5 Iconic Caribbean Restaurants
In New York City 🍲🗽
As Caribbean people, we love food! Especially our food. But let’s be real, it’s hard to find Caribbean food that lives up to our expectations, outside of the region.
However, all hope is not lost. I have discovered some food spots where the food remains true to their West Indian roots.
You absolutely need to visit the restaurants listed below when you’re in New York City and craving authentic, well-seasoned dishes that taste as if they’ve been prepared in your grandmother’s kitchen.
#1. Pearl’s Caribbean
📸 @trinijunglejuice
Trinidadian, Fallon Seymour, is serving up Trini and Caribbean flavours at Pearl’s Caribbean –– a colourful, cozy restaurant located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Here, you’re sure to get all of the foods you’re accustomed to back home in the Caribbean, like bake and shark, crab and dumpling, shrimp roti and jerk chicken.
I sampled their signature dish, bake and shark, dressed with the mandatory tamarind sauce, garlic sauce, and chadon beni. Biting into it was like biting into a piece of Maracas Beach right there in the hipster capital of New York, it was that good. After careful consideration, I paired my sandwich with their Sorrel Shandy (sorrel juice with Carib beer) and the outcome was simply divine.
đź“ŤÂ 178 North 8th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
#2. Miss Lily’s
📸 @lifebysydelle
Miss Lily’s Soho and Miss Lily’s 7A Cafe is a Jamaican rum shack with stellar, vibrant food compliments of chef, Kahari Woolcock, and culinary director, Andre Fowles. While many dine-in Caribbean restaurants have moved away from the traditional Afro-Caribbean decor, Miss Lily’s unapologetically showcases her roots.
Red, yellow, and green cover tabletops and signs, African mud cloth upholstery, and a rotation of soca, reggae, and dancehall play throughout the day. It’s a new-school joint that takes you back to the old-school Caribbean. The ambience at Miss Lily’s makes it one of my favourite Caribbean food spots.
The menu is the clear-cut Caribbean: jerk, curry, and stew, flavoured just enough to be effective but not overpowering. The rice-and-peas is tender, the fried plantain is firm but moist, and the diverse offerings from the legendary Melvin’s Juice Box are all worth sampling. It is worth mentioning that the portions are large, which makes this a great spot if you intend to order multiple things and share with your people!
đź“Ť 132 W Houston Street, Manhattan
đź“Ť 109 Avenue A, East Village, Manhattan
#3. Negril Village
📸 @hello_thevito
Ten years and counting, Negril Village is a trend-setter and bar-raiser when it comes to Caribbean cuisine in the Big Apple. Enjoy a delicious dinner in the upstairs dining room then retire to the Rhum Lounge downstairs to dance those calories away!
This Caribbean restaurant features a mouthwatering jerk rubbed chicken, as well as finger foods like curry goat empanadas and ackee and sailfish. Their drinks menu includes a sorrel colada which to die for. Negril Village also scores some cool points as you can lounge with an in-house DJ playing soca, dancehall and reggae all night long!
đź“Ť 70 West 3rd Street, Manhattan
#4. The Food Sermon
📸 @nsdoyle
Besides its catchy name, The Food Sermon‘s build-your-own-bowl concept has to be one of my favourite things ever. Four bountiful protein offerings — jerk halal chicken (a must), tender braised oxtail, panko-crusted salmon, and pan-seared tofu with vegetables — are matched with either white or brown rice, well-seasoned red beans or curry chickpeas, and sauces of spicy tomato or silky coconut-ginger.
Chef Rawlston Williams is originally from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and is a Seventh-day Adventist, so the restaurant is closed from sundown Friday to Sunday afternoon.
đź“Ť 179 Rogers Ave, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
#5. Grandchamps Kitchen
& Market
📸 @grandchampsbk
Grandchamps is known for its delicious Haitian cuisine. Its unique flavour is what makes the food so exquisite. For an appetizer, I love the Fritai platter which consists of sweet potato fries, fried pork, fried plantain and accra. Everything here is delicious and affordable. The drinks like the candy-toned Cola Lacaye and lemonade are among some that are passed around at the table, and they’re quite refreshing!
The ambience was great. As you dine, you get to listen to Haitian classics. For those who have yet to try Haitian cuisine, I highly recommend going to Grandchamps. I am so glad to have discovered this place; it will always be my gem.
đź“Ť 197 Patchen Ave, Bedford-Stuyvesant