Now I could be justly convicted of making some less than generous judgements on the bus ride to Rockhouse. Payback is quick though, as I must admit when we arrived at the Rockhouse, I felt a little like I was being judged. It could be all in my imagination, but I suspect that they don't pick folks up at Rooms on the Beach all that often. I felt as though we were being perceived to not be their 'usual crowd.'

As we were being led to our table, the waiter leaned over us and whispered in an almost conspiratorial way, "You know we don't take Discover Card." I didn't quite know how to respond. Is he trying to help us out early, so we don't humiliate ourselves later when we couldn't pay for dinner? I asked him if cash would do, or perhaps they might take Visa. He allowed as how both were fine and sat us at our table. It was a strange start to the experience.

That said we had a beautiful table on the railing overlooking the cove. The restaurant at Rockhouse does not have the best sunset views, at least not in December. In a perfect world, I would have a cocktail out by their pool, watch the sunset and then head to the restaurant for dinner. I have no idea if they would do that for a non-guest or not. Probably depends on the season. You can see the special "Rock Table" over Sunshines shoulder.


We tried to very clear to our server that we were in absolutely no hurry. We had all night and didn't want to be rushed. It wasn't busy such that there was a second sitting coming in behind us, so I didn't feel any concern about occupying our table for a while. This was our special meal out, so we weren't going to cheap out on the bill.

We had yet to sample a Dirty Banana anywhere along the way, so we thought this would be the perfect time. As a general rule, I am not a huge fan of bananas or cream in beverages, so this was a bit of a risky proposition. I figured the rum and coffee flavor would make it all ok and there are so many references to these in other reports; I had to give it a go. The Dirty Banana was delicious, though it was a bit like starting a meal with dessert and a filling one at that. I will probably order another one somewhere along the route on our next trip, but it will be as a snack instead of with a meal.

We had conch fritters and coconut shrimp to start along with some blended cocktail with Papaya. This was the first time we had every ordered conch. After having the fritters, I feel like I still haven't eaten conch, as I think there was a lot of dough and not a lot of conch. There certainly were no strong identifying flavors. The coconut shrimp were good, but I have had better.

I had ordered the Jamaican Rundown with chicken for my dinner and our server came back to explain that our food would be slower as they made it from scratch and the rundown took time. I told him again we were in no hurry. It was a fair comment, but I wish he would catch on to our pace.

Sunshine studied the wine list and ordered us a bottle of red to go with the meal, which was good. He said that they had a decent wine list. I understand why lots of places don't have a lot of wine on the menu. I am a wine drinker at home and I didn't really ever think to order it while we were in Negril.

I thought the mains came fairly quickly, but I was so chill it could have been an hour. I had my rundown and Sunshine had curry chicken, which came looking like a sun, how perfect. I think this is the only meal I managed to photograph the whole trip and I still didn't quite catch it before we started. Both our main courses were delicious and worth having again.