Feeling Irie at Jamaica Gates?

Jamaica Gates

1020 W. Arkansas Blvd.

Arlington, TX 76013

So Katie and I went on vacation to Dallas for five days in April. Our purpose for the trip was to see the sights, go to a hockey and baseball game, and of course, find and sample the best food that big D has to offer. This is part six of seven in our Dallas series. So sit out that line dance, and enjoy this special edition of Eating My Way Through Dallas.

When you think of Texas, you obviously think of Jamaican food right? Okay, maybe not, but after watching Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, this had to be added to mine and Katie's list of restaurants to try. We were going to Arlington to watch a Rangers game, so we made a point of stopping by to see if this could be two places in a row that Guy Fieri steered us in the right direction.

Jamaica Gates is in a large shopping center that has seen better days. It looks like this place used to be a fast food place converted into a sit-down restaurant. Jamaica Gates had about ten people eating there when we arrived on a Friday at about one o'clock. The overzealous/odd waiter really steered us towards the lunch buffet. The buffet was $8.92 and seeing as all the entrees were over $12.92, this seemed like a great deal. Let's get on to the food.

Before we hit the buffet, we ordered the Three Item Portland Sampler. This consisted of the following three items.

The first item is the Sticky Citrus Wings. These were really great. The wings had a decent amount of meat on them, but the reason this was so good was the citrus sauce. Really sweet and had an awesome flavor. I could have eaten about twenty of these.

Next was the Fried Plantain. I must admit that I am not that big of a fan of plantains. These were okay, but Katie liked these a lot more than I did. They were mildly sweet.

Lastly, we had the jerk shrimp. I liked this item also. The jerk sauce was good, and the shrimp were cooked right. I could have eaten a lot more of these also.

So this was my plate from the buffet. The highlights were the Gates Curry Chicken. This really had a distinct flavor that was not too over-powering. The only complaint I had about this was the tiny bones that were left in this dish. I had to be careful when eating this. The Rude Boy Jerk Chicken is on the left of the plate. Very good sauce once again and the chicken was not of the highest quality, (the piece I ate had a lot of fat), but it was really tasty. The two side items were just average. The rice was plain tasting, and the cabbage was all right, but both of these really heated up when I added the product below.

This pepper sauce was very good. It really made the rice and cabbage come alive. I will have to see if this is available in my area.

For dessert, we chose the Pineapple Upside Down Cake. This dish really helped put out the fire after having more than my fair share of the pepper sauce. Nice and sweet, this moist cake was very good.

I liked Jamaica Gates. It was nice having something different, something that you do not have every day. I do not think that their food is top of the line, but the sauces really make this place memorable. I also liked that this place is authentic. You can actually picture this meal being served in Kingston or any other city in Jamaica.

So out of five Doctor Birds, (the national bird of Jamaica, see you learn stuff on food blogs!), five being best to zero being worst, Jamaica Gates gets 3 Doctor Birds.

For more information on Jamaica Gates, click here: http://www.jamaicagates.com/