Jamrock Restaurant & Grill — Restaurant in Accra

The food at Jam Rock is awful. They are expensive for nothing and the food was not hot when served. I had a violent reaction to the food from Jam Rock just hours after eating there and will not be spending any more of our hard earned money on this fake Jamaican experiment. My relatives also reacted badly the next day. Two days later I was still experiencing severe symptoms.

The samosas we ordered were drenched in oil, the tilapia was so salty that it was inedible after a few bites. The coconut milk rice and peas were undercooked (especially the peas!) and lukewarm, the jerk chicken was served lukewarm and had a strange taste as though it needed to be cooked longer. The plantain was the worst I’ve had in my life, I don’t know how a ‘Jamaican’ joint can ruin plantain so colossally. My food did not taste fresh at all.

All this and they have the nerve to make their food so expensive. Other joints that serve proper - and thoroughly cooked - food don’t have ridiculous prices. Jam Rock is barely a drop in the ocean of restaurants in Accra and is seriously overhyped.

Their cocktails are not even cocktails - the margarita tasted like cloudy lemonade with whatever white spirit they had available. No one at our table who ordered a cocktail had anything positive to say about their drinks and that’s not coincidental. They should also scrap their mocktails because if a restaurant can fail with cocktails, then the opposite wouldn’t taste any better.

Jam Rock is going to have to seriously review their food handling and safety measures and standards because whatever they think they can get away with is going to blow up in their faces. I wish I could give this joint zero stars but this review is more of a warning than anything else.

As for service, our waiter was very competent and made sure our orders were correct. I have to point this out because most servers at restaurants in Ghana will stare at you and nod as you tell them your order and then bring out something completely different from what asked for. Our waiter was serious about his job and it is refreshing to see that kind of attitude in such a young person in this country. I sincerely hope he carries that into his other endeavours.

The atmosphere was decent, we sat at one of the booths by the pool which was comfy. However, these booths would benefit from more lighting for nighttime (there was only one light bulb) and fans that have higher settings to counter the humidity. The live saxophone player was a nice touch, he was very talented.

Sadly, their food was not memorable and certainly not worth the money we spent. If only this place could realise...

My first experience here was amazing so good that I wanted to bring my family back with me .. however, the second time was very disappointing.

On my first visit, the owner greeted me at the door, and made sure everything was that of a wonderful experience. Everything was fresh, hot and served promptly! The drinks were great, and the music was good.

The second time I came back with my family. The place was not clean. We sat at a booth and the overwhelming smell of urine. We had to move, and it still smelled. The tables were sticky and dirty, and the Afro beats music was so loud and obnoxious . .. I asked the DeeJay if he could play some reggae music being that we were in a “Jamaican” or what I thought was a Jamaican establishment and was told that we have a night for Reggae music and I am in Ghana. Meanwhile, my flag is plastered everywhere and so are my Jamaican icons… Our food arrived. Everything looked the same. I couldn’t tell the pork from the chicken and the rice was cold and hard. And then they served it with a side of fish sauce that I thought was jerk sauce and poured it all over everything and that made it even more horrible!! Why would you serve a fish sauce with poultry and pork???

I literally wanted to cry because I was raving about this to my parents.. the service was lackadaisical and unattended. It took 45 minutes to get the bill and we had to go look for our server. It’s just unfortunate because the ambience is really beautiful. However the consistency isn’t. There is no such thing as “Ghanaian fusion food” our seasonings are completely different, and they don’t taste well together with that being said, the only thing that kind of tasted Jamaican to me was the curry.. the onions and green peppers on everything is wild and typical for Ghana garnish but Jamaican people cook with that and don’t like raw vegetables on our food.. especially red onions! I understand that seasonings may be hard to get here such as our thyme, pimento, and scotch bonnet pepper.. those are the quintessential ingredients for any Jamaican recipe without those you will never get the flavor of Jamaican food authentically!

Do with this review what you will ..like I said the ambience is beautiful. However if you’re going there looking for real authentic Jamaican food, that you...

I was so excited to try their food that I called the restaurant to find out if they were doing a Mother’s Day event to ensure it wouldn’t be too crowded on May 12. When I showed up the hotel was hosting a Mother’s Day event that dominated the whole place. As a result, we were restricted to their small indoor space and a tiny table. I ordered the watermelon juice, which was good and came promptly, however, everything went downhill after that.

What we ordered: Fried yam, this was lukewarm. I didn't understand why but we were so hungry from the wait that we ate them quickly.

The second order: was rice and peas with curry goat, curry chicken, turmeric rice, and jerk chicken

The problems:

The food took too long to be served

The food was not hot but lukewarm and cold

The quantity was so small

The rice and peas were not fully cooked

Why provide two curry sauces with only one rice therefore we had to order a second rice that was very small and lukewarm.

The jerk chicken was not jerk chicken nor was it fresh and it was cold

The curry sauce was way too runny it was like soup at this point

They delivered the food without providing enough cutlery and plates

With all the staff there we could not get any assistance as they were busy watching the Mother’s Day event rather than checking on their few customers.

I asked to speak to the manager many times which fell on deaf ears as I was fed up.

We asked for the food to be heated up and it took forever and still came back lukewarm without any cutlery

The whole experience was the worst I have had in Ghana. They then provided me with a bill of 470 to pay for my bad experience. I blame myself for staying after the lukewarm yam, the food was bad and was not worth the price. I hate paying for cold food and food that is not fresh when dining in. Jamrock you have some work to do when it comes to training your staff. Please improve on the food I would be willing to let the bad customer relation go if the food was great, this was a big letdown highly...