J&J Jam'Soul — Restaurant in Tampa

Couldn't wait to get there i believe it was 5/24, or 5/25/24. It was that saturday. We drove an hour & change to get there & It was closing when we got there. Not going to lie, the young lady who was working there that night was very nice at first. The chef was nice as well. She said they still had food. We had to take it to go. I went to the bathroom while waiting for him to be so nice as to make plantains for us, they had run out. We ordered 2 Lg oxtail dinners. To my surprise, we had to go outside in the backyard, use the key to get to the bathroom. Very unsafe neighborhood, many homeless ppl around. I won't say what could happen to a person utilizing that bathroom, because I don't want to put things in somebody's head. As I went back and I noticed the young lady getting a plastic bag to put somebody's food in it. She put so much saliva in her hand to open the bag and that turns me totally and completely off. I thought it was our food at first, I politely said to her, " oh no hun, if you can't open the bag then give it to me, I know how to open it. That is not sanitary at all and covid is still around, I had it one time and I don't want it again." Bottom line, just because I asked her to give me the bag she was so adamant not to give me the bag and to open it herself. Her words were very insensitive and loud as she repeatedly said, " Nobody has ever complained about that before, I do it all the time!" As she continued to repeat the statement, now our food comes out. She did the totally exact same thing after hearing me ask her not to do it to my food. Who wants somebody spit even on a bag that somebody is using to put food in. I don't even want my hand on anything that somebody had in their nasty mouth. How dare you? I took the bag and stretched it just a bit and showed her how the little Point comes up and you can open the bag. That is the one she used for the other person's food, now that I always comes out she decides she wants to put so much spit on her hand again that she's rubbing the saliva all over her fingers thinking that I'm going to take that. Then she asks us if we want cornbread. My nephew wanted some rolls but I told him no after she decides to bend down thinking that we don't see her and put saliva all over her fingers again after I showed her how to open the bag that took less than a second. When I saw that I figured I can't see what's being done to my food in the back because of the wall there and I did not want any special sauce. I told her to forget it. She really became belligerent yelling the same thing that nobody has ever complained before. I told her I could care less if anybody wants to eat her spit but I don't and I'm not and we left. My nephew said to me when we got in the car, " you should have seen her eye grill as we were walking out of the door" I don't understand why anybody thinks that somebody is subject to that filth. Is sanitary person would have gotten at least a styrofoam cup, filled it with water and put a paper towel or something in it and use that to open the bags, not just spit and who knows what else she's touching with her fingers...

Picked up order and received friendly and great customer service at the restaurant. The food looked great and smelled good. When I got home I opened up to beautiful oxtails and noticed a few butter beans, Mac & cheese and cabbage. The portion isn’t large, but descent servings. The coconut cake and red velvet bar were good. The coconut rum cake is the winner for me 😋 . The Pattie I agree with others a let down, not the best and wouldn’t order it again. Entree ordered oxtails, peas and rice, mac & cheese, and steamed cabbage. Unfortunately for me, the steamed cabbage is made with sugar and was very sweet and it’s juices spilled into and on most of the food which sweetened everything but the max and cheese 🙏🏾 thank God! So now, I can’t speak to how good the taste is for the rice and peas and oxtails because it tasted sweet/sugary, which for me isn’t good. I tried to see if I could manage to eat it, but just couldn’t overlook the sweetness. I was only able to eat the mac and cheese, one oxtail, and a few bites of rice. I can say the texture was good and meat was tender, but the sweetness made it impossible for me. The mac & cheese was delicious. I am thankful the stewed cabbage didn’t kill all the mac & cheese. I would definitely go back for the mac & cheese ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and corn bread, but honestly feel like I wasted my money because the stewed cabbage, rice and peas, and oxtails are just too SWEET!🤦🏾‍♀️ And everyone knows oxtails are expensive o!! 😭 I would have appreciated a replacement meal because I don’t know how to fix this meal. I will say I didn’t get back home until late and they were about to close so when I realized the sugar spillage and called I am not sure if it would have been available, but something would have made this feel less like a loss. Well, any suggestions please share because stuck with sugared rice and peas and oxtails.

Overrall good experience and the place had great vibes and ambience. If I go back would not order the stewed cabbage/vegetables again since that’s what made this food experience 😩 a bittersweet one. Plus, I don’t really like my veggies sweet either so would probably double up on the mac & cheese and cornbread next time as evidenced in pics, their gone 😋 because it was...

Visited because of my friend that decided to come by here after shopping at the neighboring Korean market recommended. Came with not too high expectations, perhaps because of its low key vibes from the outside looking but was BLOWN AWAY by the food. Jerk chicken has a nice solid spice tingle that lifted all greasiness. Crazy flavor. Oxtail has so much meat for the price. All the sides were amazing with flavor. Coconut rice & plantain & corn bread were not much sweet and mellow in flavor but that was good to balance out the rich flavor meats and sides. The banana pudding was perfectly balanced sweet with strong banana smell. The spicy beef patty was a bit of a letdown, not much meat & not spicy at all, despite being freshly baked & piping hot. The $8 lunch deal for 3 chicken meats, 1 rice, 1 side is a crazy price!!! The lunch size is the back container & the small size container is the front one.

Will be back! I think this place needs a bit better marketing, better signs, social media exposure from food influencers. But it takes a bit longer than expected for the food to come out despite it being a deli style place- so there would need to be preparations for the increase of traffic from the marketing. Also need more natural lighting & decor in the dining area to make this the best...