Jerk City

A friendly welcoming place with a great atmosphere. The food is no nonsense decent comfort food. The type of place that wouldn’t be amiss in Harlem.

Jamaican me crazy maaan. Grey days smashed out of the park when you come here in the warmth.
My fav choices are the Curry goat, Jerk chicken or the Oxtail curry. It was virtually a staple for a lunchtime visit each week if I was ever central working and I used to always drag people here. Portions are grand too.
Just good old home cooking and reasonable price. Been around for ages. Lot of celebs come here, as evidence with their photos of them (Idris Elba, June Sarpong, Richard Blackwood). Please note the décor is VERY basic inside. Nothing at all to shout about as its been around for ages and they’ve kept it the same. It’s therefore a good lunch stop or a non formal meal in evenings. One of my fav place for proper comfort food though and they do it well here in central (unless you know the local places in Brixton or Tottenham that do this sort of stuff).

Nigel and Wayne can’t do enough for you. From the table service (group of 9) to Wayne’s amazing playlists, this place is just what you need when you just want to order, pay, eat and chill. It’s not pompous nor grotty. It’s just like home

Very good!!! I tried the kidney bean rice, fried dumpling, plantain and oxtail stew! Very good meal!!! My only suggestion is that they should use long grain rice instead to really bring it home. Overall excellent and will be back whenever I need Caribbean food in London. In case you’re wondering I am from Barbados. So I can definitely appreciate good Caribbean food.

I love the vibe in this cute little restaurant. I’ve come here a few times over the last decade because it takes me on a holiday away from London every time I’ve been here! The jerk chicken is good, but the oxtails are better!!! If you’re craving Caribbean food while in central London this is your place!!! :)

This is a no nonsense place, quickly served and the food came pretty quick too, but didn’t taste like it was rushed or had been sitting around for a while.
All the usual stuff on the menu, I had the Ackee and Salt fish with rice and it was done perfectly. I’ve had this dish before in a few places and the fish hasn’t been soaked for long enough and is far too salty (looking at you Chelsea Negril in NYC) but this one was lovely. Large portions too, I was stuffed and i’m a greedy so and so.
I look forward to more days out in London so I can work my way through the menu.

Simply put, there are a number of Jamaican Restaurants in the UK and Jerk City is no exception. When I became home sick and in need of great West Indian Cuisine, Jerk City was my go to place. I tried every dish and enjoyed them all. Would definitely encourage others to do the same. The space is quite small though, I guess as an American small spaced restaurants are hard to get used to.

I admit, as a New Yorker with a Caribbean father, I’m a stickler for excellent/​authentic Jamaican/​Caribbean food. For my search in London, many reviews raved about Peppers & Spice in Dalston… and I was very disappointed (jerk chicken’s sauce should NOT taste like high fructose corn syrup).
When my friend suggested to nosh at Jerk City yesterday, I was reluctant to say the least, but I went anyway.
This is one of the nicer Caribbean restaurants I’ve been to between here and the States (Jerk City kind of has no choice though, as it’s in the highly competitive, über-​central Soho neighborhood). You place your order at the counter and– if you’re dining in– take a seat at a table. The service was quite nice, which is a pleasant surprise… I admittedly don’t expect much kind service from Caribbean joints based on long-​term experience.
Now to the food!
I ordered the jerk chicken meal (with rice and peas and salad) along with an order of fried plantains. I didn’t expect much after such a big let-​down at Peppers and Spice, and I can’t say the food here made me do a complete 180, but it was good. The rice and peas were well-​seasoned, the jerk still not up to my standards but tasty enough, and I wish the friend plantains were the darker, sweeter kind that I love so much.
The award winner for me was the ambiance. They played really awesome underground neo-​soul music, adding a bohemian flair to the dining experience.
All in all, I enjoyed Jerk City but it’s far from making me stop my search for the best Caribbean food London has to offer.

Well, I’m at home on a Sunday, with nothing better to do than to write a tremendously short and stuffed with mixed feelings review. As you can see from my stars, the good has defeated the not-​so-​good in the end and the jerk has won me over to the jerk side.
I really like the word ‘jerk’, it sounds funny and it carries a certain ring to it if you keep saying it over and over. You’ll find a lot of jerk here, it’s the City of Jerk we’re talking about. They serve quite big portions and it’s not like there’s a plate full of veggies with a miniature piece of chicken — the meat and veggies are equally distributed and you’ll find it surprising that you’ll run out of both at the same time.
It’s not very expensive, yet some of the dishes seem a tad overpriced as opposed to some other joints in the area.

So basically if you’re a food snob then you’re going to hate it here. If you’re a food geezer then your going love it here. The portions are massive, messy, and amazing. There’s kinda two types of jerk chicken. The dry kind and the saucy kind. This is the saucy. It comes with a mountain of rice and pea’s and for some reason a bit of
Cucumber? But bovd I like cucumber anyway. The walls are full of pictures of
Celebs who have eaten there, I sit under the Ludacris picture innit. Well done Jerk. Apparently they deliver now, if they do then they should probably pick up the phone.

