Caribbean taste Jamaican food — Restaurant in Richmond

So.... let me just say I like doing Google reviews because I want to help people like me who are looking for good places near them. I say this with love because there is so much potential.

Service- frankly I don't expect the warm and fuzzy service from Jamaican restaurants. The service here was straight forward, although they didn't have a lot of food options available. Like 40% of the menu was not an option. It would be great if that was made clear. This is not my first time here and not the first time most options were not available.

Food- I ordered a classic, curry chicken. Now in my opinion it's really hard to mess this up. But..... the curry chicken lacked the curry roux that everyone loves. It also was spicy in the most unnecessary way, and I love spicy but not with this. The rice and peas was sweet, which was not great, it seemed to be made with coconut milk. The cabbage was not great either and generally everything lacked seasoning.

Atmosphere- I drive by daily and rarely see anyone parked there, much less sitting outside on their patio. They have the potential to be great but being more interactive, pairing down the menu, and making the few dishes amazing would truly benefit this business.

The two stars are because it's edible and I did this to myself smh. But honestly I hope the owners and chef see this and invest in themselves and make the business better

Edit (March 30) So I see the owner's reply accusing me of being from another store. I am quite google-able, and not affiliated, just a regular person who loves carribean food. I do hope they take into account the other reviews saying similar things I did. But with that said save yourself the trouble and don't eat here. There are definitely better...

The establishment isn’t in the best location. It sits on the side of the road and you can easily drive past it if you aren’t paying attention. Inside it’s clean and well lit however the air is stagnant so it’s a bit humid.

The woman who served me was friendly and professional so three stars for her alone. However……the oxtails are severely overpriced. $25 for a small and $30 for the large!

To complete my review and compare apple to apples, I ordered a small and another small from another Jamaican establishment on Hull St, near Warwick.

Caribbean Taste was ‘okay’ but not as good as the other restaurant. Maybe I went on an off day. They were out of seafood and vegetarian option, reggae chicken and reggae wings. I could’ve easily spent $100 trying different dishes but unfortunately that was not an option today.

Not naming the other restaurant on purpose but if you’re from the area you already know :-).

In my opinion it was missing the spices I’m used to. The oxtail, rice and peas, and cabbage were very oily. The brown stew chicken was dry and lacked taste.

I definitely wish the business well. The price for the oxtails isn’t fitting the location. It’s even worse when the other restaurant charged $13.50 for the same small oxtail. I try to support small business but this was a one woman show so the cost isn’t comparable to another small business...

I love to support but I literally took three bites and threw my food away. I got the curry chicken with white rice and cabbage. I asked for extra gravy. Didn’t get any. I can be a rice snob so I didn’t take away for the rice ( it had to be short grain minute rice, but a suggestion would be long grain or jasmine) but the chicken had so many little bones in it. It was all in the rice and cabbage little pieces of chicken bones. How is the chicken so dry and it’s curry? Maybe use quarter chicken pieces. I love that white meat was used but if it’s going to be dry I’ll take dark. I also would suggest more curry seasoning added as it was bland. I think someone said it tasted like the seasoning was washed off before serving. That’s exactly what it tasted like to me. I drove 16 minutes for this and don’t think I will return unless someone convinces me otherwise. Everyone has a bad day. The restaurant was empty and she didn’t seem at all happy to have a customer. The place...