Island Cuisine - Brentwood

DO NOT EAT HERE ! i seen the BIGGEST roach of roaches in this place .. crawling on the wall !!!!!!!!!!! if there is one, then there's more . check your food !!!!!

I 've been in a Caribbean sort of mood lately. I came here after having Little Jamaica a week prior. This place definitely beats out Little Jamaica and will be my go-to place for a taste of the Caribbean. When I arrived, there was a big banner that said the place was under new management. The food looked the same as in the pictures currently on Yelp, so I 'm not sure what changed. The strangest thing was that the walls were bare. There was no menu or prices listed anywhere. I was given the choice of small, medium, or large and, of course, I chose large. For protein choices, they had stewed ox tail, stewed chicken, curry goat, curry chicken, and a fish dish. They had already run out of jerk chicken by the time I arrived around 2pm. I asked them how I should order, but they were unable to really give me advice. I really wanted to know if it was a certain price for rice, protein, and two sides or something of that sort. Since I couldn 't figure out how the pricing system worked, I just went for everything I wanted. I ended up with a huge container with rice and peas on the bottom. I chose the oxtail and the curry goat as my proteins (I told them I wanted half and half). I chose the ox tail sauce over the rice instead of the curry sauce. I then chose cabbage, mac and cheese, and added on two fried dumplings for good measure. The food was fantastic. I enjoyed everything that was on my plate. The stewed oxtail could have been a bit more tender, but was nicely flavorful. The standout was the curry goat. It had a really nice complex curry flavor which was perfect with the slight gaminess of the goat itself. The goat meat was succulent and tender. The rice and peas was well made and a great accompaniment to the proteins. The fried dumplings were perfect as well. I enjoyed dipping the fried dumpling into the oxtail sauce and the curry. They only served me a tiny sliver of mac and cheese and I wish I had more. It was quite good and I appreciated the burnt top. The staff were really nice. Although I do wish I had known the pricing ahead of time. I was trying this place for the first time so pricing wouldn 't have mattered anyway, but the total came to $21 and I 'm not sure at all how they got to that. Seems quite expensive for a local take-out place. I was expecting it be be something like $9 for rice and peas, a protein, and two sides. Strangely, the same thing happened at Little Jamaica too. Maybe when I said I wanted half and half of two different proteins, I got charged for two completely separate meals? Maybe that sliver of mac and cheese was charged as a full-priced side dish? I 'm giving this place four stars instead of five due to the price. $20 means this is no longer a place someone can randomly go to grab a quick dinner. Lastly, when I go there, they only had spinach patties left. They didn 't have any beef patties for me to try. But they 're no longer made on-site. They 're brought in and baked on-site. Multiple reviews have mentioned the location being unsafe. I don 't see where this is coming from. The restaurant is located in a perfectly normal plaza and looks perfectly safe. It has a few other international establishments in the plaza (a Chinese take-out place, a Columbian place, etc). Anyone who has spent time outside of Long Island probably would not be bothered by the location.

The neighborhood was shady. The parking lot was scary. The ambience evoked a feel of the island...Staten Island!!! But the food!!! THE BEST homemade beef patties. Spicy and delicious jerk chicken, get the dark meat. Rice and beans with oxtail gravy. Lose the lemon face lady.

So glad I found this place, the food was authentic delicious. I'll definitely be back. I got jerk chicken, rice and peas, and fried dumplings. The fried dumplings were the best I've ever had. They were huge, and fluffy and filling. I didn't have a chance to try the patties but my husband already asked me to go back so we can try them.

The food was ok ... I 've had better from Island Jerk In North Babylon/Deer Park as well as other restaurants in Nassau County. Also what I didn 't like is to get a small oxtail it was $13.00 like really ??? Thats pricey for mediocre food ... will not be going back