I really wanted to like this place. I've tried several dishes and my biggest issue is how oily everything is. There's a pool of oil in the bottom on every dish. I think if they fixed this, it would help the quality of their food as it's nearly impossible to finish it this way. read more

Jamaica Vibes Restaurant - The entire bottom was a pool of oil. This was the jerk chicken poutine. Other items were the same. - Caribbean Near Me - Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

If I am able to give zero star, I would. Me and my friend had the burger week burger for takeout and we paid $30 for those. First, the burger week website said it comes with a side. No, it did not. Second, the burger week website said it has tomato, lettuce, onion and jerk chicken bites. No, none of those were on the burger. Third, the cheese were so thick that they suppose to be served separately with crackers. Fourth, they didn't even bother ask us if we want our burger medium rare before they just went for it. Fifth, the bun was so wet and it didn't look like a Jamaican style coco bun to me. Sixth, the patty taste like nothing inside. For the outside of the patty, we only tasted spicy but it had no flavour. Seventh, beside us waiting for more than 30 minutes for the burger, we called the restaurant and received really bad service. We said it is very disappointing, and the manager said that's fine. I don't understand this restaurant. I won't recommend people going. read more

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We returned today after leaving last week after nobody waited on us for ~15 minutes. Service was better today and we were waited on almost immediately by a friendly waitress. I was fortunate enough to have some wicked jerk chicken in Jamaica so I'll try to compare what I had there to here, although they cook their jerk in giant barrels on the side of the road there so obviously it's not going to be identical. Ordered a jerk chicken and fried chicken and 2 beef patties. The patties came out pretty fast and were solid. The crust was a bit thicker than what I had in Jamaica but the filling was tasty. Our mains were fairly disappointing. My jerk chicken was cut through the bone and there were bone fragments in my chicken. they do cut the jerk chicken in Jamaica in the same manner but I don't remember having that issue while I was there so I'm not sure what happened here. There were big pieces of bone marrow and I hurt my mouth on a piece of bone. The chicken itself was very moist but there was no jerk sauce on it but instead had a dry rub. The spice rub itself was very allspice heavy and the rice had a very strong taste of allspice too. The rice was good and the cabbage was fine. My boyfriend's chicken was shake and bake. I didn't try it but he is 100% sure it was shake and bake, I'll quote him - "I ate it all the time as a kid, believe me I know what it tastes like." The server we had was sweet. That's about it. I'll stick to the Caribbean Bliss restaurant on Novolea. read more

Excellent chicken. I got takeout and the portion was quite large. Came with rice and a side of vegetables. Reasonably priced as well. Would go back! read more

Jamaica Vibes Restaurant - Jerk chicken (regular) takeout - Caribbean Near Me - Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Love the restaurant. The food was not unnecessary hot. The spice was there to enhance the plate. Not too busy on Saturday for an early supper around 6pm. Both the host and hostess were very friendly making you feel like like were home, if your home was Jamaica. read more

Jamaica Vibes Restaurant - a plate of rice and vegetables - Caribbean Near Me - Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

I ordered stew and my plate was 3/4th crunchy rice and raw veggies with a little bit of stew on the side. Got a few bites into it and decided not to finish it. Pretty sure it was all reheated leftovers. Sent it back and the cook came out to confront us. When we were ready to leave the waitress brought us a bill for the full amount despite us only having a few bites before sending it back. We asked to speak to the manager and he was aggressive as well. He wouldn't even give us a discount. So we paid in full and let them know we would post an honest review. The manager threatened to post a fake negative review about a restaurant one of us used to work at. Awful food and awful service. Wouldn't recommend this place. read more

Worst restaurant ever. Went with a friend of mine to get take-out for my birthday. Walked in, completely empty. Loud music. Waited 10 minutes in an empty room. Alone. Guy finally drags himself from the back to greet us. No greeting... just went behind the counter, sits down on a stool, and put his head down on top of his folded arms. Finally lifts his head up, and checks his Facebook on his iPad. Nothing. He finally acknowledged us, and gave us menus. By "menus", I mean a small, laminated piece of paper, cut crooked, with random food listed on it (ie. "tofu" -- no descriptions). No prices. My friend places her order. Guy's head still resting on folded arms. His response to my friend's order: "... *sigh*... it's a lot of work, y'know...? It's a lot of work. What?! We're so confused.. I decide to order the tofu. Guy: "...*sigh*... I mean... I have to prepare it, y'know...?" Dude! It's on your menu! This is supposed to be a restaurant! What is this?! He eventually (reluctantly) agrees to make it. My friend was also able to find something he agreed to make. Although, she asked if the dish was gluten-free because she has celiac's. His response: "It's all from the garden". He then had to correct himself... "Well... not our garden... but, you know..." What?! He then got up... and in no rush, he sauntered to the back and around the corner. We didn't see him again for 20 minutes. Again, empty restaurant. Loud music. Awkward. He eventually comes back to the counter, sits on the stool, and sets up payment via Square on his tablet. The meals came back-- each in a single, small, black, round take-out container. My meal came to $20.00. Wow. We paid just to avoid conflict and got the hell out of there. To mote: the food was nothing great. Very greasy. My tofu and rice was sitting in a pool of oil. Like, I had finished my meal, and there was a 1/4 cup of oil remaining at the bottom. Not appetizing. Summary: Terrible customer service. Food drowning in oil. Very expensive. Really uncomfortable atmosphere. It was as if we had stumbled into some guy's basement and asked him for food. The guy was either high/ stoned, or insufferably lazy. Zero stars. At least Cole's Restaurant operated like a legitimate business. Avoid this place. read more

