Jamaica Blue – http://www.jamaicablue.co.nz/store-locations/

Reviewed by Karen – August 2015

The Place:

Jamaica Blue is a franchise.   You can find them located in a number of malls throughout NZ, Australia, the UK, China, Singapore and many more countries! The one I dined out was in the mall in Porirua.  The seating is inside only and not what would be considered fine dining or even a traditional cafe setting.  It’s literally located in a space in the middle of the mall.  There is some cabinet food to chose from and quite a big menu also.  There are vegetarian options as well.

The Service:

The staff were not very engaged and came across as somewhat rude.  I had the impression that I was an inconvenience rather than a paying customer.  When I discovered that they had forgot to serve me bacon I went up to the counter and said “no bacon”. The waitress gave me a blank look and said “oh what do you want?”.  So I said “well, I paid for bacon, so I want bacon” (note – I paid $4 extra for bacon and $3.50 extra for mushies).  Where is the customer service?

The presentation:

The picture on the right is version one where they omitted the bacon and hollandaise.  The picture on the left is version two where my new dish came out with bacon but the hollandaise was omitted again!  Nonetheless, both versions of the dish looked absolutely awful, unappealing and like the food had literally been chucked onto the plate.

• The Benedict – What do I say?  Both versions were a disaster!
• The eggs – version one – the egg whites were still translucent.  Version two – the eggs were overcooked but at least the yoke was delicious and runny.
• The bacon – Version two – when my bacon did arrive there were two small rashers that were okay, nothing special.  I thought the bacon was expensive for the minimal quantity I was served.
• The spinach – good quantity of spinach.  The menu advertises this as wilted spinach, but I would tend to call this a tad overcooked.
• The hollandaise – after receiving version two of my my dish it still came without the hollandaise.  The packet hollandaise was brought out and a spoonful of sauce was warmed up and served in a tiny container.
• The bread – the toast was a bit hard.
• The mushrooms – were delicious.

Would we go again?

Certainly not for the bene.

Scorecard:

Style: Classic 6/10.

Taste: 3/10. The meal was cold by the time I finished it.

Originality: 4/10 – there is nothing out of the ordinary about the benes here.

Value: 8/10. The Florentine (spinach) is $13.50 which is great value.  All variations come with spinach.  The Benedict (bacon) is $17.50 and the Montreal (salmon) is $18.  Sides range from $2 to $4.50 which is pretty reasonable.

Eggs: (how good they were): 2/10.

Overall score: 2/10

North City Mall, Porirua.