Akwaaba Meat & Fish Market, West Indian Store — Restaurant in Newark

I had a really disappointing experience here today. As a Guyanese woman, I hate leaving bad reviews for my fellow Guyanese people, but the service left me no choice. A light-skinned lady checked me out when I bought chicken fried rice along with a couple of other items, but I had to wait for the fried rice to be ready. While waiting — which took over 20 minutes — I took out a cream soda that I had already paid for and started drinking it.

When my food was finally ready, she asked me, “Did you pay for the cream soda?” I told her yes and showed her my receipt. She actually looked at it and said, “I just wanted to see.” It was such a strange and uncomfortable moment, especially since she was the same person who rang me up.

As for the food, the chicken fried rice was okay. The rice itself was flavorful, but the chicken had a weird taste/flavoring — definitely not like the usual Guyanese-style Chinese chicken. I’ve eaten at many Guyanese Chinese restaurants in New York/ Guyana, and this was my first time having it taste like that.

Also, the prices are really high. I spent $43 on items that would’ve cost around $20 total in New York. I understand that Jersey might be more expensive and there’s less competition, but the prices still feel way too high.

I really want to ask you guys to please train your employees better. It’s so wrong and humiliating to ask someone that kind of question in front of a bunch of people — and to actually check their receipt — especially when you were the one who rang them up in the...

As someone who has been a loyal customer since they've opened I have to say that service has definitely declined. I'm from Queens, NY so I'm surrounded by guyanese restaurants on every block. Anytime I visit Newark, we call ahead for pickup and we're told 15 mins. Upon arrival we always waited an additional 15-30mins. I can't tell if it's that they're slow, too busy talking up a storm in the kitchen to focus on cooking, or that they wait to see if the caller actually shows up before beginning to prepare the food. We've ordered both catering and regular orders and they're never on time.

Moving on to the food, it's always flavorful and cooked well. However, attached in my review is a picture of their veggie fried rice. The container is exactly half full. For $10 this doesn't make sense to me. In Queens, a tray of food is filled to the brim for say $12-15 which is what should be reconsidered here to not make someone feel like they've been ripped off. I value honesty and transparency especially when it comes to food establishments.

So to take away from this, fill your containers up, charge appropriately for it and stop lying to people that it's only 15mins then give me a sorry excuse that the kitchen is busy when it's really not since I can clearly stand there and hear that everyone in the kitchen is too busy laughing and talking to focus...

Great place they have a lot of things you will need, HOWEVER customer service sucks, no proper manners very rude owner he shouts at people nasty to children, and if you complain about there food he tell you off and say things like well go somewhere else to buy nobody ask you to buy here or you should throw food in trash why complain, this individual does not have no manners and no customer service experience. On top of all this they claim to sell HALAAL cook food but that’s not the case they had Halaal on menu they now remove it but still claim to sell HALAAL food. The sisters of owner are nice but the guy In self is extremely rude.. I know they will respond to my review and be nasty because I saw how nasty customer service they had on other people reviews and please by all means see for yourself and go experience it for yourself just comment on something and see...