food/drink
DUTCHY’S JAMAICAN JERK SHACK ****
15 North Street, Newport. 01633 215048 / www.dutchys.co.uk
Up a staggeringly steep North St, adjacent to a handy car park, is one of Newport’s
best-kept secrets, but it shouldn’t be. Blink and you’ll miss Dutchy’s Jamaican
Jerk Shack, so don’t blink.
The inside of an old Irish boozer has been transformed into an authentically-styled
Jamaican restaurant complete with sack-covered windows, corrugated tin and
wooden walls. The shack has a well volumed soundtrack of ska, reggae, rocksteady
and lover’s rock.
So where to begin? Start off with a cocktail or two, served in milk bottles (washed
out of course) at £4.50 for a regular, or £6.50 for deluxe. A definite hit, and at these
prices, hit me baby one more time! Miss Chris’s Rum Punch tastes deceptively
fresh and innocent but after a couple of those you feel no pain at all, while a
banana daquiri is suitably lush.
We began with starters of ackee and salt fish – delicious – and followed this with
a dish of prawns with mango: even tastier and satisfyingly buttery, both served in
half coconut shells. Then on to an excellent curry goat and Santa Cruz ribs, with a
piquant hot sauce and such a large helping that we could only manage half. There
were side orders of rice and peas, and cabbage and carrots. The cabbage was
beautifully cooked, al dente and sweet.
The dessert was chocolate, rum and orange cake, which tasted lovely but was
denser and heavier than your average British cake. The accompanying rum and
raisin ice cream was laced with real spirit, not artificial flavouring.
Service was friendly and helpful, and the portions were large enough to snag a carryout for a decent lunch on another day. Be warned, it’s cash-only at the moment, but
at these sort of prices, who’s complaining? The three-course meal for two with three
cocktails each cost £70, including a tip. Happy days. MARK TIMLIN
MÜNCHSTERS ****
22-23 Trinity Street, Cardiff. 029 2023 4000 / www.munchesters.com
From the outside this Indian inspired cafe looks like a place picked out of an IKEA
catalog but, given that, feels simple, fresh and unassuming.
With prices pretty standard for a slightly up-market lunch you can easily get a
good meal at Münchesters, especially if you’re willing to tip over a fiver. Currently
you can get a Meal Deal for £3.50, that includes a drink and either a chicken or
chickpea wrap. Both of these are tasty and satisfying options, the roast chicken
with vegetables and parley is particularly tasty, and is a little like having a small
Sunday lunch wrapped in a chapatti.
Personally I would highly recommend that you forget the meal deal, however,
and go for one of the more exciting wrapped up choices. A highlight being the
stunningly tasty long-cooked lamb. The 24-hour cooked meat is soft, succulent and
slightly sweet and combined perfectly with green and purple vegetables.
The only problem with Münchesters is perhaps that it doesn’t quite know what
type of place it wants to be. Its backbone is in its fresh wraps, which ar