If you live in and around Kingston, AC Hotel Kingston, Jamaica may be well known to you.
Whether you’ve been there or not, it has become one of the it places for work, meetings and meet ups alike. In the 2 years of the Covid 19 Pandemic, AC Hotel may not be seeing the late night drinking crowd it usually saw before, but it remains the go to place if you want a work area during the day, in the mood for a nice dinner or even a drink.
I only recently have started going to AC Hotel whose lobby and outside area is the main attraction for persons who aren’t staying one or more nights. Though for me, I’ve mostly spent my time there with my laptop or for the occasional meeting. During the days and early afternoons you’ll see persons of all ages with their noses buried in their laptops or small groups having lunch meetings. Later in the evenings the dinner and afterwork crowd coming for food and drinks.
Usually I go early in the morning, head to the onsite Starbucks adjacent to the lobby and pay 1USD more per drink than at other local Starbucks and spend a few hours “pretending” to do work or catching up with a friend. So far I’ve had food from them twice and the first time was so bad. I had the Char Grilled Smoked Pork Chops (25USD), covered in scotch bonnet BBQ sauce and served with Parmesan dusted truffle fries and coleslaw. I can’t even find a picture of the meal to show you, but I didn’t like it. The pork chops were like rubber and bright orange/red and salty.
The fries were good though.
However I did decide to give them another go and was much more pleasantly surprised!
For our appetisers we shared Fried Calamari (15USD) and a serving of Truffle Fries (5USD). The fries aren’t out of this world, they are chunky but thankfully not soggy. They get the job done
Calamari however- if you follow me on twitter you know I’ve been on the hunt for the best Calamari in Jamaica- the Calamari was one of the best I’ve had, only rivalled by the one sold at Fromage Bistro on Hilcrest Avenue. The coating was light, crispy and perfectly seasoned and went well with the lime. They served it with a white sauce that was similar to a tartar sauce. I enjoyed the entire thing. The serving size was also enough to share and these two on their own could have sufficed for a meal.
For our entree we decided on a Cesar Salad with two servings of grilled chicken, the extra grilled chicken was 8USD and the Cesar Chicken Salad was 17USD. Apart from this odd presentation with the cheese, this salad was absolutely delicious, the chicken breast was not only flavourful but moist! Honestly would buy again. Large portion size and filling.
I had the Rigatoni Pasta Puttanesca with Pan- Seared Salmon Fillet (31 USD). Honestly? This dish was absolutely delicious, with- and I’m taking this directly from their menu- spicy tomato ragoût, herbs, Kalamata olives, anchovy, capers and Parmesan cheese. I can’t even pronounce half of these things. I would 100% get this dish again, I was able to get two servings from it and feel full each time. Their salmon was perfectly crisped on the top and very juicy.
We had non alcoholic daquiris for 5USD each and were nothing to really write home about.
Now for my breakdown, I’m trying to have one standardised score sheet to score each restaurant.
Covid Protocols: 6/10
It depends, if its empty its a great place to social distance but it can get pretty packed and while you may not be a sardine in a tin, if you can avoid going later in the day I would.
Service: 8/10** amended to 9/10
I only took off 2 points because it’s slow especially if its pretty busy. However, the staff are some of the best in terms of costumer service. In fact I think I’ll amend that score to 9/10 because of the service I’ve gotten since going back.
Ambience: 8.5/10
It’s a nice hotel lobby
Food: 9/10
This time I had zero complaints and would eat everything again 10x over
Price: 7/10
You pay for what you get, prices are quoted in USD and are definitely a bit pricy but they also have pretty good food portions.
Overall: 8.5/10
I 100% would go back.
Check out their menu and follow them on Instagram.
Have you been or do you plan to go?
With Love,
Samantha
