Restaurant Review: The Grille at Hilton Barbados

Mel and myself were looking for something a little different, good, but a little different. Barbados as you would know has a diverse selection of restaurants; especially for travelers. However, when you live on the island, restaurants can become a tad bit repetitive. We started looking into restaurants in hotels to try and that is when we came across The Grille, located in the Hilton Hotel.Now I must admit, I have never heard anyone really rave about The Grille like you do about other restaurants on the island, nonetheless we were about to give it a shot. The Grille is located upstairs in an air-conditioned room of the Hilton Hotel, what I liked most about it was the fact that you actually saw the chef performing his act and doing what he does best – Grilling.Mel and I ordered a glass of wine and we were on our way to deciding what dishes we would devour. First up was a very refreshing Caribbean Lobster Salad along with Saffron ravioli filled with lobster, layered on creamed spinach with a lemon grass sauce.

The Lobster Salad, which is noted as The Grille’s signature dish, was very tropical and light, served with a salsa inclusive of onion, mango, chive, papaya and avocado. The lime vinaigrette it was accompanied with balanced the sweetness of the salsa while the avocado added that element of creaminess. It was just what was needed to start off the dinner.

The Lobster Ravioli was wonderful with large pieces of the lobster (rather that that minced ‘stuff’ some restaurants like to serve). The cream sauce I found could have had a tad bit more salt to bring out the flavors of all the ingredients, however the spinach added a fantastic earthiness to the dish while the tomato jam sweetened it up slightly and just about tied the overall dish together.

For the main we decided on the The Grille mix Grill which was a combination of Fillet mignon, jumbo shrimp and scallops wrapped in bacon, served with double baked Idaho potato, asparagus, lemon sauce and peppercorn sauce. In addition, we had Prime Ribeye with black pepper and chili flakes, served with a three-peppercorn sauce and frites.

The Grille mix was an overall pleaser, the beef was cooked just how we liked it – medium rare – however the scallops could have been cooked for slightly less time – none the less the combination of it all was a plateful of goodness.

The ribeye was cooked to absolute perfection and the frites were crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside (we all know I am very picky with my potatoes and there were done just right); Served with buttery and fresh French beans this was definitely a meal of good comfort!

Now on to the desserts, which were, well spectacular; we had an apple pouch that was to die for – the pastry was so unbelievably flakey and the apple filling was creamy and warm. The chocolate soufflé was right out the oven (we knew this because we had a little wait of 15 minutes to ensure its freshness), light fluffy and went brilliantly with the rich raspberry coolie.

The Grille was a great experience and that ‘something a little different’ we were looking for.