Jamaican Food In Stratford, Ontario

Stratford, Ont. now has a Jamaican restaurant named Olive's. It has a great location less than a block from the Avon Theatre, but, when my mom and I went there at the normally busy pre-show time of 5:30 on Friday, we were the only customers in the restaurant. Two other people came in, looked at the menu, and then left. That was the extent of business during our dinner.

That's a shame because the home-style food was tasty and reasonably priced and the portions were very large. Appetizer patties were two dollars. We then got complimentary salads. My mom ordered jerk pork with rice and beans, and I ordered boneless jerk chicken with rice and beans. You can tell the server how spicy you want it (we like it hot), and Olive came out of the kitchen with some scotch bonnet sauce that we used to liven up the rice.

All of this came to less than $32, and there was enough food left over that I'll be enjoying it again tonight.

The recently opened restaurant is clean and neat, if not classy, and there was a mix of gospel and Bob Marley playing over the speakers. Food can be ordered to take out. One drawback to some may be the lack of a liquor licence.

Olive was very gracious and I'd like to see her succeed. Since I'm sure you can probably count the number of Jamaicans in Stratford on one hand, I'm not sure if it can survive the winter once the tourists leave. And if tourists aren't going now, the outlook isn't good.

So if you like Jamaican food and you're in the Festival City, please pay Olive a visit.