Went here with my girlfriend for my birthday as I had a craving for Jamaican food and was hoping to love this restaurant. Unfortunately, it was the worst restaurant experience I've ever had. When we arrived there were only two other tables with customers one of which was already eating. After 15 minutes we were asked if we wanted drinks and brought a shabby paper but apparently the only copy of a menu they had. Seeing several taps we asked the server which beers they had on tap to which he said he didn't know how to work those but could get us Olands or Heineken in bottles. I said Olands to which he said "let me see if we have any. So we ordered 2 waters and 2 Olands. Being very familiar with Jamaican food I knew what I wanted anyway. After another 15 minutes we were asked for our order. We asked what the difference in the sizes listed were which our server also could not answer. We ordered the Ital Stew, Ackee and Saltfish and Callilou. He said the callilou would take a while so we should order the Jamaican vegetables instead (it takes 5 mins to make callilou ... I've done it.) My girlfriend then mentioned that it was my birthday and came there specifically for callilou and ackee. The server responded that he would have callilou made. After another 10 or 15 minutes our water and beers arrive. We left ourselves 2 hours to eat dinner before an obligation at 6:00pm. After an HOUR AND A HALF our food finally arrives. The ackee is lukewarm at best and tasted old. The rice and peas were mushy and old and clearly microwaved a few times. We were then told we couldn't have ackee and that it was too expensive to order on its own. Which makes no sense because 1). It was on their menu for $6 and 2) we weren't ordering it by itself. All in all we waited nearly 2 hours for what equates to a really bad Jamaican TV dinner and missed our appointment. Instead of becoming a regular customer I will never be back there and it frankly has no chance of being successful. Whoever was "working" in that kitchen should be ashamed to represent Jamaican cuisine in such a poor manner. The server was personable and was nice enough to recognize the utter failure of being restaurant and comp'd our beers and some of the "food". Just really really disappointing... read more

Truthfully, this review should only get one star, but it isn't the food that lets you down, it's the service. We decided to check this spot out for their opening night. The service is the worst I've experienced in any restaurant perhaps ever. We were seated by the hostess and she asked if we wanted anything to drink. My date just opted for water but I asked for a beer. She listed off the available choices and I selected one. Then she said that she wasn't allowed to serve it to me because she was underage. Then why even ask if we wanted drinks if she wasn't able to serve them? That was the last time anyone ever addressed us for a good half hour. We didn't even get a menu to look at during that time. We had to flag someone down (which took a good five separate tries) to ask for a menu. When we finally got the menu, it took another 15 minutes for someone to come take our order. I decided to go with the roasted snapper, she went with jerk chicken. I was immediately concerned because she didn't write down our order. I politely suggested that it would make everyone's lives easier if she just wrote it down, but she insisted she would remember. 45 minutes later, she came back out asking what we had ordered because she forgot and apologized profusely. I just gave her a blank stare back assuming she was joking but she wasn't. So not only did she not remember our order, but in all that time, apparently, our food wasn't even in the process of being prepared. She said she would give us a dish on the house for the inconvenience, which was oxtail. When our food finally came out, it was cold. My date's jerk chicken was cut through the bone which resulted in very sharp bone fragments. She almost cut the inside of her mouth several times. It was an awful overall experience, but we both agreed, despite that, the food was actually pretty damned good. Later, the owner/manager admitted that they were unprepared and opened before they were ready to. He offered to give us a gift certificate on the house, all we had to do was go up to the bar to get it. After waiting 15 minutes for someone - anyone - to get behind the bar to give it to us, and having spent a good two and a half hours at this establishment, we just had enough and left without the gift certificate. We had already spent two and a half hours at this place as it was. Two months later, we figured they would have all their issues sorted by now, and since the food was genuinely delicious we decided to give it another try. So we went on a Sunday and when we arrived we were the only people in the restaurant. Thankfully, this time someone addressed us right away and we asked if we wanted drinks. We got beer. When the owner came back with our beer, he then asked if we were ready to order. Uh, no. We can't order when we haven't even been given a menu yet. So he goes and brings back ONE menu for a party of three. We awkwardly had to share it. Why wouldn't you give each person their own menu? We decided to all go with various forms of snapper (jerk, curry and roasted). We asked where the Snapper was from, but he refused to answer. This struck us as odd so we pushed him on it. He then admitted that it came from Toronto twice a week. Since Snapper is not indigenous to Nova Scotia waters, we assumed it wasn't caught locally and had to be brought in from somewhere anyway, so I'm not sure why he was so hesitant to tell us where it was from, we were just genuinely curious. Also, once again, he took our order without writing it down. I told him the last time that happened, our server forgot our order. He said he was positive that he would remember our order. I asked him to repeat it back to us to be sure. He got it right, so off he went to presumably put our order in. After a good 45 minute wait, the chef came out to ask us what we had ordered. For real?! That meant that hadn't even started to make our order if he didn't know was the order was! Since we were the only people in the restaurant, what was he doing the whole time?! About 15 minutes later, our food arrived. Two of the fish weren't cooked all the way through, so we had to send it back. The curry sauce for my fish was also cold. We had to wait another 15 minutes for the fish to come back, and thankfully, they just cooked up new fish for us instead of reheating the fish we originally ordered. The fish comes whole which is something most Canadians wouldn't be used to. I come from Caribbean roots, so I am used to it, but Canadians may not appreciate on the bones, seeing the head, the tail etc. But, it is really delicious fish. Some of the best I've ever had. It's unfortunate that this place can't seem to get its act together when it comes to service. This place is worth trying, but only if you order take out. If you don't, it's a two-hour experience minimum. They won't last long if they don't get their head into the game, which is unfortunate, because the food is almost worth the wait. read more