This place was recommended by Action Bronson in one of his tour interview videos while in London he went shoe shopping then he got jerk chicken, actually the exact thing I did in the same order which is crazy!
So we step in from the heavy rain into this humble toasty abode for some authentic Jamaican jerk goodness. We are quickly met by the kind staff and immediately seated, of course I sat where Action Bronson sat and ordered the jerk chicken and the salty fish dumplings.
Having this be my first meal in London was a good idea cuz I attacked the tangy lickin chicken w no mercy, shoveled the rice and side salad. The flavor profile of this dish is explosive and authentic. The salty fish dumpling was tasty as well. Really glad I went and I definitely will be back next time Im In good ol foggy London Town!!!

Went to this place for lunch today and it was OK. Massive portion and tasty and spicy enough but the rice was very dry. Too dry. Double the price of the place in new cross I went for dinner and nowhere near as good.

This place was great! The guy at the front counter, who we assumed was the owner, was super friendly. He brought us bought 2 free plates of fried plantains, probably after noticing how much we enjoyed the first plate.
My brother ordered the jerk chicken and I ordered the chicken roti. The dishes came out hot, and the portions were huge. The jerk chicken fell off the bone and practically melted in your mouth. The rice was very flavorful and had an unique blend of spices. The chicken roti (roti folded over chicken curry) was also delicious. We left full and happy. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking to try out some Carribean food if you haven’t done so.

I saw this place in a list of oh-​so-​amazing places to eat with cuisines from different parts of the world. It is indeed Jamaican/​Caribbean. The deco is beautiful, with paintings/​photos of Obama, MLK, Bolt and others. They are famed for being laid back.
Initially I thought that was just part of the swagger of the West Indian. But when my order of Jerk Chicken (obviously) took 25 mins to come when I have a 1hr lunch break and I was taking away, I realised why the laid-​backness is attributed to these quite awesome dudes.
The food is good — but not fit for lunch at work — uts terribly difficult to tear off the meat from the bhicken and the packaging probably didn’t help either. All the stars are for the guys at the counter, the ambience and vibe of the place. 2 stars knocked off for slow service and hard-​to-​eat lunch.

Being Jamaican, I’m hyper critical of jerk/​Jamaican restaurants! I went into this a bit apprehensive, but it was pretty good.
When we arrived, we couldn’t quite figure out the order of things. Should we wait to be seated? Order in the front? Wait to have someone take our order? It just wasn’t clear. Fortunately this was the biggest frustration we had. Once we figured it out (order up front, take a seat in the back and wait for your food to be brought to you), we got to the business of ordering!
My cousin, who hasn’t had Jamaican food since August went H.A.M!!! He ordered jerk chicken wings, rice & peas, plantain, fried dumplings, and curry goat, all for him! I on the other hand just had oxtail and rice. He finished his without really offering so I can’t comment on what he had, but from the looks of it, he enjoyed it. As for me, I thought the food was well seasoned. It was pretty good, and as a place not too far from where I live, I will totally be going back and taking others.

I would hate to live in a place called Jerk City. Everyone would be so mean to each other! Unless it was an ironic name where it meant something other than it’s original intention. Like other nice people are allowed in Jerk City. That’d be ok.
But I digress.
This Jerk City isn’t actually about the status of it’s inhabitants but instead named for a Caribbean style of cooking where meat is either dry-​rubbed or marinated with hot Jamaican jerk spice. And you’ll get some downhome Carribean cooking for sure.
This place is… Ok, I’ll say it, kind of rundown. Especially for halfway down Wardour Street, which is filled which chic nightclubs and restaurants with brightly lit neon sighs. Jerk City, however, is a rectangular shaped space that actually is larger than it looks (it’s long with more tables in the back.) The paint on the walls are old, the floor is old, the tables are made of plastic. They’re not going for a style award here.
But it’s OK, because they don’t care. It’s not what they’re trying to do. They want to give you a home cooked Caribbean meal and that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
We were sat by a woman and waited and then realised we had to go up to the counter to order. Ok. I wanted to try the peppered steak but was told, bluntly, «No more steak. We’re out.» Cool, let’s do the jerk chicken them.
For £8, I got a big piece of chicken slathered in jerk sauce with rice and beans and veggies on a paper plate. It was good. Not amazing but home cooked and a style of food I don’t normally get to have, so it was excellent to try something new.
I might not know Carribean cooking well enough to make a full assessment of this spot but I had a nice meal and a good late-​night work meeting here. I would come back to try it again but only if someone else picked it as a spot. Otherwise, the bright lights of Wardour Street might call me in before getting here.

