The Islands
"This tiny Jamaican restaurant is smaller than most studio apartments, but its huge, flavorful portions have earned it a devoted, outsize following... Most patrons opt for takeout, waiting downstairs at a small wooden bar overlooking the rotisserie. Here, gossiping cooks and loud radio evoke the friendly disorder of a domestic kitchen, and the resulting entrées taste similarly homemade," says New York magazine's Laurel Fantauzzo.
"Highlights include jerk leg of lamb, curry goat, curry shrimp and, though you probably won't have room, bread pudding for dessert. If you don't feel like waiting for food downstairs, there are steep stairs leading to a dining loft, lighted with candles and decorated with seashells, parrots and floral prints, that feels like a secret hideaway," writes Dana Bowen for the New York Times.
If you're planning on checking out the Islands, Yelper Sub S. has some advice: "You are an idiot if you do not order the oxtail or fried chicken your first time here. The Oxtails are huge and you will gnaw the bones... Tip: Oxtail and fried chicken run out early (6/7pm weekdays, lunchtime on the weekends)...no joke." And NFT's Diana Barnes-Brown says, "There’s also sinfully sweet homemade lemonade to compliment the flavors of the food." How would you rate this place?
Reviews (8)
mopar wrote a review on May 26, 2009 12:42 PM
This place is absolutely amazing. Some of the best food I've had in New York. Glad you posted about it, because I always forget the name and can't find it.
Santa wrote a review on May 26, 2009 12:48 PM
everytime I want to go to this place its closed. When is it open?
Bob Marvin wrote a review on May 26, 2009 1:24 PM
Despite all the West Indian take-out places in PLG, this place, in Crown Heights N., is my favorite, even though I have to drive to pick up my order*. Their calypso shrimp is incredible!
*they did, once, deliver an order, but that was before their delivery guy realized how far it was--I think he walked.
dirty_hipster wrote a review on May 26, 2009 2:32 PM
Used to walk over here during my Nostrand years. Awesome!
ontheparkway wrote a review on May 26, 2009 3:10 PM
coolest closet-sized walk-up dining room in brooklyn!
Stonergut wrote a review on May 26, 2009 7:47 PM
I love this stuff. More calories per oz than any other restaurant I could name but delicious anyhow. True coronary food. And sloooooooow.
I've seen people eating takeout from there on the tables in that long corridor at the Brooklyn Museum on First Saturdays. Geniuses!
BedStuyGal wrote a review on May 26, 2009 7:55 PM
Simply a gem!
The cooks and owners are a study - truly extraordinary women!
Be warned - while "island time" is the pace of the day - it's worth the wait!
They used to deliver to me on Butler Pl in Prospect Heights all the time - now I'm in Bed Stuy on the "other side" of Atlantic - so I need to drive over there.....darn!
Crownlfc wrote a review on May 26, 2009 11:49 PM
Depends: as a sit down restaurant the prices are decent, as a takeout some may say "the prices are a little dear." They are however - one of the few West Indian restaurants in Brooklyn that take the cooking, especially of their entrees very seriously so it's worth it. For good West Indian take out at slightly more modest prices 3D's on Washington Ave. bet Sterling and Lincoln Pl. The oxtails and jerk chicken are always consistently good, so is the stew "peas" w/ salted pigtails. Also, one of the employees is a massive Chelsea Football Club fan, which means Champions League on the television if you ask nicely.
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