swordfish was huge and grilled very well - sometimes swordfish can be super fishy and greasy but this one was grilled to a nice tender texture.  It was served with a delicious local green salad and these addictive little fried eggplant nuggets, which was essentially the inside of the eggplant, battered and fried.  It's easy to pop 30 of them in our mouth without even realizing it.  Deanna's salad looked great and very fresh - we were surprised at how fantastic all the local greens were.  This one came with local farmer's cheese and breadcrumbs.  Her soup was a smoked onion and potato based broth which she said she also really enjoyed. 

For dessert, we had to go with the churros and you could see that they were freshly made because they were pipping hot when they arrived at the table.  They weren't covered in sugar and cinnamon like they typically are but they made up for it by giving us giant bottles of chocolate, dolce de leche and condensed milk to pour on our plates.  The churros were soft but crunchy and the perfect vehicle for my sweet sweet mixture of condensed milk and dolce de leche.  Sweet perfection. 

Overall, it was a very enjoyable and contemporary way to kick off our vacation.  I suspect that as PR moves out of rainy season, this place would be more crowded, but it was nice to be able to really relax and enjoy a fancy meal in such a low key island with no crowds.  Total bill:  $125 for 3 people with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Architectural Digest

El Resuelve  Carretera 997 Km 1, Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765     3 Forks

On our 2nd day in Vieques, we rented a Jeep (yay!) and drove down to the local beaches.  On our way there, the nice guy at the car rental place recommended that we check this place out for lunch because it's super authentic and very local.  Right up my alley.

He wasn't kidding when he said it was authentic and local.  It's right off the side of the main road and it's not flashy and has a very mom and pop feel to it.  The menu is mostly in Spanish and even though I understand bits and pieces for Spanish I had a hard time figuring out what to eat.  The nice lady behind the counter didn't speak tons of English and I didn't want to bombard her with lots of questions.  I had really wanted to get an empanada but they were super fried looking and I was headed to the beach, so I tried to be good and instead split a salad with grilled chicken and an octopus salad with Allison.   Deanna got rice and beans which came with a side of fried plantains.  This was definitely by far the cheapest place we ate all vacation and if I had the chance to go back (which I would) I would definitely order differently.

The side salad was totally fine, nothing special.  The grilled chicken was marinated in peppers and onions and while tasty and moist was a bit heavy on the salty side.  I was expecting the octopus salad to be similar to what I had in Croatia where it was served cold and closer to the rare side.  But this was a very warm and very cooked through octopus salad with the same peppers and onion mix.   It was good, just not what I was expecting.  I realized I still prefer the cold version instead.  I had a few bites of Deanna's food and while it wasn't anything fancy, I could see how this was more of what I probably should have gotten.  The fried plantains were excellent and perfectly fried and served with 1,000 Island dressing which I know sounds totally weird and gross, but it strangely worked for me.

I left feeling a bit bummed that I should have stuck with my original thought of an empanada and rice and beans but in my sad and pitiful quest to try to be more healthy, I went for a mediocre salad instead.  While this place wasn't mind blowing, it is worth a stop on the way to the beach and it is a nice respite from the more touristy places in Esparanza.  Total bill:  $23 for 2 people

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Bili Restaurant  Calle Flamboyan 144, Esperanza, Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765   4.5 Forks

When you're in Vieques, the "downtown" area is known as Esparanza which is essentially a very short street with 5-6 restaurants jammed by the waterfront.  This is the busiest road on the whole island but if you actually saw what it looked like you would fall down laughing because it's barely 1/2 a street block in NYC.  In any case, you will find a nice selection of casual touristy friendly restaurants there that range for bar food to upscale.  We had been to Banana's for happy hour and as you would expect from that name, it's more of casual bar but I will say that they had a very delicious and tangy snapper ceviche ($13.50) that I would highly recommend.  Plus for HH, you can get $4 margaritas and watch the sunset or go during regular hours and get a Corona for $3.50. 

As for dinner, we opted for Bili's which is bit on the nicer side.  The waitress was super sweet and nice and walked us through the menu.  Everyone here on the island is incredibly friendly - I guess why wouldn't you be when you live on a tiny super relaxed island?!  We all split a fresh house salad to start ($10) - Deanna will want me to mention that the salad came with these adorable small serving tongs that made splitting the salad really easy.  Again, the salad was awesome and very fresh tasting. Who knew PR had such great vegetation?  Now for the best part of the meal.  Allison had ordered a side of the root vegetable mash to start.  We all took a bite and it was like my head (and heart) exploded.  It's basically mashed potato but made with yucca, cassava, yams and other root veggies. But this was made with like 20 sticks of butter and the different flavor profiles of the root veggies made it taste less starchy than a regular potato and they had a hint of sweetness to it.  We were all obsessed with this dish.  I know I use the word "addictive" a lot on this blog but I would seriously kill for this dish.  Luckily for me, my mahi mahi ($26)  came on a bed of this mash as well as some plantain mojo.  I would have been happy just eating another pound of the mash but mixing it with the nice white flakey fish was delicious too.  I loved the pop of sweetness the plantains gave to the dish as well - I cleaned up every last bite of this dish. 

I'm not sure how I left any room for dessert but I did.  We got a blueberry shortcake which was basically a strawberry shortcake but with blueberry (duh).  The shortcake was nicely done - it was dense but still flakey and paired nicely with cold ice cream.  Sadly the mash was starting to really take its toll on me and I couldn't really eat more than a few bites but I would definitely recommend it. I was really surprised at how fantastic the food was here.  Usually when I'm traveling to the Caribbean or other islands, the food isn't really all that and it's really expensive.  I've been extremely pleased with how great the food has been so far - especially on a teeny tiny island like Vieques where the total population is barely 9,000 people.  Total bill:  $150 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp