Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

New Jamaican spot is not like the old one

Go with the jerk chicken

Bony goat and boring sides. Plantains shouldn’t be your favorite part of this plate.
Bony goat and boring sides. Plantains shouldn’t be your favorite part of this plate.
Place

Rock Steady Jamaican Restaurant

2820 Market Street, San Diego

No sooner had I lamented the departure of my neighborhood Jamaican restaurant, Island Spice, to another part of the city that I noticed another had taken its place.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Rock Steady Jamaican offers a spruced-up dining patio and small finished parking lot, but in many other ways it resembles the old Island Spice, including the menu, which features large and generously portioned “small” plates at $12 to $14 dollars apiece. From what I gather, while the owner of the building has remained the same over the years, the owner of the restaurant has not, and when the Island Spice proprietors moved to Rolando their landlord took over the space with his own Jamaican concept.

A thatched roof storefront and new deck grace Rock Steady Jamaican, formerly Island Spice Jamaican.

I went in looking for the barbecue chicken plate that used to thrill me at Island Spice, but while curry, brown sauce, and jerk chicken remain, that option has left the building. Not that I mind, as long as there’s an oxtail plate available — which there is, except they were out of oxtail the day I showed up.

This too would have been fine, had I just gone with the jerk chicken. My friend did, and when I tried his I found it tender, juicy, and flavorful. I even liked it better than the Island Spice jerk, if I’m splitting hairs.

Unfortunately, that’s where the favorable comparisons ended. The side dishes served at Rock Steady look the same as Island Spice, but they don’t taste like it. The mostly-cabbage sautéed vegetables I had previously enjoyed were more bitter than savory, to the point I didn’t bother finishing them. The beans and rice were somehow more bland, while the plantains…well, honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference.

I know I’d have come away with a fuller belly if there’s been oxtail, because there’s not often a chance to devour the uniquely aromatic, almost floral tasting beef. Stymied there, I went with the second most exotic dish on the menu, curried goat.

I’m accustomed to finding some bone in stewed goat dishes — apparently it’s tough to avoid if you want to get all the meat off the lean animal — but this curry was more gristle and bone than flesh. I did my best to dig through it, to gnash what meat I could off the chopped up chunks, but I had to spit out splinters and other fragments with most bites.

It might be worth it for the flavor, but in this case the tepid curry didn’t justify the imperfect chew. I eyed my lunchmate’s jerk chicken enviously and proceeded to a last resort: I filled up on plantains.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Will L.A. Times crowd out San Diego U-T at Riverside printing plant?

Will Toni Atkins stand back from anti-SDG&E initiative?
Next Article

Pet pig perches in pocket

Escondido doula gets a taste of celebrity
Bony goat and boring sides. Plantains shouldn’t be your favorite part of this plate.
Bony goat and boring sides. Plantains shouldn’t be your favorite part of this plate.
Place

Rock Steady Jamaican Restaurant

2820 Market Street, San Diego

No sooner had I lamented the departure of my neighborhood Jamaican restaurant, Island Spice, to another part of the city that I noticed another had taken its place.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Rock Steady Jamaican offers a spruced-up dining patio and small finished parking lot, but in many other ways it resembles the old Island Spice, including the menu, which features large and generously portioned “small” plates at $12 to $14 dollars apiece. From what I gather, while the owner of the building has remained the same over the years, the owner of the restaurant has not, and when the Island Spice proprietors moved to Rolando their landlord took over the space with his own Jamaican concept.

A thatched roof storefront and new deck grace Rock Steady Jamaican, formerly Island Spice Jamaican.

I went in looking for the barbecue chicken plate that used to thrill me at Island Spice, but while curry, brown sauce, and jerk chicken remain, that option has left the building. Not that I mind, as long as there’s an oxtail plate available — which there is, except they were out of oxtail the day I showed up.

This too would have been fine, had I just gone with the jerk chicken. My friend did, and when I tried his I found it tender, juicy, and flavorful. I even liked it better than the Island Spice jerk, if I’m splitting hairs.

Unfortunately, that’s where the favorable comparisons ended. The side dishes served at Rock Steady look the same as Island Spice, but they don’t taste like it. The mostly-cabbage sautéed vegetables I had previously enjoyed were more bitter than savory, to the point I didn’t bother finishing them. The beans and rice were somehow more bland, while the plantains…well, honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference.

I know I’d have come away with a fuller belly if there’s been oxtail, because there’s not often a chance to devour the uniquely aromatic, almost floral tasting beef. Stymied there, I went with the second most exotic dish on the menu, curried goat.

I’m accustomed to finding some bone in stewed goat dishes — apparently it’s tough to avoid if you want to get all the meat off the lean animal — but this curry was more gristle and bone than flesh. I did my best to dig through it, to gnash what meat I could off the chopped up chunks, but I had to spit out splinters and other fragments with most bites.

It might be worth it for the flavor, but in this case the tepid curry didn’t justify the imperfect chew. I eyed my lunchmate’s jerk chicken enviously and proceeded to a last resort: I filled up on plantains.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tiny Home Central isn’t solving the San Diego housing crisis

But it does hope to help fill in the gaps
Next Article

Why Unified® Review: What To Expect Dropshipping (Positive & Negative)

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.