Yardie Spice — Restaurant in Homestead

We've been coming to YS for years. Love supporting local & family owned business.

The good: The food here is exceptional! I haven't tried all the items. But the dishes we have had have been great. We highly recommend the oxtail, jerk chicken, curry chicken, and my favorite, the sweet Chili salmon. It truly is amazing. 🤤 the rice and peas is really good but a little different than your typical rice and peas from other Jamaican spots I've had. The staff/owners are super nice. They treat you like family. They are so kind and welcoming. 😊

The bad: There's nothing really "bad" to say. The only complaints I have is probably that the dishes are a bit pricey and the protien is a little slack. For example, the salmon dish is $25, and the salmon isn't too big but brings a ton of rice, no plaintians or salad. I would have liked a larger piece of fish and a 2nd side instead of so much rice. The same goes for the oxtail. Oxtail dish has maybe 5 or 6 pieces, but oxtail are very fatty and mainly all bone, so it doesn't quite fill me up. I don't like to fill up off rice, so that is a bit of a bummer. The chicken dishes are more "protein filled." Not sure about the other fish or pork dishes.

My 2nd "complaint" is just that I wish they moved to a better location. They are currently in a little shopping strip that you'll easily pass if you're not paying attention. It's a cute, cozy spot, but the shopping center is a bit run down, and the inside is very small, with just a few tables to eat. It would be awesome if they would relocate to a larger, more real type "restaurant" location to be able to go with a large group, eat have some drinks and really enjoy with maybe even some live reggae music. Whem dining in, their presentation is great. Its just screaming for a real restaurant. Lol. That would be cool. Hopefully, they can do that soon as homestead is growing.

Overall, this is a nice hidden gem. Most entrees are pretty spicy but super delicious. Go and enjoy yourself, you won't regret...

So I was down here in Homestead as a home base for exploring Biscayne and Everglades National Parks. I had a gap of time between my kayaking tour and my boat tour at the Biscayne, so I decided to race back into town and try one of the absolute best sounding restaurants in the state. The lowkey awards this place has been winning really make it sound like a must-see.

I showed up right around the time it opened, but the small dining room was almost already full! Popular! So we squeeze into a corner, and walk to this absolutely delightful lady who does it all, serving, cashing out, to-go orders. She was the jack of all trades here, probably the owner. She was great.

While were were waiting for our food, I tried out a Jamaican cream soda, as seen in the picture. It was very good. Not too sweet, not too creamy, can't explain it better than that. It was good. And they have a cooler full of other delightful looking drinks there in the middle of the dining room.

As for the food itself, I had to go with the Jamaican Curry Goat (Comes with Rice, Salad and sweet plantain). Goat is not popular enough in this country, but if everyone just tried this curry goat, there would be an explosion, I promise. But then, the price of goat would soar, so nevermind. Don't try this.

But serious. This stuff was So tender. Fell off the bone with no effort whatsoever, and the flavor was deep, deep deep, and not too spicy. The Jamaican rice that it came with was very fluffy and absorbed all the curry juice super nicely, spreading the love. And this dish came with dessert, the sweet plantains were ooey gooey and a perfect way to end the meal.

Overall, I'm sure you've heard of this place from somewhere if you've landed here reading this, and rest assured, this place is amazing, some of the best food I've found in homestead, and the best curry goat I've ever had that wasn't made my a friend. Real home...

My food wasn’t that great. I was so excited to go and try it because several people I know recommended it. I ordered the curry chicken with rice and beans and the Jamaican patties. The patties were made fresh to order and the filling was okay but they were very over cooked. The edges were almost burnt which ruined the entire taste. I forced myself to eat these since I did pay $3.00 each for them. Maybe the cook was just rushing or forgot about them while cooking as it did get a bit busy. I’m not sure. The curry chicken didn’t have much flavor.. they were fall off the bone tender but tasted more like chicken dipped in curry water( not trying to be rude or disrespectful just giving my best description). Also, I only ate a bit of it because the more I looked at the chicken, it had not a brown or yellowish color but more a grey color to it.. especially once I pulled it apart (It was so gray that I didn’t eat it). The rice and beans were also very bland and seemed over steamed or cooked and the salad was mushy. The portion sizes are large but not worth the value if it doesn’t taste good. Needless to say, I will not be returning here.

The ambience is not very Covid friendly but more of what you would expect from a restaurant like this. It was quaint but really could use a bit of TLC on the inside (paint, freshen up)

The owner was nice and moved as fast as he could but the service here is very slow. It is probably best to call your order in and pick it up to shorten your wait if you plan to visit.

The one thing that I did like was that it seemed the owner is very big on helping others and giving back to the community so although I didn’t really eat or enjoy the food, it helped me feel a bit better about...