Taste Buds

This place used to be in the Swan Creek shopping center in Fort Washington, MD but they vacated some time ago and I had no idea where they had gone. Just discovered in the last few weeks that they had relocated to Capitol Heights and I was soooooo excited to have found them again! The jerk chicken is always on the money, great sauce, perfect amount of heat to the spicy. The mixed greens are to die for, cooked perfectly and seasoned beautifully. And the jerk sauce on their peas and rice just sets the whole thing off. Great food, friendly service, a real neighborhood gem. Nothing fancy inside, barely even a place to eat inside, but who cares? I want to go home and eat it in front of my tv anyway. Muffin Man is normally my favorite jerk chicken spot but this place gives them a run for their money! Do try!

This is one of my favorite spots to eat in between appointments at work. The hot jerk chicken sandwich is a win 7days a week and I grab one almost every time I have a chance. They are family owned and the food does not take long after you have ordered. Tastebudds will always be a quality place to grab some food in book.

This place has the two characteristics highest on my list — great tasting food AND great, friendly service. I don’t care what a place looks like but if I get THOSE two things out of it, I’m a fan for life! I don’t eat land meats or foul but I DO eat seafood, so I always get the fish roti and for $ 8 it’s a good deal. The bro with the braids makes it the best, he makes em HUGE. The lovely latina makes them good too but not as big as the guy does, its a guy thing so he understands and accommodates me perfectly. Great job guys. Keep it up!

If you want subpar Caribbean/​African eats
THIS IS YOUR PARADISE
(Just my opinion, and you know what they about those)

Friendly staff. I think the lady I struck up a conversation with was the owner. She’s half Sierra Leone and half American which I thought was cool. She gave me a brief overview of the business and the food selections available for that day as I told her it was my first time there. The food portions are pretty big and is reasonably priced. However, being very familiar with African food, I could tell that it had been «commercialized» a bit to please the American market as she told me. I had the cassava leaf stew with white rice and although it was good, it lacked authenticity and the «back home» taste.
I would come back to support this business but instead get something less complex like some good ol’ curry chicken with peas n rice or something along those lines.

Wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this advertised ‘Caribbean & African’ carryout on first visit but found the staff to be super friendly and upon learning it was my first stop in offered me several dishes to sample, confidently proclaiming: «Oh, you’ll be back!»
«We’ve been in business since 1997. You know you can’t be serving bad food and stay open that long.»
That, from the owner of Taste Buds – an American with parents she says are from Trinidad and Sierra Leone.
Taste Buds is not a Jamaican restaurant, rather they serve a great and diverse mix of dishes that are inspired by West Africa, Trinidad and Jamaica.
And the owner says that’s what makes their food great: influence from the entire African Diaspora – and most importantly great cooking and LOVE that goes into the preparation.
I tried several dishes that were new to me:
1. A West Indian preparation of spinach, ‘Spinach Stew,’ prepared with dried fish (I think): DELISH!
2. Cassava Leaf: A West African dish… Not to be confused with the Spanish rendition of Cassava, the owner instructed: DELISH
Also tried their curry chicken (very well done) and a unique chicken dish they offer which was also lovely.
Really, these dishes I sampled outshined the jerk chicken dish I originally ordered and took home. (Jerk chicken was good but not what I believe they do best after sampling).
Definitely giving this spot 4 stars for customer service, a variety of savory foods from across the Diaspora and the fact that I learned so much and essentially expanded my palate all in the span of a 20-​minute visit.
I also should note prices are quite reasonable compared to other comparable carryouts. My SMALL jerk chicken meal was a huge portion and $ 7…
Word.

I wish I could give this place zero stars for the garbage I almost ate. I threw most of it away. Tasted like some kind of chemical was in it. I have eaten from a couple of places in the area and never had a reaction like this to the food. I can’t believe I took a chance on this place even after being not so comfortable with the appearance of the place. I’m very disappointed. I will not be going back here again ever.

This is GOOD Jamaican! I had the Angus ribs (HUGE) with peas and rice, mixed greens –some CoCo bread… OMG…everything was delish! The bread was soft, the mixed greens were well seasoned… the ribs were falling off the bone! Don’t sleep on this place… now if they could just open up one in the Silver Spring area… I’d be there every week! yeah mon!

Went on a suggestion of a co worker. It isn’t much on the inside. The coco bread was really good. Got the curry goat with rice and peas. It needed a hit if flavor. It was good, but not spicy. I added hot sauce. My Jamaican friend tried it and sad it was ok. Will try something else and see what happens.

Best little hole in the wall Caribbean restaurant that I’ve been too in a long while.
I ordered the spinach stew that was chocked full of spinach and tender chicken, along with rice & peas. My tastesbuds were extremely happy.
I also enjoyed their tea. Sweet just like southern tea.

This restaurant, about 6 or 7 years years ago, was my first introduction to Caribbean food. And it was a good one. It soon became an addiction and I would crave Taste Buds. I ate there frequently. Jerk Chicken, Curry Goat, Ox tails, Curry Chicken, Stewed Beef. Plantains, carrot cake, beef patties, and coco bread. It didn’t matter because I loved it all and was determined to try the whole menu. So you can imagine how heartbroken I was when I moved to Philly for College. No more Taste Buds. I’ve since lived in different areas and tried different Caribbean restaurants and this is still one of my favorite places. I recently visited it again and was delighted to find that Taste Buds was just as delicious as when I first tried it all those years ago. The service is nice and reliable. The portion sizes are HUGE. I can never ever ever finish hard as I may try. My only issue is that there isn’t any place to sit and eat inside. :(I wish Taste Buds was more of a real restaurant. But I’ll take what I can get when I can get it.