Jamaican in Miami

219 NE 79th St. Miami Shores/Biscayne Park

305-757-2889

B & M Market -- which has been featured on Michelle Bernstein's television show Check, Please! South Florida (Episode 106) and twice in the Miami Herald -- has been open since 1980. And according to co-owner Nafeeza Ali, it is one of the first and longest-running West Indian grocery stores in Miami. In 1990, Nafeeza and her husband, Sheir, bought the place from her uncle. Ever since, they've been selling authentic Caribbean products and serving hot take-out orders such as oxtail (small for $8, large for $10), stew beef ($7 to $9), jerk chicken ($7 to $9), cow foot stew ($8), salt fish and ackee ($8), and the West Indian burrito, goat roti ($6). "If you want something not too big or heavy, it's just right - bigger than a sandwich, lighter than a meal, but it can be a meal too," Nafeeza says of roti, which also comes in a vegetarian variety ($4). The best part about B & M's food: There's no MSG but plenty of fresh herbs and spices. "We go to the market on NW 12th Avenue and 20th Street," Nafeeza says with pride. Also available are natural medicine/remedy products.

3 articles

Cliff's Restaurant

10740 NW 7th Ave. North Miami

305-754-2679

Caribbean, Jamaican, Best Of

This cluttered roadside room contains some tables scattered about and a counter with stools in front and hand-printed signs behind it touting assorted breakfast, lunch, and dinner specials. Cliff's seems left over from another era, and so do the prices. For $5.50 you can get a lunch of jerk chicken, pork chops, cow foot, or any number of West Indian specialties, served with red-bean-studded rice, steamed cabbage, fried plantains, and fruit punch or lemonade. If you know of a better deal in town, please clue us in. Other bargains include six pieces of crunchy fried chicken with French fries for $5.00, and a breakfast special of yam, banana dumpling, and callaloo for $6.50. Of course these deals wouldn't be nearly as impressive if the food weren't so lip-smackingly tasty. Worth the trip alone is curry goat, with soft morsels of dark meat adrift in an emerald green sauce whose ginger-mustard-masala mix kicks in full flavor. Barbecue is worthy as well, and a black smoker on the side of the restaurant is piled with chicken, ribs, and pork. Whether slathered with barbecue sauce or jumped with jerk seasonings, the meats are absolutely imbued with full, slow-smoked flavor. Cliff's caters weddings and such, and also throws a pretty good party of its own come weekend evenings, when island tunes waft through the air and dancing fills the streets (or at least the adjoining lot).

4 articles

Clive's Cafe

5890 NW Second Ave., Ste. A Little Haiti/Liberty City

305-757-6512

Jamaican, Caribbean, Best Of, Essentials

Clive's Cafe makes its mark with Jamaican favorites such as curry goat, oxtail, and jerk chicken. The original Wynwood location, which had been around for nearly four decades, closed, but the Little Haiti digs make for a colorful haven in which to eat some of the best Jamaican fare in Miami. The chicken is cooked to diner perfection and the curry is a smooth and subtle blend. The jerk chicken with rice and beans is a favorite menu item. The mood is laid-back — right down to the small radio pumping out reggae sounds. You just may catch Clive's fan Lenny Kravitz taking in the scene. The place is great for takeout but just as nice for a pit stop at any time of day.

4 articles

Dave Jamaican Bakery and Restaurant

700 NW 183rd St. Miami Gardens

305-652-1231

Jamaican, Restaurants, Recommended

Okay, there are like, five tables in the "dining room," and that dining room closes by 5:00 p.m. most afternoons (8:00 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays), so calling this modest cinderblock structure a bakery and restaurant might be stretching it. Inside, Dave is little more than a counter, the left side devoted to bakery sales (breads, patties, pastries), and the right to take-out orders of savory items. If "restaurant" is an overstatement, "savory" might be an understatement. The jerk pork is addictively seasoned; just spicy enough to require you to take a forkful of rice every third bite or so. The portion is generous, accompanied by a huge mound of rice and pigeon peas (your choice of white rice, rice and peas, or butter beans). Braised oxtail, the most expensive entrée, is slow-cooked and fork-tender, with a multilayer depth of home-cooked flavor. The brief menu is rounded out by a daily soup, a few curries, including goat, and a variety of fish dishes. The patties are good and freshly baked, available in mild or spicy. Dave also prepares Jamaican-style sourdough bread and a deliciously moist, fruit-studded, sweetly spiced Easter bun.

Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen

316 NW 24th St. Midtown/Wynwood/Design District

786-334-5150

Jamaican, Best Of

2 articles

Ginger Bay Cafe

1908 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood

954-924-1844

Caribbean, Jamaican, Music Venues, Bars and Clubs, Menu

Ginger Bay Café is known for its smooth Caribbean vibe, featuring tunes as spicy as the jerk chicken. With live music five nights a week, you've got several options to choose from. Wednesdays at the Bay is "dance hall night." Thursdays feature soca and calypso music. Round out the weekend with reggae on Friday and Saturday nights, and wind down to jazz on Sundays. Ginger Bay Café is the only Caribbean restaurant in downtown Hollywood, so where else would you go to satisfy your craving for good times and island food? This late-night club-crawl stop-off point serves spicy jerk chicken, whole fried fish, and potent-as-hell rum drinks. Not the kind of place for quiet dinner conversations and soft lighting, this lively Caribbean hangout comes equipped with DJs blaring reggae, hip-hop, and R&B and live bands playing into the wee hours.

