Queen Trini Lisa, New Orleans, LA Report #681

According to their website this restaurant serves Trinbagonian Island Soul Food. Ever heard of that? Ever had it? If not, we were in the same boat because it was new to me too. Considering their website also says they were named the restaurant of the year by Eater New Orleans for 2022, I was looking forward to trying it!

Not too big of a joint, with only six tables inside and they were all taken. Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to sit at one of the three picnic tables outside. We later moved inside when a table for two opened up.

The menu’s not very big. I always like seeing that. I rather a place that has a small menu but does everything right, instead of a place that has a ten-page menu and does everything just ok. It also makes making decisions easier! Here’s a link to it: https://www.queentrinilisa.com/menu

The “Doubles” things on the menu are a vegan dish. I’m not even close to being vegan. In fact, I’m quite carnivorous. I had never heard of these things but a few days after I noticed them on their menu online, I saw them on a program on the Food Network, and they raved about how delicious they were! So we had to try them.

Our waiter advised us we could do a combo with the entrée dishes, so my dining partner went with the award winning BBQ jerk chicken and the chicken curry. Today’s specials were oxtails and curried goat. It’s hard to pass up curried goat, but I recently had a delicious one at a place called 14 Parishes, so I just went with the oxtails. For sides we had fries, rice & peas and Caribbean style spinach.

~%~%~%~%~% THE FOOD %~%~%~%~%~

Doubles Box

Fries

BBQ Jerk and Curry Chicken

Oxtails

Every dish comes with a beautiful little orchid on top. Don’t eat that.

I was pleasantly surprised with the doubles things. If I ever was forced to go vegan, I’d eat these all the time! The flatbreads had a great flavor and the chickpeas, which are a great source of protein, were really tender and swimming in a delicious curry. You don’t need any sauce with these, but if you want some they come with a great sweet tamarind and a mango chutney. They were so good we finished all of them.

I was a little nervous about the fries because they said they were seasoned. I wasn’t sure if that meant they were covered with some weird, seasoned batter, but they weren’t. They were perfect. Hot, crisp and just lightly seasoned.

Both chicken dishes were fantastic. As far as I can remember every jerk style dish I’ve ever had had a dry rub on the meat. This one has a thick, yummy BBQ sauce. And as far as portion size you won’t leave hungry! The chicken pieces were small, but with each style chicken they gave us two legs and a thigh! Needless to say, we had to ask for to-go boxes.

Portions wise the same applied to my oxtails. Oxtails are pricy, so a lot of places give you pretty small servings. This portion of oxtails was quite satisfactory! They were so tender I stabbed one with my fork and the chunk of meat just slid off the bone leaving the rest of the oxtail in the bowl. The brown gravy they were swimming in was outstanding.

All the sides were terrific.

Excellent lunch here today. I highly recommend this place!

4200 D’Hemecourt St., New Orleans, LA 70119 Ph: (504) 345-2058

Blaine 3-23-2024