A taste of the Caribbean in Edmonton from Irie Foods

Ever since Irie Foods opened on Whyte Ave, I kept saying to myself that I should try their food - a recurring thought I have every day as I drive by. I even came very close to it, one Saturday afternoon back in March. I even went as far as taking a look at the menu options, take-out menu and the layout of the restaurant. Perhaps, it was my nervousness at trying out a restaurant by myself, or the fact that it was rather late in the afternoon for lunch, but either way I made up enough excuses that I did not order that day. Finally the first week of May; time, adventure and hunger was on us, so we headed over to Irie Foods for dinner.

The layout of the restaurant is nice and open. The restaurant seats approximately 20-25 people with about 10 tables and a 4-5 bar seats The service was friendly, knowledgeable, the atmosphere was calm, and there were a fair number of patrons this particular evening. As for the food, we were certainly impressed! Not just for the amount of food that arrived, and the variety, but the taste! Each entree came with your choice of vegetables, rice and peas or plain rice AND an additional soup or salad. Here are our starters:

the soup - chunks of potato, carrots & home-made goodness

the salad (a bit on the plain side)

Now for the entrees. A decent amount of food presented in open square dishes. We both thought that each dish tasted great, and we were completely full by the end of the meal. However, in retrospect I wonder if the description that was in the menu matched the food we were served.

Stewed beef: tender cuts of stewed beef browned, then slowly cooked, accompanied by coleslaw and a rice pilaf ($16)

Curry Chicken: chicken marinated with a blend of jamaican curry, spices, garlic accompanied with potatoes and scalions served with coleslaw and rice ($16)

Dan had the curry chicken and reported that the meat was tender and the curry sauce was spicy, but not overly spicy. I found the beef to be tender as expected and the sauce went very well with the rice. Overall, we found the dishes satisfactory in terms of their portion sizes, however, Dan wanted to try the snapper fish dish the next time we go since it looked absolutely huge.

Irie Foods - Caribbean Cuisine

10152A-82 Ave. NW. Edmonton, AB

(780) 757-2022

Mon-Wed: 11am~ 9pm

Thurs - Sat: 11am ~11pm

Sunday: 12pm~ 5pm

They also have another location in Millwoods