14 Parish Kitchen — Restaurant in Hackensack

I have visited this restaurant a few times in the past and have enjoyed what I purchased. However, the last time I visited this restaurant an incident occurred which will forever prevent me from eating here again. I Ordered a saltfish and butter bean and 2 veggie patties from 14 Parish Caribbean Kitchen in Hackensack, NJ. The fish and beans tasted expired when I got to work so I called them and told them I’d bring it back after work. After work I brought the dish Back uneaten with everything in the plate. Upon arrival with the entire dish and receipt in hand, I was told basically that I didn’t know what I was tasting and maybe it was the ketchup in the dish that I didn’t like. I knew that wasn’t the case, as I had this dish from this restaurant previously and it did not taste like this. Additionally, my family is Jamaican and cooks this dish with ketchup too and I know what ketchup tastes like in butter beans and saltfish. What I was tasting was an extremely expired flavor. Eventually a man who seemed to be the manager/owner came out, gave me bad faces, and verbal attitude asking out loud and across the store to the lady at the register “if I was ruding off myself” amongst other things. He basically tried to bully me telling me I could not receive a refund because I ate the food. To me the most interesting part of that statement was that the food was actually untouched down to the dumplings. Additionally, I actually did not request a refund. I only wanted something else that was not expired.His bad looks and attitude continued for over 5 minutes in front of other customers. The lady at the register actually felt bad, apologized for his behavior, and walked over and told him that I was not giving her an attidtude. Eventually the man who gave me attitude wanted to speak with me and tried to set things right stating “respect respect” but for me it was too little and way too late. The dish I purchased cost $8. It’s a shame all of this transpired over an $8 dish, which had in fact went bad/expired. Very poor customer service!! I will not eat here again. Reggae kitchen in Teaneck, NJ on Teaneck Road has a friendly staff and the food is good. Additionally Mammas Kitchen On Vreeland in Paterson, NJ has the BESTTTTTT Jamaican food I’ve ever had from a Jamaican food restaurant in the USA! The jerk is real jerk and their special sauce is out this world. I placed a very large order at Mammas for my company’s event to feed 300 people. Not only did the food arrive hot but it was amazingly delicious and the staff was very respectful the...

I’m giving this please 5 stars only bc I hate leaving bad reviews but it was more like a 1 star experience. Also please take my review with a grain of salt bc my standards for Caribbean food is exceptionally high. BUT, for the sake of those looking for quality Caribbean cuisine in Jersey, I have to be honest about my disappointment.

I have island roots, grew up in Flatbush where there is no shortage of some of the city’s BEST Caribbean spots. I struggled to find good Caribbean food in NJ. The first time I tried 14 Parish, I got the breakfast liver with boiled plantain. It’s my fav breakfast so I was hyped. Sadly, I have no words for how inedible and overall terrible the meal was. The liver was hard, stale, maybe a day or two old as it crumbled when I bit into it and left a chalky consistency. There were no onions and WAY too many pimento peppers that I kept biting into. The flavor was bitter and pasty from the heavy hand used to season. At minimum, you can’t mess up the gravy, so I thought I at least had that to eat the plantains with bc I was starving, spent the money, waited the full hour. I couldn’t even do that!!

Despite the 1st experience, I decided to give them another try because the menu is pretty extensive and I was still excited abt the options. Sadly, I should have gone with my instinct. I got a curry goat roti and it just was not good. The goat meat was SUPER salty and served in a container full of oil. I dipped a piece into a side of pepper sauce I had, and the sauce congealed from how much oil was in the small piece I dipped.

The roti skin was really weird doughy texture that doesn’t make sense for roti skin, as it typically fluffy and light. The peas in the roti skin were like moist pieces of butter and not dry and crumbly as I expected. Also no potato or channa in the roti, even though the photo on Ubereats consists of both. Overall, I would give it a 1/10; it was the worst roti I’ve ever had in my life.

I do think this place has potential just given the options on the menu. There seems a genuine desire to share Caribbean cuisine with the North Jersey community; however, a little more effort is needed in order to perfect flavor profiles of basic but staple dishes in Jamaican cuisine, especially the 2 dishes that I tried. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be back to...

Came on a whim me and my partner and has a subpar experience. We walked into an empty restaurant 50 min before closing and the cashier is on a tablet and doesn't acknowledge us until about 1 minute of us standing there. Then kept repeating out order cause she wasn't listening. All we ordered was 1 large cowfoot and 2 sodas. Well, I seen the cowfoot and asked if there was more in the back since this was filled with all bones. She yelled to the woman in the back and was told yes. So bow another woman comes to serve the CF and I asked about the food in the back, she then proceeds to argue with me that there's no more even after she heard me ask and the reply I received. Anyways, she starts scooping and said she will skim the bones in the back and the chef came out and said she will see what she can do........ long story short I had 32 knuckles in my bowl with less than a 1/4 cup of meat total. We got to the car and tried our dish....... well let say I wasn't sure I asked for the right dish. It lacked texture and spice. Tasted like it was sitting in regular water honestly maybe a little cumin. Just bad. We had a terrible time fighting threw knuckles to get a taste of the meat. Won't be back and I assure you they will shape up after reading this. This was poor poor representation of your...