Cooking with sugar?

Okay so I want to know why none of these so called Caribbean restaurants that claims they cook food good.  Yet I wasn't satisfied.  Is it me or every Caribbean restaurant cooks with sugar. I'm the kind of person that loves oxtail. Now when my mom cooks it, the color of it is dark brown and its salty kind of. So why when I order oxtail from a restaurant, the oxtail is always this caramel brown color and is sugary sweet. Why do they replace seasoning for sugar?. Whats up with that?