Eva's Caribbean Kitchen

Mr. Bumblebee and I aren't big into Valentine's Day. It's just something we don't go big for. This year was really no exception except that we wanted to try a new restaurant and we decided it would be the perfect day to try something new. So, from a local board that I post at, I got a recommendation for a Caribbean restaurant, Eva's Caribbean Kitchen. Mr. Bumblebee and I had been talking about how much we missed our honeymoon in Barbados. We weren't big into the food there at the time but now we really missed it. So we made reservations and we weren't disappointed. We made reservations and they were pretty booked up apparently because we had to settle for 7pm instead of 6:30 like we had wanted. It's in Laguna Beach right on PCH. Parking was available in an open lot next to the restaurant. The restaurant is themed a filled with exotic Caribbean knick knacks. It looks like a little shack and for a second, I felt like we might be back in Barbados' art district.




It was pretty dark inside and I was using my camera phone so the quality of our pictures isn’t great. We both ordered an Island Caesar Salad to start with.

The salad was so good. There were chunks of pineapples and homemade toasted croutons. The dressing was thick and obviously made with pineapple and perhaps even some coconut milk. It was delicious.

I ordered the Curried ChickenIt was so good. The chicken was breast meat. They were pan fried with banana slices. It was really spicy but the bananas were sweet and almost candied in the sauce. There was also rice and the second I put the rice in my mouth, it took me right back to when we had lunch at the Mount Gaye Rum Factory. It was so authentic. Of course it also included vegetables of the freshest nature.

Mr. Bumblebee ordered the Jerk Pork Loin.It was a tender pork loin roasted in jerk sauce topped with slices of mango and pineapple. The pork loin was served with garlic sweet potatoes and fresh veggies. Holy cow! It was so good. I ate half of his as well as my own food. It was so good. The mashed potatoes were also amazing. It didn't remind me of Barbados' food but it was heavenly.
For dessert we ordered their Cherry Gelato. That was all we really had room for.

After we ordered it, we had realized that we should have ordered two. It was so yummy and full of pieces of real cherries. YUM!
Of course the biggest plus was that they served our favorite Rum, Mount Gaye Rum. They served the rare Dark version as well. So it was so nice to have that in a restaurant setting. Of course we brought home a ton of it from Barbados but it was still cool to find a restaurant serve it too. I had the rum punch, which was nothing like what we had in Barbados but it was still good and Mr. Bumblebee ordered a "Black and Coke" which is Bajan for the dark rum and coke.
So overall, I loved it! It's very authentic food in my opinion and I'd love to do it again for lunch. During the summer they have live steel drum bands performing and the view from the outside patio is beautiful. One thing though, be perpared to be on island time. Service isn't its speediest but it is well worth the wait.