Island Restaurant & Variety Food Store

10201 Hammocks Blvd. South Dade

305-388-5118

Caribbean, Jamaican, Best Of

You don't have to head all the way to the island nation to get your fill of Jamaican food -- just to the Hammocks, to Island Restaurant & Variety Food Store. At this orange-walled eatery, you can sample all the traditional Jamaican eats that might otherwise be difficult to find. Think callaloo with codfish, oxtail, red pea soup and, of course, Jamaican patties. All served up with a smile.

1 article

Jamaican Kitchen

8736 SW 72nd St. East Kendall/Pinecrest

305-596-2585

Chinese, Jamaican, Recommended, Best Of, Menu

Jamaica Kitchen has been simmering down south in the Sunset West Shopping Center for over 25 years. The owners seem to know most of the customers, a steady stream that stroll in, place their orders at the main counter, and exit bearing plastic grocery bags that can barely contain the foods' aromatics — all to an island beat that bounces about in the background. Diners eating in also transact their meals at the counter. The workers here, many of whom are family, couldn't be nicer. "Wi ah di bess!" is the motto, and when it comes to low-budget dining, the boast holds merit. Lunch and dinner are served all day, the latter of heftier portion and dished into larger containers. Don't miss the jerk pork or jerk chicken — or, for that matter, the juicy, hacked-up Chinese roast chicken with buoyant five-spice fireworks. Jamaican patties are topnotch too. All items are also available to go.

6 articles

Jamrock Cuisine

12618 N. Kendall Dr. West Kendall

305-598-7625

Jamaican, Chinese, Recommended, Best Of, Slideshow

Chef Maurice Chang's Chinese father and Jamaican mother taught him to make magic when he was growing up in Manchester Parish, near Jamaica's southern coast. One of Chang's signatures is an egg roll that's unlike any you find folded in wax paper. It starts with a thin yellow egg batter on a griddle, and as it firms, he lays down a slick of ground pork fortified with garlic and ginger. It's rolled, cooled, and sliced to reveal umami-packed disks adorned with pinwheel patterns. It comes on the choy fan — which is filled out with roast chicken, char sui (Chinese barbecued pork), and white or fried rice — as well as on the tousle of yellow egg noodles, protein, and bok choy called sui mein. Next time you think about take-out, think again.

2 articles

Mangrove

103 NW First Ave. Downtown/Overtown

786-734-0834

Jamaican, Best Of, Essentials

This lively spot is the sister restaurant to Aventura's fast-casual Jamaican concept, Jrk! Mangrove sneakily appeared on the scene at the start of the year. Those in the know visited it first as more of a late-night dance hall spot. Now in its full glory, Mangrove is a speakeasy-style, full-service restaurant with Jamaican dishes that are packed with island flavor — like jerk chicken, jerk mac & cheese, and griot with pikliz. It has stylish retro decor and DJs to keep the ambiance consistent. Bartenders serve cocktails named after popular reggae songs, like the "Is This Love?" with gin and watermelon juice and an espresso martini riff called the "Get Up Stand Up!" with caramel whiskey and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. Mangrove adds a welcome element of culture and community to a dining scene that struggles to offer options that represent the wants and tastes of a younger, hip Caribbean crowd.

2 articles

Palatino Jamaican Restaurant

3004 NW Second Ave. Midtown/Wynwood/Design District

786-360-5200

Caribbean, Jamaican, Best Of, Menu

3 articles

The Patty Place

19547 NW Second Ave. Miami Gardens

305-652-1787

Jamaican, Caribbean, Recommended, Best Of, Menu

On a busy strip off 441 in Miami Gardens sits a strip mall devoted to all things Caribbean. While trying to hustle for a hard-to-come-by parking space in this tiny lot, you barely notice the plain-Jane storefront located in the middle of the complex. Patty Place is a walk-through, 300-square-foot take-out joint where you can find some of the best Jamaican patties outside of Kingston. Choose from selections ranging from sweet plantain to corned beef to the traditional ackee (a Jamaican fruit that tastes and looks like scrambled eggs) to our personal favorite, the callaloo loaf, a spinach-stuffed pastry that looks like an overgrown empanada.

4 articles

Sango Jamaican and Chinese Restaurant

9485 SW 160th St. Cutler Bay/Palmetto Bay

305-252-0279

Jamaican, Chinese, Recommended, Best Of, Menu, Slideshow

You can find better Chinese food elsewhere, but Sango is unparalleled when it comes to serving up big portions of authentic, affordable, and delicious Jamaican cuisine. A rotating daily menu ensures fresh meals, but it also means you'll have to consult the calendar when choosing which day to visit. Wednesday is jerk day, with succulent chunks of spicy pork; it's also the day that Jamaica's popular pepper-pot soup gets ladled. Also recommended: ackee and codfish, and curried goat. Primarily a take-out operation, Sango also has a small area with tables and chairs for onsite dining. Not much ambiance, mind you, and the closest thing to alcohol is imported ginger beer, but the nonstop procession of people coming in, placing orders, waiting, and then leaving with very large paper bags filled with very good food makes for pleasurable people-watching.

4 articles

Sonia's Patties

10852 SW 104th St. West Kendall

305-598-6695

Jamaican, Recommended

When you walk into Sonia's Patties, you see two things: The first is usually a group of people waiting around for their order. The second is an impatient person wincing in pain after biting into a searing-hot patty fresh out of the fryer. Choices here are simply mild and spicy beef and curry chicken. Patties are fried to order, so be patient and don't burn yourself. If you're lucky, you'll go on a day when they're selling curry lobster patties on the cheap.

Jamaican in Miami

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