Good but not great. This place has been on my bookmark list for a while, so I made it a point to stop by when I was in the vicinity. Perhaps it was the time of day — 3PM smack in the middle of lunch and dinner — because my chicken platter was a little overdone. The rice was good, the sauce was good, but the chicken seemed too bony and too fatty.
The chicken flavor itself was spicy and sweet, so it was nice to have the bit of salad (a slice of tomato and a slice of cucumber with a handful of lettuce) to cool it off. Not much else on there and I think too much for £8.50 plus 10% for eating in. The bottle of water I had from the cooler was barely room temperature.
Would I return? Probably not. Maybe during the busier times the food is better.

Went there for dinner and unfortunately they had run out of a majority of the appetizers. Would have loved to sample the fried plantains, patties, mac and cheese… all we could really have was the main meal.
Oxtail, Lamb curry, Ackee & Salt fish, Jerk Chicken and Chicken soup are all the things we tried.
Food was so so and i wouldn’t really go back again… twas spicy though and tasty :)

Café-​Restaurant où l’on sert des spécialités jamaïcaines. On commande au comptoir, sur place (supplément de 10%) ou à emporter. J’ai trouvé la salle assez mal éclairée et un peu trop calme.
J’ai testé le «poulet rôti» (£6.60), qui n’a rien à voir avec notre bon vieux poulet français du marché. Il s’agissait de dés de poulet et de patates au curry, enveloppé dans une sorte de crêpe. C’était bien tendre, surtout la viande, mais assez bourratif dans le fond.

When it comes to Jerk style seasoning I am a little bit of a snob. I know, I know… what is the little white girl from Bracknell talking about?! but I lived with Ryan, Jamaican born and bred for 2 years during university and damn that fella could cook! Plantain was frying and goat was stewing regularly in our kitchen. So therefore I feel I have the right to my snob status and that is why I just can’t give this place 5 stars.
I have to say the last time I was here it was for Take out and yes I had wine in my tummy and no food, but still I chose this place over everywhere else in Soho. The really lovely guy who served me even gave me a dumpling to much on for free while I was waiting (he could tell I was wasting away alright!) and the food came super hot and super tasty… it was extremely hard to not eat it on the 73 home, just sitting there with the hot hot goodness in it’s box on my lap… mmmmmmm…
Okay so when I got home I devoured the lot and yes it was good, the chicken should have been a bit more crispy for me but I do like my bird well done. Seriously, if you want to try some proper tasting food in Soho, you can’t really go wrong here.

Im zentral gelegenen Mini-​Restaurant Jerk City legte ich im vergangenen August einen Zwischenstopp ein, um mir auf dem Weg zum Great British Beer Festival eine Unterlage zu verschaffen. Und um in Form eines karibischen Malt Beer mein letztes alkoholfreies Bier des Tages zu trinken. ;-)
Die britische Qyperin Caribqueen, die — wie ihr Qype-​Name andeutet — aus der Karibik stammt, hat in ihrem Beitrag (derzeit bei Unilocal durch den Filter ausgeblendet, obwohl die Dame definitiv glaubwürdig ist) recht: Authentisch ist das namengebende Jerk Chicken in diesem länglichen Lokal nicht. Aber dennoch verdammt lecker: Das Huhn wurde mit diversen Gewürzen, unter anderem Pfeffer, mariniert und mit einer dunkelroten, würzig-​scharfen Barbecue-​Sauce bedeckt serviert (siehe Fotogalerie zum Beitrag).
Etwas authentischeres, weniger zugesoßtes Jerk Chicken, wie ich es auf diversen Jamaika-​Reisen kennen lernte, habe ich in London bisher nur beim Notting Hill Carnival erlebt, wo es wie auf Jamaika auf der Straße in großen Räucherfässern gegrillt wird.
Photo link:
Photo link:
Die Chicken Wings kosteten im Jerk City als Vorspeise 4 Pfund, als Hauptspeise wählte ich Mutton Roti (7,50 Pfund). Das ist ein warmer Brotfladen, der mit scharf gewürztem Hammelfleisch und Kartoffeln gefüllt ist — hervorragend.
Große Enttäuschung: Da der Reiskocher am Morgen meines Besuchs nicht funktionierte, musste ich aufs jamaikanische Standardgericht Rice & Peas verzichten, bei dem der Reis mit Gewürzen in Kokosmilch gekocht wird.
In Sachen Jerk Chicken auf den Geschmack gekommen? Die New York Times brachte im vergangenen Jahr einen lesenswerten Artikel zum Thema: «Sweet Heat: For Jamaicans, It’s About Jerk (
) «.

Fortunately, Jerk City isn’t a place full of jerks but a yummy little Caribbean Café in the heart of Soho.
It serves most of the familiar Caribbean favourites like jerk chicken, saltfish, a range of curries and rice & peas. However, I did spy some more unusual items on the menu and was introduced to jonny cakes.
Portions are huge, prices are reasonably cheap for the heart of the West End and the atmosphere is pure laid back Caribbean. A great spot for a cheap lunch or dinner.