Simon Pruitt
Audio By Carbonatix
We were supposed to leave for Austin at 10 in the morning, which quickly became noon, and then noon turned into 3 p.m. Erykah Badu was playing that night at the ACL Live at Moody Theater, and doors opened at 7 p.m. The idealists among us say that you should get to Austin around lunchtime, hang out in the city, maybe grab a coffee, and get to the venue with plenty of time to spare.
But you know how these things go.
We left really late and hungry. Thankfully, only 25 minutes into the drive, one road sign broke from the repetitive cast of fast food options: an instantly recognizable green, black and yellow Jamaican flag, with “Jamaica Mi Hungry” plastered in the center. We checked the exit number and saw it was only a few hundred feet ahead. Naturally, the only suitable reaction was to swerve the car across three lanes of highway traffic (not recommended) and send ourselves careening towards this mysterious new eatery, drawn in only by a funny name and a proclivity to Caribbean flavor.
Just a few minutes up the road and just a few feet within the Dallas city limits, Jamaica Mi Hungry is the diviest of all dives. It’s presented in an unseemly sandwich between a Cricket and a Metro by T-Mobile store, with a small church just across the parking lot.
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A step inside the restaurant doubles as a bow to the altar of Usain Bolt and Bob Marley, who are each honored on the restaurant’s walls in a massive mural backed by the Jamaican flag. Next to the mural, there’s a small painting of street signs reading St. Mary and Port Maria, a parish and a city in Jamaica. Aside from the nod to their cultural signifiers, Jamaica Mi Hungry doesn’t do much else for presentation. We figured they’d rather let the food speak for itself, and we also figured we’d let the first employee we saw speak for themselves on what the best thing on the menu was.
As the name suggests, the place is a shrine to all things Jamaica.
Simon Pruitt
Jamaica Mi Hungry’s menu offers up the greatest hits from the Caribbean standards. Entree options range from oxtail to jerk chicken to a huge plate of mixed vegetables and mac and cheese. There’s meat and cheese patties, fried plantains, coco bread and oxtail egg rolls a la carte. But we were there for the full Jamaica Mi Hungry experience, or at least the best one we could get. One employee recommended getting a curry chicken plate, which comes with two sides, and we chose mixed vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, squash, zucchini) and rice and peas.
We watched in equal parts horror and hunger as massive portions of each item were dolloped into a black plastic to-go box. A medium portion (which would’ve been a large anywhere else) costs $16.50 before tax, or $18.50 for a large, which we might never be hungry enough to try. Our table was like a Thanksgiving meal, with all those weighty portions mushed together into one delicious concoction.
The curry chicken was amazing, spiced perfectly and served with heaping amounts of sauce, along with potatoes were fantastic. Beneath it all, the traditional rice and peas were an excellent base for the chicken and savory steamed vegetables.
Another stop a few days later yielded a similarly positive reaction, though we opted for the jerk chicken with mac and cheese instead. This month, Jamaica Mi Hungry celebrates its fourth anniversary, a true accomplishment in the restaurant industry.
Next time you’re driving down south, or you’re extra hungry for a stuffed box of Jamaican food (and maybe a bit to take home after), a drive to South Dallas is well worth your while.
Jamaica Mi Hungry, 9702 S Lancaster Road, Ste 110. Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
