Yuhrate.com - Jamaica's Online Reviews and Ratings

Mille Fleurs is much harder to pronounce than to welcome into your heart. Walk past the lobby of the Hotel Mocking Bird Hill into a stunning panoramic view of Port Antonio. The Blue Lagoon beckons, just a stone’s throw away, and the Castle sits nearby on the point of a cove.

Pretty Portland, you think, as its beauty of lush green and bountiful flowers climb the balcony of Mille Fleurs. Almost in arms reach is Blue Mountain Peak, majestic and mature in its presence. The cognoscenti who frequent Mille Fleurs know to arrive early for the sunset that fires the appetites of the evening.

Mille Fleurs gloriously lives up to its name. Proprietors Shireen Aga and Barbara Walker have liberally fitted flowers anywhere there is room for a scent. No corner is without the form and colour of nature’s handsome renderings. The candlelight amid smart table settings evokes a surrealism that gives your romance a new charm in an atmosphere you’ll never forget.

The air alone on this gorgeous hilltop deserves attention, so pure and fresh that it seems to pump your adrenalin. It’s part of the headiness and the rush that comes in this setting.

Then there’s the food, and you breathe harder in your attempt to please a palette teased by the native aromas of local spices. Herbs and vegetables spring from the hotel’s organic garden, and the menu is an eclectic mix of the parish’s seasonably available produce. So entrees are Jamaican in intent, but certainly not traditional. You might have a coconut in garlic soup to start, followed by a fish in tamarind sauce, and end with a plantain flambe.

The hotel operates Mille Fleurs with a keen commitment to environmentally friendly tourism development. Water is poured only on request, there are no individual portions of butter, jam or sugar, and seasonal solar dried fruits are substituted for raisins and prunes. But even in its quaintness, Mille Fleurs cannot be beat for smothering you with fine comfort and style.