Chicken Lavish – Negril, Jamaica

It’s been years since I spent more than just one night in Negril and last month I had a reason to spend TWO whole nights.  I didn’t arrive into town until after 7pm and I was starving.  All I ate was a doughnut in Montego Bay – the ones you can buy at red lights from the guys selling doughnuts in the middle of the road.  That always perplexed me…WHY doughnuts?  But anyway, that’s all I’d eaten since breakfast.  The two guys I hitched a ride with bought a box and the three of us shared them on the way.

I dumped my bags into the villa I was to be reviewing over the next couple days and immediately headed out onto the dark West End road.  My mission was to walk until I found a reasonably priced dish of fried chicken.  Part of my life-long fried chicken taste test mission.  I was only walking for less than 3 minutes before a JUTA van pulled up beside me and told me to get in.  I told him no because I didn’t want to pay for a ride anywhere but he insisted and repeated, “GET IN”.  I figured since I’d made myself clear I wasn’t paying, I was good to go.  He introduced himself as Niaa, I told him I was looking for fried chicken at a NON-tourist price and we were off!  Niaa seemed to know just the spot for me.

He dropped me at Chicken Lavish, it was now after 8pm and there was only one other table of patrons there.  Just what I was looking for this night…nice and quiet.  I was relishing my little “vacation” time away from Montego Bay.  I checked the menu prices on the wall and was pleasantly surprised that I could get fried chicken and chips for $400 jmd.  Not a bad price for West End road.  I proceeded to order myself a cold rum and Coke and sat myself at a table near the road.  When my order arrived it looked awesome!  I much prefer fries over rice with my chicken and these fries looked awesome.

I sat alone (or so I thought) and enjoyed my meal while texting back and forth with my mom, when suddenly my “company” arrived in the form of a very stoosh canine friend.  Since I was sitting close to the road it was pretty easy access for this little dude to pull up a spot and get comfy watching me eat.  The FUNNIEST part was that I continuously threw french fries to him and he wouldn’t eat them!  I figured either he was blind in the dark or he was just a jerk!  So I put him to the test and threw him the entire small piece of chicken in the photo above, and the little bugger laid there and enjoyed it to the fullest…..still leaving the french fries on the ground! I don’t know ANY street dog in Jamaica who turns food down.

Anyway, the fried chicken and chips at Chicken Lavish was reasonably priced (according to me who would have walked out if it was $600 jmd) and filled the hunger gap very well.  It was fried a little more than usual though which seems to be the norm because I ate there again the next day and same thing.  The location is easy – right at the bottom of West End road.  And one of the best features is that there are plenty of bike taxis that park right beside it!   That’s the place I mentioned in my bike taxi blog post a couple weeks ago.

I believe the menu is way more extensive than I’m telling you because I was so much looking for chicken that I didn’t even notice what else they served.  OH and free Wi-fi in the restaurant is a bonus!  This would be a great place to sit for a few hours and surf the net while sipping some rum.