Irie Vibe Caribbean Restaurant

This place adds to the evidence that you can’t get good west Indian food in Manhattan. I wanted goat but they didn’t have any ready. I ended up with flavorless curry chicken and just average rice and beans.

#Caribbean Food in Financial District #Inside Lane Deli #Pretty decent food #Big chunks of Oxtail meat
#I uploaded a pic of the menu here #But I think the real prices are more #at least I was charged more #but maybe it was for the lettuce

I stop in here occasionally to get jerk chicken for my families’ dinner. I went before the lunch crowd arrived and still waited ten minutes. Jerk Chicken is so popular but it’s never ready. Plus I’m not sure why there are always new faces there, thus there is no consistency. In the meantime, it’s okay, but I’m on the look out for a new spot.

Although I typically can’t get any work done after eating this West Indian food, the food is great and the portions are ample for lunch. The place is a deli on one side and a Caribbean spot on the other side. I would recommend this hidden gem because i was expecting some phony, dried out food posing as west Indian eatery. Its not that at all… Its good!

You are going to wait for your food but delicious and worth the wait. Was cheap but they recently raised all the prices and the people there are nice and have great character.

Pretty decent Jamaican food. I had the curry goat with rice and peas, steamed cabbage and plaintains. They get an extra star for being in the financial district… didn’t know that you can find Jamaican food so close to Wall Street. This will be my go to place when I don’t feel like eating the food that I brought from home.

Ate there today. Nice people. Delicious food! Jerk Chicken with lots of jerk sauce was flavorful and awesome. Rice and «peas» which is really rice and beans was delicious and even more so with the suggested sauce from the Ox Tail stew. Yum! Festival was like a lightly sweet donut. Can’t wait to go back. It’s in the back of the Lane Deli and there doesn’t appear to be any signs so you wouldn’t even know it was there if you didn’t go inside.

I work in FiDi and was excited to finally have a Caribbean restaurant on
for lunch delivery. Delivery estimate was 45 – 60 minutes. Instead it took an hour and a half. Chinatown is farther and the delivery is quicker.
My coworker’s soup was cold. She had to wait on the communal microwave line to heat it up. My main dish was good but not amazing. The plantain and vegetable side was lacking. Had one slim slice of a barely cut-​able plantain. Did they forget us and have our food sitting around getting cold and dry?
So the food was not worth waiting that long for, especially when our office is surrounded by SO MANY food options within a couple blocks.

The food here, is amazing. i tried 2 go 2 this place a few times before i found it. the only down side is if i’m paying $ 8 for a small plate (sizes come in small or large) i was expecting more chicken and less bones than i got (see pic). especially in this great place called New York City.

Everyt’ing irie, mon!
(…cue Das Racist, «Fake Patois»…)
Irie Vibe doles out Jamaican comfort food from a counter at the back of Lane Café (
). Nestled inside another business, it’s even more literally a hole in the wall. The only streetside indication that Jamaican eats exist inside the generic deli is a little green sign, flat against the building… completely overshadowed by Lane Café’s own loud ads for burgers and pastrami sandwiches.
The few Jamaican options in the Financial District all operate steam-​table style from food carts — and aside from being inside a brick-​and-​mortar with seating, Irie Vibe is no different. That hasn’t compromised its food quality, though. My goat curry was super tender, and came with steamed carrots, plantains, and beans/​rice, none of which were short on flavor. If the portion I got was a «small,» my stomach doesn’t want to know what large is. You’ll be asked if you want «gravy»; say yes and they’ll ladle on more curry to saturate the rice.
Christie’s Jamaican patties (
) still have my heart, but Irie’s beef, chicken and callaloo patties are totally serviceable. Unlike the beef patty (mildly spicy with a typical flaky yellow shell), the callaloo patty has a shell that’s more like thin, unleavened bread. The callaloo is something between spinach and pokeweed, with a grassy, vegetal flavor.
The line moves slowly — and there’s always a line! To pay after collecting your food, walk awkwardly behind the counter to the deep right and hope someone pops out from the kitchen… or for the Lane Café worker to yell into the kitchen: «Hey she wants to pay!!» The guys here always have something nice to say. They take credit.

My colleague recommended this restaurant after he stumbled upon it by mistake. It’s located in the back of Lane Café Restaurant on Maiden Lane in FiDi. I guess they share the rent? I’m glad he recommended it!
I tried the small jerk chicken meal for $ 8, and it came with rice and beans, 2 plaintains, and steamed vegetables. I asked the guy to top mine off with the curry goat sauce on the rice, and he was more than happy to. The chicken was moist and flavorful, spicy, but not too spicy. Good thing I got a small, because the portions were pretty decently sized.
The restaurant takes CASH ONLY, and has their own cash register around the corner of the serving counter. If you’re in the mood to try something adventurous/​spicy, check this place out!

Had the oxtail again along with Jerk Chicken. Oxtail was amazing, Jerk Chicken was a bit cold and not super spiced, surprised. Nice guy though and inexpensive so I’ll round up.
3.5
Had the Oxtail. Came with vegetables and plantains. Great portion for 8 bucks.
Oxtail was really good, vegetables/​rice were solid. Plantains are bad, do not recommend them.
Highly recommend anyone in the area to check out this place for some new food. Is duly needed for the area
4.0