The Friday dinner began on a low note, with one of the longest delivery times despite the restaurant being a 5-minute drive from our place. Luckily, having endured a couple of system crash leading to cancelled order experiences the weeks before, we knew to put in our Uber request early – 5:20pm by the time to final confirmation button was pressed. Hence, when the order was delayed two times (at the restaurant’s request), everything still arrived by 6:40pm (compared to the original latest delivery time of 6pm).

As an aside: A big thank you to Muhammet of Uber Eats, the third driver to visit the restaurant, who contacted us to let us know why other drivers were leaving and proceeded to wait another 5-minutes for the order to finish.

Was the meal a particularly complicated order? I didn’t think so. Two entrees of jerk chicken and oxtail, an extra side of jerk chicken, and roti shells.

Maybe it was the plain roti ($4.75) that led to the delay. Since Scotthill Caribbean Cuisine offers these as a main, I would have thought they could be prepared easily. In retrospect, they were dry and mealy and was only edible after dipping them into the thick complimentary vegetable stew. So, if the roti is what’s holding up the kitchen, I suggest dropping it as a side to simplify operations.

Scotthill’s jerk chicken ($15 for the meal and $8 for an extra leg) doesn’t hit you with a punch of flavour. It’s definitely not bland. Rather, instead of just relying on heat, the seasoning tastes of a complex mixture of spices - the allspice and nutmeg (?) creates a subtle earthy finish that also has a fragrant element.

While the restaurant does provide hot sauce on the side (and boy does this have heat), I wish it was built into the marinade to begin with so that it combines with the other spices and into the chicken better … perhaps I should have painted the hot sauce onto the chicken instead of drizzling it on top?

The oxtail ($22) is meaty and deliciously braised in a savoury gravy. Scotthill adds diced peppers into the sauce that gives an extra boost of flavour to the already tasty rice and peas. Oh, and the plantains… the caramelization is amazing and so sweet and soft that it could be dessert. Forget the roti, get plantain!