The Dutch Pot Jamaican Restaurant

This place is very close to our house, in the vast culinary wasteland of Tamarac/​Lauderhill. Every time we drove by at meal time, the place was pretty packed, and even more so in the later hours when most fast eating places are closed for the day. We had asked one of our neighbors if he had ever been and he said he is there practically daily, Then we knew that we had to check it out.
The interior is island cute. It’s a tiny little place with only about 4 tables, so people are there pretty much for takeout. We were there fairly early (5:00ish) and the line was already almost out the door. When we realized that we were probably the only ones in the place that weren’t first generation Jamaican, we figured we were in for some good food. The air was redolent with curry, barbecue and exotic scents.
The menu is what you would expect for a Jamaican restaurant. While I am a pretty adventurous eater, I opted to skip the goat’s head soup and the cow’s foot plate. I didn’t know that cows actually had what you would really call feet, in the edible sense of the word. I went with what is one of my island favorites, the curried chicken. Each «plate» comes in 3 sizes, mini, small and large. I went with the small. Everything is served in divided styrofoam take-​out boxes.
Orders are placed at the counter and you just shuffle through the line as they scoop stuff into the box and give you some options as you go. My first option was plain white rice, or rice and peas. I went for the latter. Vegetables? Yes, please. My husband was given a choice of several gravies on his jerk pork, but my chicken was already swimming in curry gravy.
I’ve seen a couple of complaints in the reviews that the serving sizes are too small. I really don’t get that. She must have put 3 cups of rice in box to start. Then there was a big scoop of «vegetables,» which is actually a sort of cole slaw type salad and then started ladling on the chicken. After several big scoops of chicken, she added a couple of slices of plantain and then literally had to press down on the top of the box to close it. For $ 8.25, this was the most food I’d seen in a long time.
The curry was delicious. It had the perfect balance of spicy heat, without sending you for the fire extinguisher. I’ll admit I’m not a fan of the island method of chopping up chicken into odd chunks, because you do have to be so careful of tiny bone shards as you eat. That being said, it was totally worth it. There was plenty for two meals. The only thing the I thought needed improvement were the plantains and rice. The plaintains were a bit on the dry side and there were only two small slices. The rice and peas was almost exclusively white rice.
My one regret is that I couldn’t try whatever kind of yummy looking cake that was, sitting in the domed box on the counter. Next time, when I’m not counting carbs, I’m going for the cake.

Excellent Jamaican food at a better than excellent price. I love the $ 4.99 mini specials. Fried, curry, brown stew or bbq chicken with rice, cabbage and plantain. How can you beat that? And the food (at least at this location) is wonderful.
The rest of the menu includes the traditional Jamaican dishes, oxtail, curry goat, jerk chicken, etc. The lines are always long, at times the lines inside and outside wrap around the store.

I enjoy Dutch Pot very much. The food is always delicious! Only reason they didn’t receive 5 stars is because there is always a long wait. But that’s a good thing for the business.

Best food by far. I wouldn’t trade them for no other restaurants. The real deal true Jamaican food. It makes you feel as if you are back home in Jamaica. Loveeeeee this place 100%. One love

Went back there again to just see if quality got better. I did not get sick by eating the food I paid for. But what I received for my money, makes me want to get in the food business. The jerk chicken was a joke! And as usual, I asked for fried PLANTAINS and they had none… What kind of oven baked watered down version of flavor are they really pulling over on John & Jane Q Public!!!
I wonder why they reviews are so fantastic and lines so long? Quantity for cheap, does not mean quality.
I can’t anymore…

Yummy yummy yummy! Best escovitch fish I’ve ever had. Portions are big and the food is flavorful. New favorite jamaican restaurant!

The food is good but customer service is horrible. These people are too slow to be working in such a fast paced environment. They move with no sense of urgency, the lines both inside and drive thru are always long, the average wait on a good day at the drive thru is about 7 minutes and good luck if they get the order right! This place would really be great if Management trained their staff a little better, hopefully they will get it together.

Food is delicious!!! Great flavor and spices. Prices are better than golden crust. But I must warn you, this place tends to get very busy. Even though its busy, the workers are quick and gives you a large plate of food. I will go again.

Wow some great food. Gets really crowded at lunch with not a lot of space to sit down. Great to go. Plan on getting your fingers messy.

The breakfast is AWESOME!!! Okra and Salt Fish is seasoned to perfection. I could eat it everyday it’s that good.

