Midtown Lunch

It’s been a tough year for the Jamaican Dutchy. For years they had been on 51st btw 6+7th. Then in June of this year they decided to switch their operation to a brand new truck, while the cart went downtown. Unfortunately right when they debuted the truck the crack down of street food vendors started and they were forced to leave their spot by the police and ever since they’ve struggled to find a regular spot to set up.  And we got screwed out of delicious Jamaican food! Well, Midtown Lunch’ers rejoice, O’Neill has brought the Jamaican Dutchy truck back to midtown. Many of you Lunch’ers had spotted the Jamaican Dutchy truck on 43rd btw 2+3rd and for now it seems that that is their permanent spot, serving delicious Jamaican food to a new crowd of Midtown workers (aka us east siders!)

With the Jamaican Dutchy on the east side now, Midtown east has two Jamaican trucks (Jamaican Dutchy and Jerk Pan). It’s hard not to compare the two trucks since they park relatively close to each other. I decided to get an order of a small brown stew chicken ($8) since I’m a fan of Jerk Pan’s brown stew chicken.

Jerk Pan’s version was delicious and with the sauce being so thick it was great to just eat that with the rice. The pieces of chicken, with many pieces of bones still attached (and also many pieces of bones swimming in the sauce), were tasty and were falling of the bone. While the sauce from Jamaican Dutchy wasn’t as thick (slightly more red too) it was still delicious. Combined with the rice, I tasted a hint of sweetness (coconut for some reason). The pieces of chicken from Jamaican Dutchy were tender and most importantly boneless. I ordered a small brown stew chicken for $8, thinking that it would be only couple pieces of chicken with rice underneath. I was surprised when I was handed a regular sized box that was quite heavy. It was filled to the top with food. So if this was a small, how large is the large?! I definitely want to find out.

Even though I preferred the sauce from Jerk Pan’s brown stew chicken, everything else about the Jamaican Dutchy’s version was slightly better. Hopefully there will be enough business to keep the Jamaican Dutchy truck in their current spot. For now I’m not too worried, since every time I’ve walked by the truck, there has been a long line of hungry lunch’ers getting food. Let’s keep them in Midtown people!

The Dutchy is should be on 43rd btw. 2+3rd today, but as always you should check their twitter or the ML twitter tracker for updates. Or call their phone number: 718-737-3836.