Lunch’er Danny Reports: Caribbean Kitchen
I have no problem turning over the site to lunch’ers who want to write about favorite places of their own. Lunch’er Grace put together that awesome list of Midtown Soups, and Lunch’er Kayoko introduced us to the Out of Bounds Chinese food in Midtown East. Now, I’m excited to introduce the newest contributor: Danny from the blog Food in Mouth. He works near Madison Square Garden and is checking in with a report on Carribean Kitchen, a hidden fast food place in a Midtown South alley.
“You look like Harold.” Wait, what? My name is Danny. “You know, from Harold and Kumar.” I chuckled along with the friendly cashier lady at Caribbean Kitchen, but really all I wanted was to pay for the jerk chicken and be on my merry way. Actually what I really wanted was a substitute for the Jamaican Dutchy Cart because for those of us who work in the Southern part of Midtown it is out of the way sometimes. No worries though, Caribbean Kitchen to the rescue. Semi-hidden from foot trafic, Caribbean Kitchen is located in this alley in between 7th and 8th ave. You might think an ‘alley’ sounds shady, but as you can see from the map, it’s really quite close to Macy’s and Madison Square Garden.
The menu covers all the common Caribbean dishes like curried chicken, curried goat, oxtail, jerked chicken, jerked pork, stewed chicken, and escovitched fish. They have small portions ($7 to $8) or large ($8 to $10), but unless you have munchies like Harold and Kumar, you can probably get by quite nicely on the small. You get the standard option of white rice, or rice and peas, a little bit of vegetables, some plantains, and the meat of your choice.
First time in, I ordered the jerk chicken and was very satisfied. At Caribbean Kitchen it has a spicy kick that keeps you digging in bite after bite. They actually spoon some sauce over your plate at the end (if you want it), but I think you can skip it and won’t miss much. It detracts from the awesomeness that is the jerked chicken. If you want sauce/gravy, putting it on your rice may be the better option. While in line, some other guy requested ox tail gravy to go on top of his rice, which sounded like it may be the best choice. But if you like oxtail gravy, why not get the oxtail? What a great idea! (pats self on the back… what? Stop looking at me like that, I’m not Harold)
The oxtail is probably going to be one of my go-to lunches for lower Midtown. The meat is not ‘falling off the bone’ but it is tender enough and super yummy. Oh- and make sure you get the extra oxtail gravy on your rice. I could drink that gravy for days. Flavor wise, I still like Jamaican Dutchy more, but Caribbean Kitchen is right up there. And if you work in lower Midtown, it’s a great substitute.
THE +
- Jerked Chicken and oxtail are bangin
- Good substitute if you do not work by Jamaican Dutchy
- Slightly better deal than Jamaican Dutchy
- If your co-workers don’t like Carribean food, there is a burger place in the same store
- The cashier lady might think you’re an Asian actor
THE –
- If you love Jamaican Dutchy, this will not unseat the champion
- Slightly out of the way for many Midtown Lunchers
Carribean Kitchen, One Penn Plaza (but actual location is between 33rd & 34th St. in an alley between 7+8th Avenues), 212-290-2864
Photos and post by Danny from Food in Mouth
Posted by Zach Brooks at 11:55 am, August 15th, 2008 under 34th btw. 7+8th, Jamaican.
23 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
23 Comments
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Danny, that is no alley. it is a plaza with seats and trees and kmart.
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A plaza? Oh phooey.
Although in my defense, those are not real seats… it’s just people sitting on the thing that houses the shrubbery.
But man, I love that Kmart!
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Yea, it’s not an alley. It’s a public space. You got my friend all excited. She thought it was a shadier place, like El Sobroso. Will check it out nevertheless. I didn’t expect good food from the stores on that block.
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I have to defend Danny here… I’ve walked by this place many times, and if I had written about it myself, I would have called it an alley.
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I think the one below ground in Penn Station is that location. I used to eat there quite a bit before the war on carbs. The kebab place is next door and Bruce’s is one of the best cheap burger/grilled chicken sandwich places in Midtown south. Bruce ironically, owns the Caribbean Kitchen.
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edit, meant to type (used to be below ground.)
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As you can gather by my name, I also work in 1 Penn Plaza, I’ve eaten at the carribean place before. It’s good, but alittle pricey I feel. You might want to try out Salt N’ Pepper which is by Blarney Rock or Stone or whatever, Zach had a +/- of it on here a few days ago. It’s on like 32nd and 7th. prices there are in the 7.50-8.50 range.
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Harold? Really? ‘cuz Harold is pretty cute.
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i don’t know. whenever i think of alleys, i think of cats, and garbage, and big men waiting to accost me, not garrett popcorn and kmart. but whatevs, now i know where to go when i miss my train again. thank you danny.
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Just to add to what was already said, Bruce’s Burgers and Chicken sandwiches are some of the best… Especially based on price. Plus, you can get curly fries or wafer fries. The wafer fries are TOP NOTCH. TOP.
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Actually, these photos are pretty damn good too. I’m eating curried goat from the Jamaican Dutchy, I dont know how they do it, but the Dutchy makes the best ox tail and goat I’ve ever had.
BTW, I complimented Andrea on her music video, and she had no idea what I was talking about. When I reminded her about the two strange dudes, she said she regretted doing it because they probably made money off of her. Then I told her it was pretty funny and to check it out on YouTube, she still had no idea what I was talking about… -
What kind of camera are you using Harold?
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Salt and Pepper is the shizzle. I still walk down there for roasted chicken over salad. Indian in the back is good, but no free Naan like at Kebab and Grill.
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@Mamacita,
I use a Nikon D80
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5 of us got through 7 bottles of wine this lunch time.
Who the fuckittyfuckfuck is harold?
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Whatever Rudy’s job is, I want it!
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danny definitely is asian like Harold
He ignored mamacita’s ‘cute’ comment and answered the camera one
When he could have been practicing his Shaolin scrotum lock
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Long line in Biriyani cart. they should be little away from them
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Just walked five blocks in the cold windy weather to order my curry chicken and to my surprise there was a big black spoon hiding in the curry chicken (and the food was so low you couldn’t even see no chicken. Someone behind me said, no, I change my mind I want something else). The server girl went to grab another spoon and proceeded to dip. I said, “Excuse me, is that a spoon in there? She said, “Yes”. So of course my appetite was spoiled and I told her forget it I do not want it. She shrugged her shoulders and said next. That was VERY rude of them not to bring out more or even let me know how long it would be for another dish to be ready. PLEASE Mr. Bruce let your servers be more pleasant to customers. It would be a shame to continue to here bad things happening in the restaurant because of poor attitudes and carelessness.
BF works in One Penn Plaza… man, I wish I worked closer to there…. look at all the fooooood. And Ktown right there!