Sunday, October 26, 2008

Caribbean Gardens

Caribbean Gardens
2007 Foothill Blvd
La Verne, CA
(909) 593-7824
Type: Caribbean/Guyanese



As of this writing, I found out that Caribbean Gardens is no longer with us-- at least in its original La Verne location. I looked it up on Google, and they might have possibly moved to Pomona. I'll give them a call and get to the bottom of this as soon as I can. Til then, this will be just a short eulogy....

Caribbean Gardens and I were friends. We weren't close friends like me and Banana Bay, Hole Mole, or even Maxim Cafe. But we had a special relationship. I'd go there on somewhat special occasions and if I had some money to spend. I'd go all the way to La Verne just to eat there and come right back after. I found out the hard way that this place was gone. I drove all the way over there with a friend and when we pulled up in the parking lot, the name was different. My first initial thought was, "Oh. They changed their name?" But I very quickly realized that the chances of them changing their name to a Chinese restaurant-sounding place and keeping their original menu in tact was just wishful thinking.

The flag of Guyana


Really quickly, I'll try to shoot off about the food, although I don't think I can keep my composure re-living all the memories here.

This place serves Guyanese food. (Guyana is located in northern South America) What's Guyanese food? I haven't had much Caribbean food, but the name of this place pretty much says what it is. I mean they got plantains, jerk chicken--which I know is also eaten in Jamaica. They have some veggie dishes, fish dishes, and different meat dishes. I think this place has some Indian (from India) influences with their daal (lentil soup) and other things. They also have roti which is a type of flat bread from India as well. It's kind of like Cuban and Peruvian food too. Durr... they're both in the Caribbeans.

The prices here aren't that cheap but I personally didn't mind paying up once in awhile. If I could, I would've eaten there about every 2 weeks. Maybe if their menu had more selections, I would've liked to go every week. But alas.

Here's their fried fish meal ($15) nice and salty


Roti and vegetable curry with more plantains $9.25


more people should've known about this place


Why did they close down? WHY??!!!! WHHHHHYYYYYYY!!!!!?????? I don't know how many people were exposed to this place. It was a small spot in a shopping plaza. It was never packed when I came to eat here. Is it me? Do I have bad taste? I don't think so. My friends and girlfriend thought it was cool. Maybe they were being nice to me cuz they knew how happy I was to eat here. Could it be that nobody should ever listen to my recommendations and this food blog is just a waste of everybody's time? Yes. Likely. But I still refuse to believe that this place shut down cuz of less than par food.

Caribbean Gardens... wherever you are. You'll be missed. Come back to me, please. *sob* *sob* *sob*

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