RESTAURANT REVIEW BY CHINYERE OBINNA

LIFESTYLE By Chinyere Obinna

Denizens of Queens and its environs may rejoice! A new restaurant is setting the bar for casual dinning in a family friendly, cheery setting. Just established in February of 2007, the Tropical Grill, Located at 143-28 Guy Brewer Blvd is already beginning to carve a niche for itself in the neighborhood dinning scene as the place to unwind and satisfy that yearning for some good home Nigerian cooking. Judging by the constant stream of diners that crowd into this small space, it doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that this eatery is destined to give other Nigerian eateries a run for their money. The location is just right- across the street from the Rochdale Village cooperative apartments, on Guy R Brewer Blvd, in Jamaica Queens. Aptly named the Tropical Grill, this restaurant is reminiscent of a tropical locale, with its brightly lit interior, small, bistro style tables set along the mirrored, toffee painted walls, and friendly wait staff. It combines the art of casual dinning with the panache of a full scale restaurant, equipped with a large screen plasma television set that provides uninterrupted entertainment – sports, Nigerian DVD movies and music videos for their eat in clientele. And the food? Ah, the food.

Their 43 menu items run the gamut from a mélange of exotic indigenous Nigerian fare- think isi ewu (goat head, marinated in a robust sauce of palm oil blended in a combination of mouthwatering spices), and other items like ugba and stockfish (a rich medley of thinly sliced oil bean slivers, drizzled with a richly seasoned sauce and garnished with wedges of tender marinated stockfish in spicy sauce). Other items on the menu include the Nigerian standard fare like jollof rice, moi-moi, spicy goat meat, spicy stockfish, pepper snails, fish stew with tomato sauce, egusi, ogbono, okra and bitter leaf soup, served with the choice of pounded yam, eba, fufu, or amala. However, the proprietress of this eatery ratchets it a step further. The adventurous menu also explores other African cuisine that traverse the Western coast of Africa, while making it their own. The Liberian style okro soup or the Liberian style hot soup combo, made of shrimp chicken, dry fish, beef and crawfish are worth a try if you have a yearning for the exotic. The Nigerian style tropical coleslaw and the chicken combo salad, or garden salad would be a good accompaniment to any of the items on the menu. On the sea food side, the fish soup, the grilled or fried snapper or tilapia or the fish pie are all what the doctor ordered.

I ordered a wedge of stockfish with a side of moimoi, and for good measure, I also tried a bit of the spicy goat meat and the egusi soup. The moimoi was a balance of spicy seasonings rendered in a fluffy textured slice that just woke up my taste buds.

The stock fish was just the right balance of tender and spicy, served piping hot in a rich red sauce. The egusi soup was a rich tapestry of exotic seasonings in a steaming bowl, and the goat meat was the perfect combination of tender and juicy The taste? Just yummy. I have to mention that their portions are quite large, so be prepared to take home some. They have a take out menu and will accommodate you if you request a take out bag.

I also rated the restaurant on cleanliness. Their bathroom is tucked away behind their kitchen, but they accommodated me by letting me pass through the bustling kitchen, which was alive with activity from the various chefs, and into the bathroom. Their bathroom is one of the cleanest that I have seen in New York City restaurants, and was just spotless. The gleaming wastebasket in the bathroom was the kind with the step on mechanism so that you do not have to touch the wastebasket after washing your hands, and that extra touch really matters. Most restaurants that I have visited in NYC are not that considerate.

LONG STORY SHORT. This restaurant, which is just emerging on the scene, is definitely worth a return visit. I would recommend it to anyone in search of genuine Nigerian cuisine in a clean, friendly environment.

The Tropical grill restaurant

134-28 Guy Brewer Blvd

Jamaica, NY 11434

Phone 718 949 1683

Owner/Chef Bimbola Izevbehai