Really relaxing atmosphere...Really captures the "vibe" of the island and Jamaican culture...Ordered the braised oxtail with peas and rice, and a Jamaican beef patty, with a few Red Stripe Lager's to drink...Great food!...Highly recommended to fans of Jamaican food and culture. read more

the worst service . staff have no clue how to serve customers. no idea what is on the menu. a restaurant which has a coke fridge but does not have pop. no appetizers. a hour and a half to get a main course. kitchen staff who were more interested in dancing to the music instead of cooking the food. no hair nets. dirty glasses. i will never return neither will my group of friends. stop apologizing for your failed attempt at a caribbean restaurant and fix the problem. train your staff . hire more wait staff. learn to run a business so that people will return. read more

Customer service was awful I never even got food because of poor communication and seemed like only one person worked there

Got take out today. Jerk chicken and curry chicken roti. The food had lots of flavour, the chicken was tender and juicey. Very good. Staff were friendly and helpful. We will certainly go back! read more

I work on Spring Garden and was so excited to have access to Jamaican food - as was everyone in my office. I walked in off the street and tried to order food. Even though there was no one in the restaurant the server indicated it would be quite some time for take out - so not the best option for quick lunch. I asked for a phone number to be able to preorder - he went somewhere else for about 5 minutes then came back to let me know there was no number. In the middle of the conversation a woman who worked there dressed in white (maybe kitchen staff) cut me off mid sentence without even an excuse me and berated the server in front of me. Wow! It was like I was not even there trying to be a customer. Looks like they finally got a number - again a super long hold to see if there were roti skins as they have not been available on my 3 walk ins but again not available. Sorry folks I could have been a regular but the service is so exceptionally bad - I will no longer waste my time as a downtown worker who eats out daily trying to purchase from you. I suspect they will not last long with such bad service. read more

We enjoyed an unexpectedly delicious and memorable impromptu meal here. The only reason that I do not give it five stars is because the whole event took twice as long as it might have, and we had things to do, but I guess this place runs on Jamaican time and not to our rushed schedule. The decor is beautiful, with bold, bright red, gold and green walls, and well-observed and painted murals. The atmosphere is laid-back and chilled, and the music is reggae, of course. The guy who took our order was an utter charmer, and the meal was excellent. We had the vegetarian pastry (like huge samosas filled with a spicy soya and vegetable mixture) and the curried chicken. Both came with a dressed salad and well-seasoned rice with red beans. Jamaican curried chicken is served on the bone, so expect to have to carry out some dissection - it makes for more succulent meat. I can't praise the curry sauce highly enough. Spicy is really not the same as "hot", but not enough chefs get this. This curry sauce was expertly judged, with a perfect balance of chilli and a good depth, warmth and character. Please do go, go with friends; set aside three hours or so and enjoy a slow beer or two as well. read more