Photo: Stephen Clarke
Having only ever eaten at Ferdinand’s for its excellent Sunday brunch, I was excited to try dinner at the Westin Casuarina restaurant.
We got to the restaurant in the early evening and opted to eat inside where we had the restaurant almost to ourselves. The outdoor, screened-in dining area filled up as the evening continued but it was a sultry Cayman evening, so we were happy to dine in air-conditioned luxury.
Our server directed us to a table by the window where, even though we were indoors, we still had a view of the beach and the setting sun over the sea.
Ferdinand’s is a family restaurant and has a wide ranging menu, with lots of seafood, chicken and red meat dishes on offer, as well as several vegetarian options.
For starters, we chose the crab cakes and the cerviche and were very happy that we did. Both were packed with seafood and bursting with flavour.
The pan-roasted crab cakes had lots of succulent lump crab meat mixed with garlic and fresh herbs and was served with a two sauces – a mango sauce and a coconut cocktail sauce, both of which added an extra kick to the dish.
The cerviche came in two generous glass bowls that were ideal for sharing. The mahi mahi marinated in fresh lime with onions, cilantro, tomato and a soupcon of scotch bonnet pepper was delicious.
For the main course, on executive chef Yves Lafond’s recommendation, I went for the scallops with avocado tempura while my dining companion chose the Rasta Pasta.
Chef Yves returned recently to the Westin. He worked at the Ferdinand’s sister restaurant at the hotel, Casa Havana from 2006 to 2009. He is now the executive chef for both restaurants, having returned to work at the hotel three months ago and is in the process of introducing new offerings to both menus.
After leaving Casa Havana in 2009, he took up a position in Tampa and then returned to Cayman to work for a year in the banquet kitchen of the Ritz-Carlton, before coming back to the Westin Casuarina.
The scallops are one of the new dishes Chef Yves has added to Ferdinand’s menu and I could see why he recommended them. The dish consisted of four juicy scallops, their sides nicely seared. On the side was an accompaniment of fresh thinly sliced vegetables.
The avocado tempura was a novel addition. I’d expected battered and fried avocado to lose its texture in the heat, but I was wrong. It still had the consistency and flavour of fresh avocado within the crisp bite of the fried batter.
A fruity and crisp Californian Sauvignon Blanc chosen from the extensive wine list went very well with the sea food dishes.
Diners who order the Rasta Pasta, be warned. Make sure you’re hungry when you sit down to eat. The giant bowl contained a serving of penne in a creamy jerk sauce with marinated chicken, sweet peppers, asparagus, spinach, Jamaican thyme and sweet peas.
Our server had cautioned that the dish was spicy hot, but either our palates have become inured to spicy food from too many super-hot jerk chickens or blow-your-head-off curries or this dish was not quite as hot as advertised. Nonetheless, it was extremely tasty – and filling. More than half the dish went home in a doggy bag and was enjoyed for lunch the next day.
We were both too full to even attempt the desserts, tempting as the warm sticky toffee chocolate cake, pineapple upsidedown cake, mango cloud, island banana cake and key lime pie sounded, but we’ll be trying some of those next time. WH