Caribbean Queen Jerk Buffet is located at 14 Bradstock Road, just north of Weston Road and Sheppard Ave. W. in Toronto's northwest. There are other Caribbean Queen locations, however this one is the only AYCE one. Price is the same all day, $22.99 Mon. to Wed. and $29.99 all other days, so as can be probably guessed, we went on a Monday! Pop is canned not AYCD but is only $1.33 which is quite reasonable.
Caribbean Queen has a nice interior with bright Jamaican-style decoration. I'm unsure what the soup was but it was delicious... probably oxtail and had delicious seasoning including coconut milk. Fried chicken was delicious. Sweet and sour chicken was also very good, but beware as there is some heat.
Mishy loved the sweet chili and honey garlic chicken. Curry chicken was very good and not excessively hot. Jerk chicken was, unfortunately, as it had this persistent heat that took many minutes to go away, otherwise was quite good.
Dumpling was excellent with the flavour of biscuit flour, so even though it was just plain it didn't require anything else. Smoked herring was good as the smokiness killed some of the fishy flavour, but be advised that it's still pretty fishy, being herring of course. Collard and spinach was delicious and smoky. Saltfish and broad bean paste was quite good, and not fishy like the herring thankfully. Curried chickpeas potatoes and green beans was excellent with a nice flavour balance and not too hot. There was an unsweet banana and taro dish that wasn’t bad but I didn’t get the name of it.
For dessert which we had early not knowing what it was, porridge was fantastic as it had a flavour seemed like was pistachio, as I had it before in pistachio almond ice cream and it works beautifully with it; however I asked about it and was advise it was simply peanuts... never knew such a flavour could be coaxed out of the humble goober. We had a great lunch and as this fare is quite filling I wasn’t hungry for the remainder of the day. Disregarding any other days, the $22.99 Mon. to Wed. price is a very good value, so much so it is reflected in the rating.
Rating: 9 – 9.5 / 10
