Hi-Lo Jamaican Eating House

On wednesday we paid our second visit to Hi-Lo and have promised ourselves that this will now be our restaurant from now on. A fantastic restaurant with superb music. Once the proprietor had allowed us to watch the end of a 20/20 cricket match on the telly.

We had the ribs and plantains to start, with The Jerk chicken and funky chicken as our main dish. The waitress had us in stitches when she repeated our order as "one funky and one Jerk" We weren't sure who was who at that point.
The meal was superb, and the red stripe and carib beers went down very well indeed.
once we had eaten we sat at the bar, and had a very pleasant chat with the proprietors wife about the history of the place. it was fascinating.
What also struck me was that the owner of the establishment does the majority of the prep of the dishes, which goes against some of the posters on here that say he doesn't do much to help.

My advice is go with an open mind and be prepared to chill out and enjoy yourselves.

21/09/07

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Having a love of Caribbean food, I was really looking forward to my meal. As said below, the starters were good but the mains a bit poor. The waitresses were nice and friendly but the guy who owns the place - different story altogether. He was rude and arrogant and as already said let his poor wife do all the work!!!!

Food's not that good and I can go any where to be insulted!

Me (Unverified), 21/07/07

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A group of 6 of us decided to give the Hi-Lo a try on a Saturday evening.My first impression was disappointing. As you enter it is like entering a dark dingy room, the only lighting in there came from candles sparsely placed on the tables.It was dingy, tacky and the tables were `sticky`!
We enjoyed a few drinks however whilst waiting for our starters, which took about an hour to arrive ( we did expect this) and the starters were reasonably tasty. I had the breadfruit, others in the party had the ribs and one had a baked sweet potato.
The main course though can only be described as `disgusting`! We tried the goat curry and was very disappointed with this very grey watery stew like concoction which was served with a dry sticky rice containing over cooked red kidney beans and a spoonful of watery tasteless cabbage. One other tried the Jerk chicken and another the Funky chicken which proved to be equally disappointing as the look and taste of both dishes were the same and simply resembled a roasted chicken leg, again accompanied by the awful rice and cabbage.
The lady doing the cooking and serving (apparantly the wife of the owner) looked hard pressed and over worked trying to keep up with the orders, the cooking and serving seemingly single handedly, no doubt adding to the waiting time). When the owner put in an appearance he was very laid back and cool, chatting with the customers, sitting with them (us included) sharing a drink and seemed quite oblivious to his wife running around like a headless chicken trying to keep up with everything!All in all we found the place to be very atmospheric, but dark and dingy with the food falling well below average - could be the poor woman needed a bit of a hand to cope. It was pricy too, with the drinks adding up, the waiting time of course increases the bill as the longer you wait the more you drink. We all decided it was an experience never to be repeated again!

Road Runner (Unverified), 29/06/07

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You should definitely go there. Its great fun with good food and fantastic music. The atmosphere is amazing. A trully unique experience, brilliant especially for a group.

These days there is a menu, £3 for a starter from £8 for a starter eg vegan curry, but theres a range of meat for meat eaters too!

Foxy (Unverified), 11/02/07

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Reggae is the theme tune of the night at HiLo's, and everything Jamaican the theme of the whole place. As you enter, you will probably pass the dreadlocked owner in his Bob Marley hat and Jamaica football shirt. On the walls are adverts for rum, Red Stripe Jamaican beer (beer of the gods) and various products of a somewhat more herbal nature. We were invited to find somewhere to sit inside and, as the place is a miniature warren of uneven wood floors, we opted for the nearest seats to hand, a huge farmhouse kitchen table which soon filled up with other diners.

The trademark laid back Caribbean attitude also dominates at HiLos. We ordered at around 8.30 and a good while later, enough time to sink a fair few Red Stripes, our starters arrived. The goat and bean soup wasn't available, so instead I ended up with a patty - a Jamaican spicy pasty that comes filled with chicken, vegetable or fish. Nothing on the menu is priced, but you do get vague indicators; starters are £2 or less, mains are between £7-8, desserts are £1.50 - £3. Unless of course you have a 'big fish' or a Jamaican style steak, which may cost an extra pound. Also unless the owner likes you, in which case you may get a discount. We shared fried plantain as well (a bit like banana and infinitely moreish) and whiled away the time between courses. There was plenty of it, but as long as you aren't rushing anywhere (bad choice of restaurant), let the chilled out atmosphere suffuse you and enjoy it.

There is every variety of rum going, or for non-drinkers, a Lilt-like grapefruit drink called Ting. The mains arrived without flourish; you simply get homecooked, filling and tasty food, no pretension or decoration. It looks good enough to eat without them. I had Funky Chicken, chicken in a spicy, crispy coating with the obligatory rice'n'peas. And it was really, really good. My friends both had Jerk Pork, a drier, saltier but equally tasty dish. If these don't appeal, you could try curry goat, ackee and saltfish (the Jamaican national dish) or Caribbean seafish (Red Snapper or Kingfish). Maybe follow it with some sweet potato pudding, ginger cake of the non-McVities kind or soursop ice cream.

HiLo's, being a restaurant, stays open longer than most bars in Cowley, provided that you have food in front of you. Even if you aren't eating a full meal, you can buy sandwiches well into the night and keep on with the flow of rum and Red Stripe to make for a unique end to any evening out.

Abby Chicken (Unverified), 13/08/03

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