Ritz Caribbean Food

May 29, 2020 - Yonge and College

Ritz is still open for take-out and offering their lunch specials

Jerk Chicken lunch special $5.99

The box seems a little bit smaller than before and the portion of coleslaw and rice has decreased a bit. However, the flavour and the tastiness of the jerk chicken is still as good as I remember and it's great value for $5.99. Ritz is still my favourite value-for-money jerk chicken place!

Dec 31, 2018 - Yonge & College (450 Yonge Street location)

$5.99 Jerk Chicken lunch special

Excellent flavourful jerk chicken with the perfect amount of spices - it's clearly been cooked for a long time because the chicken was fall off the bone tender. The rice and peas and coleslaw aren't that great, but the chicken makes up for it. It's nice that you can pick your gravy there too. I picked the oxtail gravy and it was really spicy, but like a slow burn of heat.

August 14, 2012

I've walked by Ritz Caribbean Food at 211 Yonge Street a few times and I've noticed a few things: 

1) There's a line up even before the restaurant opens at 11am. 

2) There's always people sitting at the window no matter what time of day it is

3) The $4.99 lunch special sounds really appealing

So, on the heels of my Jerk Chicken experience at Per Se Mobile, I decided to try out their Jerk Chicken:

The place is actually a lot roomier than it appears from the street. It looks like a tiny shop, but the restaurant goes pretty far in (and even in here, there's a line up).

The daily special is any one of the 3 meats: Fried chicken, BBQ Chicken or Jerk Chicken with two sides (rice and coleslaw or salad) in a small container:

I got the Jerk Chicken, Brown Rice and coleslaw.

Wow, was I ever glad that I got coleslaw instead of salad! The slaw was deliciously creamy and it totally helped put out the fire in my mouth from the spiciness of the jerk chicken. Usually when you eat spicy foods, you should have yogurt or rice nearby to absorb the spiciness. In this case, I had coleslaw and rice (and the rice was slightly spicy in itself) - so I had a tough time of it. For new readers, I should probably mention that I have a really pathetic spiciness tolerance level, but I am working on improving it. 

The rub was aromatic and had a lot of flavour, but it was kind of overwhelmingly spicy to me. The lady at the counter gave me a chicken leg which was juicy near the bone, but the meat closer to the skin was pretty dry. 

Contrary to its appearance, the portion was actually enough for lunch (then again it might have helped that I gulped down buckets of cold water)

Fried Plantains $1.25 for 5

Great treat! Plantains are a type of banana usually used in cooking since they are not as sweet as normal bananas and are more starchy. These were a little crispy on the outside from the deep fryer, and warm, soft and sweet inside. 

Overall: I don't think I can handle real Caribbean Jerk Chicken, but if I could - I'd probably come back here and eat it again because everything was good. Alas, I just couldn't take the heat.

Website: http://www.ritzcaribbeanfoods.ca/