Royal Caribbean Cafe  – 1127 St Clair Ave W, Toronto, ON M6E 1B1
Country: Jamaica        
Must-try dish: Caribbean Curry Goat
Seating: Only indoor seating. 
Dinner guests: Dan’s Date, Island Dan & Suited Sebastien
The high: You have your picks of all the Jamaican classics to pick from on the menu, made well. 
The low: More often than not, the meats will have bones in the stews, so grow up and eat around them. 

The Royal Caribbean Cafe is an institution on St. Clair West that serves diners coming from near and far to satisfy Jamaican food cravings. It’s been open for almost three decades, and it’s still thriving. The menu is stacked with classics from the island nation, which make deciding on what to order a difficult task. This unique cuisine is one of the most popular and delicious in the Caribbean, and everytime that we get the chance to eat the good stuff, it’s an absolute treat. 

A hybrid table service program is implemented but you get comfortable at your table as you can stay as long as you want with your takeout containers, reusable cutlery, and cold beers. Instead of plates, you’ll have to rely on the lids of plastic boxes, who ever needed china plates anyway? 

Predictably we needed an order of Our House Jerk Chicken to compare it to all the others from restaurants past, and it can confidently be said that Royal Caribbean’s recipe is worth every bite. The kick in the house made rub won’t torch your taste buds, instead it will infuse them with flavours in every bite. Anything coated with a jerk blend, and there are several options on this menu, will taste wonderful. 

Having a Jamaican meal without oxtail is like a day at the beach without sunshine. It sucks. You have to order it, and you’re going to love it everytime. The tender chunks of slow cooked meat are saucy, and it literally falls off the bone by simply grazing it. Odder the Chef’s Oxtail – thank us later. 

The Caribbean Curried Goat? Yes please. Goat meat may not be for everyone, but this one actually is. It’s served as stew with traditional herbs and spices, which eliminates any gamey tastes if that’s what you’re worried about. This was hands-down our favourite dish of the night and we would keep going back for it. Similar to the other meat dishes on order, it comes with the classics: rice and peas. Whateer they do to the rice, there’s an addictive quality to it, and despite having our fair share, it was all gone by the end of the meal. 

For a little diversification, the Shrimp Roti was the fourth and final main dish that we ordered. A roti is similar to a tortilla wrap, so all the ingredients are stuffed inside it and it’s bundled up tightly. This isn’t the easiest dish to share, yet among friends it’s easy to dig in and get your own section to feast on. The shrimp acted as a sort-of palate cleanser from the heavier meat dishes as it was in a lighter sauce with onions and sweet peppers. 

Two of the best side dishes of all-time accompanied the rest of the meal – an order of Festivals and two orders of Plantains. Festivals are unique to Jamaican cuisine, and are a perfect addition to fish and meat dishes. These deep fried pieces of bread are reminiscent of donuts without the sweetness. Kind of like an Old-Fashion Plain donut at Tim Hortons. Plantains are more common across the island countries, and you can seriously never go wrong with them, hence our larger than normal order. These fried fruit pieces add sweetness to any dish and also taste incredible on their own. 

Unfortunately, two good looking dishes weren’t available on the night we ate here – the Jamaican Codfish Fritters and the Ackee & Salt Fish. We’ll just have to go back! We’ve been told that if a Jamaican restaurant has all the dishes on the menu available something just isn’t right, so lucky for us Royal Caribbean Cafe didn’t give us any red flags

Eat with you soon, 

Mandrea Bike
(Mat & Andrea)