West Indian in Atlanta

I had the pleasure to be in Atlanta in May for a family reunion. It was also the weekend for the West Indian Carnival and, as luck had it, there was a Jazz in the Park festival. This all meant that the aroma of home cooking was every where. When my brother and I went looking for lunch, we struck out. We didn't enter the food court of the Carnival because of time constraints. We did find a homey cafe along the main drag to the food court, but it was crowded and understaffed.

As the sun set, we decided to have dinner at a spot we had Googled earlier. Finding Chef Rob's Caribbean Cafe at 5920 Roswell Rd in the Sandy Springs area of Atlanta was a challenge. Rob's is a combination restaurant and catering service. It's in a small shopping center and has a small patio with outdoor seating facing the parking lot.

No surprise, the dining area was small and intimate. At 5 pm, we had a choice of seats. The staff was polite, but inattentive. We asked a lot of questions, but our waitress didn't think it important to explain and sell the menu items to us. She just stood there like a statue and wrote down what we selected. (Any of you thinking of opening a restaurant, the wait staff is important to your success!)

Thank goodness for the food. It was good and authentic, with a blend of jerk , seafood and vegetables. The signature drinks were excellent, especially the mojitos: at $8 for a 16 ounce glass, a clear winner. You can also order a pitcher of mojitos for $24. Our server didn't entice us to do this.

The menu was a fusion of Caribbean dishes and spices combined with Italian and other dishes to create a nuevo style. Our group of five ordered a combination of plates. Italian dishes weren't the kitchen's strength. The pasta in the jerk chicken-shrimp fettuccine pasta was overcooked, but the well-seasoned chicken and shrimp made it tasteful. The kitchen aced other dishes. The coconut fried shrimp starter at $8 was good. So, too, was the grilled shrimp drizzled with a pina-colada sauce and served over grilled pineapple.


Chef Rob was offloading a catering van as we were leaving. He is a Jamaican who moved down from New York, and has catered events for many of Atlanta's growing hip-hop stars. There were various restaurant reviews on the walls of the restaurant. He was trained at the Culinary Institute of America.

While dinner had its flaws, Chef Rob's Caribbean Cafe is definitely worth a repeat visit.