There are numerous great extravagant restaurants out in the world that can captivate and deliver top notch service and delicious meals, and even though Tropical Grill Jamaican Restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama may not be that “extravagant” restaurant, it can deliver all the other qualities that make an experience at the restaurant memorable. As all magnificent restaurants will do, Tropical Grill pulled me in from more than just one direction. Of course, the cuisine is Jamaican, so I knew I would be primed to enjoy my visit before walking in through the doors of the Bessemer restaurant.

Prior to experiencing the restaurant for myself, I investigated some about the place itself. On the Tropical Grill’s Facebook page, I still have yet to find a review that rated it lower than a four star. It appeared that everyone’s personal experience at Tropical Grill was extremely favorable. When I finally decided to check it out for myself, my friends and I located the restaurant in Bessemer. The joint was a hole-in-the-wall kind of place and so it appeared so downtrodden that we were not sure if the place was even still open or not. There were no large advertising sign outside and we could have easily missed the place and never even recognized it had we not been following a GPS to its precise location. Inside, the restaurant gave me an authentic feel of Jamaica; I remember my experience if the country in 2014, and this place gave me nostalgia. The restaurant was stocked with just enough booths for a dozen or so people. Tropical Grill was almost completely empty, aside from the two African American construction workers and the college student working behind the counter. It was a restaurant where you pay and get your dish at the counter, which sufficed me. I was not there for fine dining fancy service. I was ready to get my food and dig in.

My friends and I knew hit it off with the guy behind the counter. He was an African American guy that was close to the same age as myself – 22 years old – and was telling us he was a student at UAB and had actually learned to cook Jamaican cuisines after his family visited Jamaican a few years ago. Immediately I felt comfortable about the service of Tropical Grill and knew my dish would be cooked with care. I ordered the jerk chicken with broccoli and rice with peas as sides; my friend, Drake, ordered curry chicken with white rice; and my other friend, Marissa, ordered pineapple chicken with macaroni and cheese and white rice as her sides. The food was freshly cooked and the wait time was brief. We seated ourselves at a booth in the corner of the joint and when the guy yelled our order a short time later, I walked up to the counter and took a glimpse of our food on Styrofoam plates and knew instantly that this was going to be a meal that would leave a lasting impact on me: not only did the jerk chicken look delicious and the vegetables were fresh, but the plate was just stacked with food. It was going to take an extra mouth and three stomachs in order to chow down all the food.

My chosen dish –jerk chicken –is Jamaica’s signature cuisine worldwide. Tropical Grill smothers their chicken in jerk sauce, and though it may look like it is too much at a first glance, this chicken is the most authentic Jamaican jerk chicken I have tasted since I last visited in July 2014. Everything about my dish was real Jamaican cuisine. The chicken tasted like it had been marinating in jerk sauce for hours prior to our arrival. There was a clear blend of rich, Jamaican spices and seasoning mixed in with the ingredient of the sauce, and this provided the jerk chicken with that authenticity that I truly admired. The taste can be compared to having a well marinated barbecue full of flavors with a hint of thyme and pimento. The curry chicken was a great rival to the deliciousness of the jerk chicken. The curry powder has a distinct flavor due to combinations of both savory and sweet spices, which differ slightly from the jerk sauce. Savory spices that are absent in the jerk chicken are spices like cumin, turmeric, and bay leaf. Combine those with cinnamon, clove, and pepper and it provides that curry flavor. I could distinguish a taste of onion, ginger, and garlic in the curry sauce which is the Indian influence in the Jamaican curry. The Tropical Grill’s curry chicken was coated too much in the sauce for my liking, but it was still an elaborate dish that I enjoyed and would rank it right behind the jerk chicken as one of the best Jamaican dishes. The pineapple dish that my friend Marissa had was what caught me off guard. After studying the Jamaican cuisines, I had never came across a pineapple sauce for chicken. Being a person that does believe pineapple goes on pizza, I just do not see pineapple going on chicken. I took a bite of the chicken, and even though it was not bad at all, I am still not a fan of fruity chicken. The sauce tasted too much like pineapple too me. I was able to scarf it down and return to my jerk chicken, the top dish of them all.

The hole-in-a-wall restaurant of Tropical Grill was quite an extraordinary experience when experiencing an authentic Jamaican atmosphere and an authentic Jamaican cuisine. The extremely friendly service made me feel like I was right back in Jamaica, and the scent of jerk sauce and the lusciousness of the jerk chicken took me back to when I was stuffing my face with the cuisine every day of the week on vacation. I know that if I am looking for a restaurant that will provide me with an easy location, friendly hospitality, and authentic Jamaican food, I will be attending Tropical Grill. If I am looking to fill myself with the top notch jerk chicken in particular, to a point where I can only waddle out of the restaurant because I am so stuffed, I will be visiting Tropical Grill Jamaican Restaurant in Bessemer (Birmingham), Alabama.