Irie Ting Jamaican Grill — Restaurant in Richmond

Before I begin my review I'd like to say that it is solely based on the food. My meal was a take out order and I, therefore, can not comment on any in person service. That being said: I ordered from the restaurant on January 14th through grubhub. Based on the reviews I was excited about and had high hopes for the food. My mouth was fixed on oxtails and rasta pasta.I've had dishes like these at Caribbean/ Jaimaican restaurants in New York. They were amazing and something I craved when I returned home. So you can only image my extreme disappointment at the entrees I received. My mother and opted for the oxtail meal, rasta pasta, beef Patty's, fried plantains and an order of coco bread to split. Everything.... EVERYTHING was absolutely disappointing. The only reason I'm giving 2 stars is because when called to be told they were OUT OF oxtails for the evening, by whom I'm assuming was the manager or manager on duty, I was offered a refund for not only the side of oxtails but the rices and peas/cabbage order as well. I thought that was good customer service. But the food we did receive was unsatisfactory putting it nicely. There was absolutely NOTHING rasta about that pasta. It was basic alfredo sauce and noodles with spinach and tomatoes? The flavor was bland and unappealing. I paid an extra $5 to have shrimp added and I think I literally paid a dollar per shrimp because that's all I got. And to make matters sadder that was the only thing that had any flavor to it. More shrimp and the dish would have been decent! the coco bread was quite literally a plain bun. I've had coco bread where it's usually lightly toasted with a nice caramelized toasted layer that I'm assuming is sugar not really sure but it's delicious. This...plain bun that I paid $2 for was not good. Highly disappointed the plantain was decent. Not great, rather mediocre. Bland. -the beef Patty's we saved the next day for lunch. Again incredibly bland no flavor. The frozen beef Patty's you get from Costco has more flavor than the ones I received from the restaurant.

I'm not sure what's going on in the kitchen but someone in there is CLEARLY not cooking with any type of love or passion and should be retrained or removed. All in all for the price I paid for this meal it was not worth it...AT ALL. I'm in Richmond to receive a bone marrow transplant waiting for the cancer to go into remission again to receive the transplant. I'm trying to enjoy not having a strict diet before being admitted to the transplant floor where what I eat will be heavily monitored and controlled. This restaurant experience was...

I ordered the curry goat w/ rice and peas and extra gravy and it was so delicious. I also ordered the mac and cheese by its self and the Mac and cheese oxtail egg rolls which I didn't care for and I will do my best to be as detailed as possible.

Lets start with the curry goat. Being a NYC native, carribbean food for me has some really high expectations. It is very rare to find carribean restaurants in the south as prevalent as they are in NYC. In addition to that, curry goat is a dish that has become extremely hard to find in Virginia except for very few places. However, the curry goat from Irie was tender and flavorful, the rice and peas were cooked to perfection. The rice was soft and fluffy and the beans were soft but not mushy. I opted for extra gravy and they were generous and the gravy wasn't a bunch of oil.

The mac and cheese had the perfect amount of cheese and would have been perfect had it not had seasoning in it. There was this strong garlic seasoning flavor to the mac and cheese that I could not get past. Mac and cheese is one of my favorite dishes but I just am not someone who likes garlic or any seasoning for that matter in that particular dish.

The mac and cheese and oxtail egg rolls just wasn't what I expected. I've had this before when I lived in NYC so I was so excited to try it at Irie Ting. I was expecting to bite into the egg roll and taste the braised oxtail and cheddar from the mac and cheese. But when I bit into it, it was like the oxtail was on top of the macaroni instead of mixed in together and the macaroni cheese wasn’t stretchy or cheesy enough. This did come with some delicious oxtail gravy for dipping.

Overall the two sides may not have been the best but that curry goat and rice and peas was a 10 out of 10. I will definitely be ordering that from them again.

I ordered through Uber eats, my delivery was quock and they secured the...

Totally ridiculous, Outrageous Monday service pickup at your establishment. 6/1/2024 12:15 Ready here we go I was informed that my call in order will be ready in 20 minutes. Note the time as I got there. Everything was fine. Staff was friendly, smiling and engaging. After paying the $50 for the order, I was informed to go in a darkened hallway called the waiting room, what in the world. First red flag I was out of sight from staff..Time came and went it's now 12:50pm, they forgot that I had placed an order so One of the staff members peeked around the corner saw me sitting in the waiting area. She replied I'm going to check on your order. Came back and said that they're waiting on the chicken. To be cooked, how long does it take chicken to cook, they forgot my order. A couple of minutes passed , it is now 1:10pm. When the order finally arrived. It seemed to me that it was rushed and your Staff member could not make eye contact with me because again they had forgotten my order, and they gave no apologies, just placed my food on the counter, and I looked at my order and I know what jerk chicken is suppose to look like, but I'm sorry this jerk chicken was not tender nor appealing, I threw it away, and I wish I would have taken a picture of this mess. I don't want my money nor anymore of your food but an apology really would be nice for wasting my time for an hour and I didn't get any good food out of my wait. To sum it all up, I was told it will be ready in 20 minutes. I spent 1 hour in that place waiting for my food. And I am not satisfied, I had brought my wife out on a lunch date, so I will not be coming back ever to this particular restaurant anymore. I will tell my friends and families not to frequent your establishment either. You all have to do better. Feel free...