Irie Mon Cafe — Restaurant in Atlanta

This was our first and unfortunately last time dining at this restaurant. Upon entering, my husband and I noticed several customers already waiting for their orders. We approached the counter to place ours but were not greeted or acknowledged by either employee present. Both the male and female staff members walked back and forth between the kitchen and front area multiple times without saying a word. After standing there for approximately 6–8 minutes, one of them finally addressed us, and it still took several additional minutes before our order was taken.

My husband ordered the oxtail with rice and peas, mac and cheese, and two veggie patties, totaling just over $50. We waited another 10–15 minutes for the food to be prepared. Before leaving, we checked the order and realized we had been given brown stew chicken instead of oxtail. When we returned to correct the mistake, the female employee initially insisted the order was correct until I showed both the food and the receipt (which I had to request). The male employee then apologized and corrected the order after taking back the incorrect meal. I sincerely hope that meal was discarded and not served to another customer.

Being of Jamaican background myself, I can confidently say the food lacked authentic flavor and did not represent true Jamaican cuisine. Overall, the experience was disappointing — from the lack of customer service to the long wait time and poor food quality. It would be beneficial for management to improve their service and system for handling both walk-in and online orders to reduce delays, especially when customers are paying over $50 for a meal.

Also the customer should not have to ask for their receipt, on top of paying...

The prices on the website are different than the prices in the restaurant by between an additional 4-7$ depending on the dish. For me, I got oxtails on the website it says 22.50, in the store, it is prices at 26.

They take way too long to make your plate, especially given all the food is already cooked. It took 23 minutes to get my plate.

They consider rice a side dish?? Doesnt rice automatically come with the combo?? Wth? Never heard of a jamaican restaurant offering only two sides and rice is one of them. You can get either rice and plantains or rice and cabbage. In any AUTHENTIC jamaican restaurant, your dish come with rice, cabbage AND plantain. And at 26$ it SHOULD. This is way over priced, even though oxtails are a pricer meat, this dish (with larger quantities) is going for between 18-22$ at other jamaican restaurants in the area.

And seriously? Why cant we get the cabbage? Cabbage is literally 20cents a serving…. And if you wanna add it to yo plate, thats a whopping 3.75… like what ?!

And to add insult to injury. For TWENTY SIX dollars I got 5 rinky dink oxtails and a serving of rice that didnt even fill up the rice side of the container. (See my attached photo taken IN the car before i even left) Just disrespectful honestly.

You have to pay for parking. Its 2$. Apparently they normally validate but when i asked the lady taking orders she said thier machine was down. So not only did i pay 26+ tax for 5 little ox tails and NO cabbage, i also had to pay for parking.

Dont come here. There are other places cheaper, with larger servings, and better...

This might be the best food in Atlanta on a $/quality basis. I am convinced it’s unusual, non descript location inside a confusing commercial building parking lot is the only reason it doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves. I live around the corner and have eaten here over 50 times in two years. The jerk chicken, oxtail, and brown stew chicken are all standout dishes which are unbelievably delicious, massive portions of protein, and super consistent in flavor. The rice and peas and cabbage sides get the job done to balance out the meal (make sure to ask for oxtail gravy on your rice), but the meats are the standout. Every time I buy raw chicken at the grocery store now, I think to myself how I could just get more meat for less money at Irie Mon which has been cooked to perfection with zero effort on my part instead. The late hours are unparalleled, desperately needed, and frustratingly rare in a metro area containing over 6 million people claiming to be the epicenter of the Southeast. If you can get past the occasional tiny bone fragments in the food resulting from the violent chopping of the meat while you await your order, and the counter service which prompts no friendliness or kindness even to a regular like myself, you will be heftily rewarded with the food you can only dream about cooking for...