Caribbean Queen of Patties — Restaurant in Toronto

We adore everything about this place but before we tell you about the food we need to tell you about how we discovered Georgina's wonderful resto.

We were huge fans of a Bloordale Village coffee shop called Holy Oak (which is, alas, no longer in business) and one day while sipping our coffee and people watching we noticed that a number of taxis were pulling up to a small storefront across the street. The drivers - all of whom could reasonably be surmised to be of Caribbean descent - would jump out, run into the resto, and emerge with their take-away bags. As this continued we made a vow that we were going to check out this apparent favourite.

Once we did we never looked back. Georgina - the owner and chef - makes amazing food. And while the restaurant's name mentions the iconic Jamaican street snack one shouldn't miss her other Jamaican specialities. Her goat and oxtail dishes (whether roti or with rice and beans) are amazing, as are her jerk chicken and roasted pork offerings. Portions are generous (a platter of any of her rice and beans dishes always provides another meal the day after) and the food is consistently delicious.

This is not a fancy place. Ambience is not what keeps us - and many others - coming back. This is a place where the focus in on the food, and on the love and passion with which it's prepared. It's possible to find equally authentic Jamaican food in Toronto, but it's impossible to find better. And in the end that's...

I had the curry chicken roti on recommendation from a previous co-worker who said everything at this place was excellent. I’ll never listen to that person every again.

I had the curry chicken roti. Here are a few notable things:

The roti itself was not actually a roti. It was a store bought soft shell tortilla.

The food itself had all manner of strange ingredients that just did not go well together. If you’re expecting your typical chana, potato, curry chicken roti then stay far far away.

The dish itself was incredibly sweet, and almost had the flavour of baby food. If you’re looking for the tangy, savoury and spicy flavours of a typical curry chicken roti, stay far far away.

The chicken itself was quite bland, almost as if it was cooked in a separate pot itself and not really seasoned.

It was placed in a container and essentially looked like a sloppy mess rather than a nicely wrapped roti. In hindsight, this makes sense given it was not in fact accompanied by an actual roti shell.

I would likely have not complained about the wait if the food was actually good, but waiting for 20 minutes when you’re the only person there and they essentially just dumped food onto a soft shelled tortilla just seems egregious.

I’d give it zero stars if I could, but I cannot. Would not go back. That said, the lady working...

I came here previously with a couple of friends for a beef patty and the lady running the shop didn't seem to happy when I asked if they took debit, almost took it as if I made a rude remark haha.. didn't think too much of it and went about my day with a good beef patty. A couple weeks later I boast about how great the parties are to my girlfriend. So we go on ahead and check it out and end up having lunch there. Maybe I was naive to think that the lady running the shop was having an off day but the lack of customer service in this establishment completely dumbfounded me. As I was making an order she completely flipped and started baffling about "what special!? there is none!" Please take down false advertisement in front of the store first and foremost if you want to question your customers. As she went to pack our food she split the jerk pork on the table and put it back in the container and said "oops, sorry" I just laughed it off. I ordered a beef patty on the side but she forgot to put it in the bag once I paid for the meal and I had to remind her that I paid for a patty. If anything I wrote above hasn't discouraged you from visiting this place please save your time and money and visit the dosa shop just a block over. They'll be more than happy...