A mother (read: my mother) will never admit when she's wrong, despite my best attempts to show her she's wrong. However, during our dinner at Rum Runners, I concede and admit that she made the best food pick this particular evening.
Manchego crusted sea scallops, risotto laced with honey truffle butter - I originally dismissed this dish because it sounded too rich but boy this was a mistake. This is totally the dish you need to get at Rum Runners. I grew insanely jealous of my mom's dinner after I stole a bite of her risotto (okay, and a chunk of a scallop too). The risotto was perfectly cooked and but the star was clearly the honey truffle butter. Gosh, I just love saying it: HONEY TRUFFLE BUTTER - the perfect blend of sweet and savory. And then you add cheese on top of scallops; how did I pass this up?
For me, the loser in this food battle, I chose the shrimp scampi over angel hair pasta with sun dried tomatoes. The dish was to its credit, satisfying but paled in comparison to the scallops my mother had and the jerk pork my father had for dinner. There was a large amount of sun-dried tomatoes in the dish which was actually quite off-putting. They looked black more than dark red so my dish looked like it was infested with black blobs of mushrooms instead of tomatoes. Needless to say, these were pushed to the side and went uneaten. The shrimp were sizable and tasted fresh so at least it wasn't a total wash-out dish.
So prior to our entrees, we did have some starters. Mom was thrilled to see there were conch fritters on the menu and noted that this was the only place on the island that we had been to that served conch. We also had some peel & eat shrimp and yucca chips and salsa. The conch fritters tasted like a savory version of hush puppies with a spicy sauce. I liked the yucca chips and salsa. The salsa was fresh and not like a jar of Tostitos salsa poured into a bowl. Peel & eat shrimp - can't go wrong. Decently portion, hot and fresh shrimps, ready to be dipped in a spicy cocktail sauce. Yes, please!
We skipped dessert. Well, I forced everyone (Mom, Dad, Gran) to skip dessert here because I wanted to try out Ivy's Ice Cream (further down the boardwalk and up King's alley) after having read about it online. This proved to be a fantastic idea. Not to say their desserts weren't tempting - it's just that I wanted ice cream more than pie or cake (gasp).
The location of the restaurant is probably where it wins its appeal. It's right on the Christiansted Boardwalk-Waterfront and the view is gorgeous. Especially when the sun is setting over the boats and the cool breeze starts blowing through - a wonderful relief from the hot sun that burned my skin all afternoon. Make sure you get a seat on the outside - you won't regret it.
So anyway...Mom, you win this time. But don't get used to this (me, losing)...because it surely won't happen again. read more