lilys | Johnny Prime

First, check out my Ride & Review video for this spot HERE:

My wife and I have walked by this place a bunch recently, and it reminded us of a smaller version of Miss Lily’s. The food looked great, and my best friend from growing up said that he heard great “tings” about it, so we had to give it a try.

Omar’s serves up Caribbean and Jamaican food in a small, casual and lively spot on Clinton Street just below Houston. The cocktails are awesome. This Scotch Bonnet pepper margarita was incredible. A perfect balance of heat, sweet and savory refreshment.

These Scorpion Pepper wings aren’t as spicy as you might think. The sauce is really nicely balanced here, so you won’t hand numb lips and watery facial orifices after eating. The meat is also insanely tender – almost as if they were stewed.

I also loved this salt fish hush puppy type things. Perfectly friend. Light and dense at the same time. Very satisfying.

These hibiscus sorrel lamb chops are as unique tasting as they are beautiful. A combination of earthy Indian and bright Latin/Caribbean spices that marry beautifully on tender, nicely cooked chops.

The real star of the show, though, is the coconut curry with oxtail and dumplings.

This was insane! The dumplings ate almost like Korean rice cakes, but a bit less chewy. Nice little logs of free-form dough, soaked with the rich, deep flavors of the curry. Delicious.

We will definitely be back here again. What a spot! The only negatives here: (1) all of our dishes came out at once, apps and entrees at the same time, and (2) the music is a bit loud if you’re seated inside. Go for dinner, stay for drinks!

OMAR’S KITCHEN
29A Clinton St
New York, NY 10002

This is just a quick and dirty review of Miss Lily’s jerk ramen. The verdict? Jerkworthy. Really fucking good. Take a look:

So what we have here is jerk chicken, pork belly, shoyu marinated ackee, egg and fermented scotch bonnet paste in a jerk broth. Jerk broth… Hehe…

Every element was fantastic. The chicken was flavorful and juicy. The pork was nice and fatty. The shoyu marinated ackee, which I had to google, is a fruit. However it was presented in such a way and with such interesting texture that I thought I was eating some kind of offal meat like kidney, fois gras or brains. It was freaking great! The egg was perfectly cooked. The scotch bonnet paste, I thought, could have used a bit more spice to it. I was expecting HOT. But if you need some spice, just add he “rass hot sauce” to your bowl and you’ll be good to go. The broth was really flavorful and hearty as is, but the sauce really punched it up.

We also had the coconut grilled jerk corn, which was really tasty – sweet and savory/spicy at the same time.