Chez Ali — Restaurant in St. Louis

When this place opened, every single publication and influencer in town was raving about the Jerk chicken, so of course I wanted to try...

But it's trash! Easily the nastiest food I've ever been served. I took one bite, swallowed, started another bite and then spit it out and threw away the whole plate. Anyone that knows me, knows that I never Never NEVER waste food. I will eat almost anything if I'm hungry enough, or just to feel like I'm not throwing my money away. But this left me no alternative...i spiked the container into the trash can with extreme prejudice!

I thought that in Caribbean cuisine they 'wash' or rinse the chicken first, but clearly not here. As I inspected the meat, it was completely full of bone fragments and the unpleasant scum around them, cooked blood / bone marrow / organ meat etc. Whoever chopped it up had a very dull cleaver, and just threw it in the pot without trimming anything.

I got cabbage and another side, both flavorless. Beef samosa was dry so I threw it away with everything else.

Don't believe the hype about places! Clearly food influencers and local journalists don't know what they're...

Flavors were excellent, no denying that, BUT, there were dozens of chicken bone shards throughout our dishes and multiple pieces of chicken still had feathers on them, so we were unable to actually eat our meals. I'm sure some folks enjoy the extra challenge, but that was the most painful and nearly tooth-cracking meal we have ever had. I talked with the young woman at the counter and she was "politely" dismissive about my concerns without resolving the issue. See photos of bones meticulously picked out of rice and sauce and some of the chicken feathers. We spent more time avoiding bones than eating, and threw away most of our meals. A refund or offer to remake on a future date after making a new batch with better quality control was all I was asking for, but that didn't happen.

Also, there were no dividers in the styrofoam container, so all the cabbage, chicken, sauce, and beans & rice blended together into one mess. While still good flavors mixed up, it would have been nice to actually try the individual components separately.

0 stars for quality/safety/enjoyability of food, slopping food together, and refusal to resolve...

So I had been here multiple times to pick up food for me and my partner since I saw it had good reveiws, I didnt have a great experience the first time and wanted to give them another chance- so I did and they disappointed me again, so this is a summary- I went and ordered oxtails with rice and peas and cabbage both times, I know oxtail is expensive but for 54$ and some change about for 2 plates of oxtail you would expect 1st and foremost a decent amount of oxtail- and 2nd that the oxtail would be cooked well- the oxtail they gave us only 2 big peices each time , with huge peices of fat that were not trimmed, I can deal with some fat but not HUGE fat caps- they were not cooked nearly long enough as the fat hasn't even had time to render/braise- and giving a huge portion of rice which is super cheap doesnt equal money worth for what they are charging, they give small amounts of oxtail and its not cooked well - i really don't have anything positive to say- I was very disappointed and felt cheated for my money- if you want good oxtails go to my maries instead-Needless to say I...