I ordered the large ackee and saltfish with food and I have to say this one of the best ackee I’ve had in some time. First, it really good ratio ackee to saltfish and not other way around (more saltfish than ackee) that other restaurants tend to serve. It was welled seasoned and the scotch bonnet pepper was so flavorful in the dish. I will definitely return to sample their other dishes.

This is an ok Jamaican spot. It seems to busy, so I figured I’d try it out. The jerk chicken is baked, not grilled. This was my biggest disappointment. I despise seeing jerk chicken on a menu only to be served baked chicken. The rice and peas were mediocre as well, nothing special, no special spices or flavors, not even a hint of coconut milk. The only thing I really enjoyed here was the oxtail, which is really good. That being said, I wouldn’t come back here. It isn’t worth the wait.
Update: picked up food for one of my co-​workers and decided the try the fried chicken and I have to say that it’s delicious! The rice wasn’t much better though.

I’ve been here a few times. The first time was in March. I ordered ox tails with rice and peas. I wasn’t happy with it at all. But recently I decided to revisit them. I got curry chicken with white rice. The rice was cooked perfectly. The curry chicken was a bright yellow, unlike a few restaurants where it’s darker. But the next day I went to eat it again, the chicken tasted funny. It could be me, but I decided to throw it away.
I’ve recently been purchasing Ackee and salt fish for breakfast more often while on my holiday break from school. I’ve been introducing friends and family to Dutch Pot’s breakfast. I won’t be doing that anymore. The Ackee and salt fish is very good. But as of the last couple of time I’ve gone to visit they have been really stingy with their portions. They used to give you larger portions, no matter how busy they were. Now they aren’t, and the amount they’re giving isn’t worth the money anymore. I bought a small Ackee and salt fish for my aunt. I got one small spoonful of Ackee. I just bought a large one today, I opened the foam, because I didn’t see her spoon it. Where I usually have two spoonfuls of Ackee a boiled dumpling was put in that place. Slick. I was the only person in the restaurant at that time, and they had been open for 30 minutes. There was plenty of Ackee there. I’ve told people to go elsewhere for breakfast. They are starting to cut back on their portions.
When you do that I understand, but when you’ve been known for your good food and large portions, and one lacks. You will lose customers.

This has quickly become my favorite local Jamaican Restaurant… excellent service and friendly staff. The food is great! You name it, I’ve probably had it. Never disappointed!

Reviewed the Kimberly Road one!

The food is on point. Enjoy the drive through. Service is fast. Mini special portion size serve a lot for the price. Wish they would open a spot in the DC/​MD/​VA (DMV) area.
We need it badly so folks can know true Jamaican cooking.

Yum. Delicious food, very friendly. It’s like walking into my grandmothers kitchen again.

This place is amazing!!! Love the style of Jamaica food, the strew chicken had a lot of flavor. The plate comes with a lot of rice, chicken, rice beans and plain soooooooo delicious I totally recommend this place.

This location is set in front of a shopping center off of Commercial Boulevard.
I only have one vistit to go off of but passed by here, saw the drive thru and Tiffany C’s review (thanks Tiffany and said why not? So I ordered the escovitch fish with rice and peas and salad and plantains. Well they missed the plantains but honestly the food was so tasty– that I didn’t notice until I thought of it later! The other thing that made me scream yeeeees is the young lady at the drive thru was extremely patient and smiley through all of my newbie questions, then here is the zinger! Escovitch is typically $ 13 a plate– she charged me $ 10 as my fish was small. How many businesses are their employees empowered to do the right thing!!! I would not even had known better– so I appreciate honesty, good service and doing what is right for your customers! Aslo while in the drive through I could see others wiping down and keeping things cleaned. For lunch specials it is all day everyday for $ 4.75 you get rice and peas or white rice plantains salad and varieties of chicken. I have had curry brown stew and jerk chicken so far. Spices have been yummy and foot hot and yummy!!. I love they have a drive thru!!! The escovitch was on point!!! Breakfast begins at 7:30 with your staples auch as saltfish and ackee, liver, etc. I have had the saltfish and ackee with boiled bananas and fried dumpling. Again on point! Will keep you posted– but in the meantime, it is a tryer and a winner all the way for me for sure! :-)

I’ve always passed by this new Jamaican place and decided to try it. A good sign is that drive-​thru was busy and there were a lot of customers in line. The line moved really fast since they had a lot of people working behind the counter.
I got the curry chicken– I chose white rice, it came with cole slaw salad and plantains. Food was awesome, there isn’t a thing I would change about this dish, for me it had the right amount of spice. Portion was good.
We also had the oxtail with rice and beans to try. I enjoyed that their rice was not dry like some other places.
Will definitely come back again