Gene's Restaurant on Tortola

Gene's Bar & Grill is a lovely, low-key, quiet and very pleasant little gem located in Sea Cows Bay on the South Side of Tortola, between Nanny Cay and Road Town at Manuel Reef Marina. As of late November 2015, Gene's Bar & Grill became the newest addition to the Tortola restaurant scene, originally located in Carrot Bay.

After suffering a couple of major landlord issues and closing for a brief while ... Gene and Robin found this new location overlooking the harbour and triumphantly re-opened in December 2016, to resounding success.

This place is right up my alley! You won't find any loud or intrusive music here ... just good food, good service, friendly people and an intimate setting with lots of laid back yachties and island residents who have made Gene's their regular hang out. It's a place to relax, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy some time with friends and family over a good meal.

Gene Sookraj (pronounced just as it is spelled Sook~raj) is your very capable chef while husband Robin is one of your friendly bartenders and sometimes server. Some of you may remember Gene from a once popular restaurant called Cruzin'. Sadly, the owner of Cruzin' made some poor business choices. As a result, the restaurant was closed.

You can't keep a good chef down and Gene is nothing if not determined, resilient and bent on making a success of herself. I have enjoyed several menu items including her lobster rolls, pumpkin soup, roti, beef stir fry, pizza, various shrimp dishes and BBQ ribs.

I like a little "zip" (spice) in my food and love Guyanese cooking because they seem to understand spices better than most. The Guyanese chefs I have come to know and love are not heavy handed with the "heat", but they sure do know how to pull flavour out of food. The lobster rolls were cooked to perfection and I had a hard time keeping my friends' fingers off my plate ... but I would have preferred a little more spice. I could blather on about her pumpkin soup, but instead, I will just say, if it is on the menu, you HAVE to try it. It truly is "Michelin star" yummy! When it comes to this soup, Gene is an artist. Both the ribs and the stir fried beef were very satisfying and tasty, but the beef was a little too well cooked for me.

I am a BIG roti fan and am pretty hard to impress when it comes to roti. One day, a lady at the bar was having chicken roti and the aroma was killing me! I desperately wanted to ask her for a small bite ... but I'm pretty sure that sort of thing wouldn't go over well with a total stranger. I let the urge pass, but if the aroma is any indication of taste, Gene has it locked down. Man, it smelled good!

-----------

Well it is now several months on since Gene's first opened and I have become somewhat of a regular customer. I also finally managed to tear myself away from Gene's pumpkin soup and lobster rolls (my go-to dishes) and ordered a chicken roti. I should mention that I am a roti snob. In fact, I am very picky about my roti. I don't care for wraps made with cornmeal. In fact, I quite dislike them. I was very pleased to find that Gene doesn't use cornmeal in her homemade wraps. She uses split peas. Much nicer if you ask me, no discernable "grit" in the wrap.

I also really dislike the type of curry that has so much "heat" to it that your upper lip and forehead start to sweat. I simply don't appreciate food that is so overpowering with heat that you are unable to "taste" anything else that may be on your plate. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE spicy food ... but "spice" and "heat" are two entirely different things. Another big plus is that Gene uses chicken breasts (most use thighs) and the pieces are cut up into small, bite-sized chunks, making cutting into the roti easily manageable. I am a white meat fan.

I have already mentioned that many Guyanese chefs seem to understand spice better than most and Gene definitely falls into this category. I have to say that her chicken roti has now broken into my top 3 FAVOURITE rotis in the entire BVI! The flavour is amazing, the heat level is just right and you can still taste all the other yummy things on your plate. Her sticky rice was perfect and the cool cucumber salad was a lovely compliment to the roti. So there you have it, folks. Making my top three list for roti is a pretty amazing accomplishment ... but Gene's chicken roti is truly special! I'll have to try the shrimp roti some day!

-----------

According to Robin, the roti, ribs and pizza are their three biggest sellers and are always on the menu. The menu is limited and changes daily. Gene bases her daily offerings upon what fresh ingredients she is able to find on the island that day. If there are fresh pumpkins (local squash) then she will make pumpkin soup. If there is fresh fish to be had, then that goes on the menu. Prices are very reasonable and considering I am a very picky eater, I was surprised to find 10 items on the 12 item menu that I would gladly try.

I am rooting for this place to have a long and successful life in Sea Cows Bay. I sincerely hope that success doesn't change the place too much. I really like the fact that locals tend to gravitate to Gene's Bar & Grill. That says a says a lot about the place too!