Let J&F Caribbean Delight take your taste buds to the islands
You know you've found a good spot when the place is popping for lunch and it's the first day back after a holiday week off. J&F Caribbean Delight is off of Mercer University Drive near the Macon Mall and it's nothing fancy, but the food is the star of the show.
As soon as we walked in to J&F, we were greeted with the Eddie Grant voice and big island smile of Patrick, the owner.
He seemed excited to see us, but later we noticed he treated everyone in that same genuine way. He helped us make our choices, told us about how long we would wait for everything to be made fresh, and then hopped back to the kitchen.
We started with their fantastic veggie and beef patties. I could eat these little empanada packages -- made fresh all day long -- for every meal. The minced beef ones have a flakier crust with a little more spice in them; the creamy chicken ones tasted like mini pot pies, with a slightly doughier crust. They were not making the chicken or coco bread ones the day we came, but most days you can get those, too.
We probably should have gotten a little more adventurous with our entrees because we ended up with three chicken dishes: curried chicken, jerked chicken and brown stew with chicken. While they each had their own character, none of them was too spicy and they were perfect with the mound of beans and rice that comes alongside.
Our most exotic dish was the oxtails -- because you can't go to a Caribbean restaurant without getting oxtails. For the uninitiated, this is just very slow cooked beef that tastes like a Sunday roast. If you want to get very authentic, try the goat.
Everybody's favorite side dish was the plantains, just slightly sweet to balance the mild heat.
The strangest entree we had was the national dish of Jamaica, ackee and salt fish. The ackee is a squeaky fruit that looks like scrambled eggs when boiled. The flavor is hard to describe, but it's cooked with the salt fish, onion, scotch bonnet peppers and tomatoes.
The restaurant has at least three daily lunch specials at $4.99 each, which can be upgraded to a larger portion for just $7.50. They also serve collard greens, macaroni and cheese, and fresh steamed vegetables. We also enjoyed the chicken wings, which were very large and meaty at only 60 cents each.
J&F can take you on an inexpensive culinary trip to the islands. It's tucked away in a hard neighborhood, but don't let that frighten you off. The food -- and Patrick -- will make you glad you came.
J&F Caribbean Delight
Address: 1686 N. Atwood Drive, Macon
Phone: 478-476-1108
Hours: 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday
Payment: Cash, credit
Smoking: No
Alcohol: No
Kids Menu: Yes
Noise Level: Low
Health Rating: 96
Price range: $3.50-$9.99
Rating: 3 stars
This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Let J&F Caribbean Delight take your taste buds to the islands ."