Island Vybz LLC — Restaurant in City of Plattsburgh

I REALLY want to like this place, but... Not yet. Not entirely. Here's the problem:

Rice should NEVER be screwed up. I mean, ever. If you call yourself a cook or a chef then you know how to steam and even fry rice and keep it warm. The rice I received was lacking heavily on peas (even though I wanted veggies), and the rice somehow was both overcooked and undercooked at the same time lol. I don't get it.

IMO.. every small shop like this needs a rice cooker. If they don't have one and they're cooking batches of rice in a pot that needs to stop. Even if you have to ASK walk-in customers to wait 10 mins for a cup of rice and some frozen peas to cook in a rice cooker, I would have waited.

When it comes to a lot of ethnic foods, rice is a KEY component. If I order a curry or stew, I want to mix that sauce with my rice to enjoy it.

Speaking of sauce..

I tried both the brown stew chicken AND the pork and both meats get a 7/10. They were good, with some pieces being better than other pieces. I definitely got bits of fried chicke mixed in. The sauces they were cooked in get a 4.5/10.. they were very bland. Definitely not spicy in any way, shape or form. Granted.. I didn't get a curry, but I still expected a LITTLE heat from a Jamaican restaurant.

My only other complaint about the food is the inclusion of bones in some meals, and I even found bits of bone in my meal. To me, this isn't acceptable. It's so easy to chip a tooth or gag on something like this. You have small bones hidden within chunks of meat and if you're just picking at it with a fork you may not see or know what your next bite will entail.

As for the store itself, very lackluster. They sell a few specialty drinks but don't seem to be keeping up with inventory. They could probably have a lot more interesting items for locals if they shopped on Weeee! or something.

They definitely seem to be focusing on their food, which is good, but certain things need to improve because the store looks like they're moving in and moving out at the same time lol.

The folks in there are friendly and they offer samples if you stop in and want to try something

IMO they simply need to up their rice game, and I'd prefer if they did beans and rice instead of peas and rice. Either way, make it a dirty white rice and it needs to be steam cook and nice and soggy to pair with the many sauces. No thin, hard rice.

It'd also be nice if they offered jerked pork and chicken daily, maybe even smoked it a bit, at least 50% in small batches. I tried the goat and it was ok, but still kind weird for me as a typical American. I like what I like, and pork and chicken will outsell goat any day.

Anyway.. I will try again from here. Wish them the best. PLEASE fix the damn rice lol. Please plan for more fried and jerked chicken. The stew was good, keep it up. Please try to stay away from bones and cartilage in the meat. I'm telling you, if you did better cuts you could charge MORE and no one would care. The moment someone break a tooth on a bit of...

Words cant describe how good the food is , from top top to bottom the service and food this place provides feels like a mothers touch, I can go on about this place how it fed me during a holiday where they provide not just the food but the delivery. Then going today in their new location at the lake Champlain mall was the best experience I've had at the mall. The man that was working there had taken my order had very acceptional service, I asked for what I wanted and what took me by surprise might be overlooked but this man asked me if I wanted some sauce I said yes but it was what next what he asked which could easily be overlooked was when he asked me if I wanted one or two scoops ( im pretty sure if I asked for a third he would've given it to me) There was a man who had walked passed me and asked "would you recommend this guy" My words "Yes. I make sure when I come to plattsburgh ny I'll take time to come to Island Vibes. If you enjoy and want authenticity of Jamaican food this...

Been here 3x. Twice they didn't have food, we were asked if we could wait an hour one time.and the other nothing. The 3rd time I called to make sure they had food, I was told yes , and allegedly they close at 10, got there at 7:45..the were closed. More than disappointed, we won't go back there again, there were 4 of us and it was a...