Jerk Pit Café

The jerk chicken meal was scrumptious, warm and served up quickly. The service was friendly and the portion size perfect.

I love coming here. I can’t recommend it enough. This place has the best jerk chicken I’ve ever had in my life! Whenever I’m in Hartford, I make a point to stop here for dinner. I always order the same thing– jerk chicken platter with cabbage and beans and rice. The sides are good but not great but the flavor of the jerk chicken is so excellent that it doesn’t even matter. The place is extremely clean and the employees are very kind and friendly. Bön appetit!

Very disappointing meal. The jerk chicken wasn’t properly cooked and was bright pink throughout … too risky to eat. The curry goat tasted ok but nothing to rave about. The plantains were fried in stale oil and left a bad after-​taste. No interest in going back.

Love Being A Foodie! This place is… drum roll… Amazing! The portions are oh so good and the food is delicious! Friendly service too! Love me some jerk chicken here. I don’t remember having a dry piece of chicken. Everything is just so juicy, well prepared and wonderfully cooked. Oh… I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

Stopped in today, while headed to another Jamaican take-​out spot down the road, because we saw the smoke from the grill. I am very impressed. Very clean inside with plenty of space to sit down and enjoy your food. I bought a couple of times to try. Fried chicken and jerk chicken. The fried chicken was spot on, great flavor in the coating. The chicken was moist. It’s sitting in the heating cabinet read to go, so the crust is not as crunchy as I would have liked, but I would buy it again. The jerk chicken stole the show. Great spice, with a hint of sweet. This chicken was either started or finished on a grill because there is a nice hint of smoke flavor.
There are the traditional choices for patties, fried fish, and stews. This is now my go to place with coworkers looking to escape from the office and downtown Hartford.

Holy moly good! So spicy, highly recommend the jerk pork :-) :-) :-), and I loved the plantains

This is the best I’ve seen with Jerk chicken in along time please keep up the professional work that you do you have Franklin park rocking right now god bless all the cook’s.

The jerk pork and jerk chicken are both addictive — and so are the fried chicken and BBQ ribs. Always get the rice and peas, with the side of veggies.
It’s difficult to leave the Jerk Pit Café with just one entrée order, so we usually end up buying at least two items in small or medium servings. The large is so huge that it’s good for at least three meals. Also, I’d highly recommend at least one side order of plantains — that is, if they are still available; they tend to often sell out on the plantains (and the fried chicken!).
If I want a beef or chicken patty, curry chicken, brown stewed chicken, oxtail, or chicken soup, I’ll happily go to Scott’s Bakery down the street from the Jerk Pit Café. However, if I’m in the mood for the food mentioned in the first paragraph of this review, I make a beeline for the Jerk Pit Café. It’s awesome to have the choice of two great Caribbean eateries a few blocks from each other.
We generally get take-​out — but the restaurant has a very nice, clean eat-​in area as well. Parking? Yes, parking is a pain — but we suck it up when we smell the jerk barbecue smoke a couple of blocks away. During the late-​night hours, you can see the smoke billowing from the parking lot. Service can be achingly laid back, even at the busiest times, but perhaps that’s part of the charm of the Jerk Pit Café.

Absolutely one of the best jerk chicken in this area. I love jerk chicken and this is one of the best I had in a long time. Would be coming back for more

Perfect balance between spice and flavor!
Both the Jerk Pork & Jerk Chicken where very flavorful with a after kick of spice. The helpings are generous so go hungry!
The rice and veggies where perfectly cooked. They where not dry and the veggies had a ton of flavor.
The beef patty was very good. Light pocket almost croissant like.
Service was fast and friendly. Will be a stop I make again while in the city.

Stopped for lunch before going back to New Jersey. Glad we did. The jerk chicken has the perfect balance of heat and spices with a tinge of sweetness. The oxtail has a full flavor and the brown rice just stopped up it’s sauce. Got plantains on the side. Heaping servings too. One of the best meals we had on our east coast trip.

Mostly, I come here for their jerk chicken or jerk pork. They do a spectacular job with those! Otherwise, go to Dunn’s River if you want something else!

It’s a bit pricey, but they give you plenty of food. Ordered the medium BBQ Ribs and Jerk Chicken. It was good. Unfortunately the veggie and beef patties were meh.

Good portions, a bit expensive though. Service was fairly quick.

So, so good. Awesome beef patties, sweat your face off jerk pork, flavorful oxtail stew. One of my favorite places for takeout in Hartford. The spices and seasonings are always spot on and the beef patties have a flaky, pastry-​like crust that is irresistible. Sometimes parking can be tight but it’s all well worth it!

I really like this cuisine and this was really very good. My wife and I split some jerk pork and chicken. Both were very tasty. The jerk sauce was very spicy, we got it on the side. I liked the sweet sauce too. The cabbage and veggies were great and the peas and rice was good too. We ordered medium sizes and it was plenty if you eat all the rice. I did not so I decided to try their fried chicken. It wasn’t fresh so it was a little dry but really tasty and I would love to show up when it comes out of the fryer. It’s counter service and the woman at the register was really friendly and helpful. Forget the whole parking issue and check this place out!

Where has jerk Jamaican food been all my life? I grew up in California and had never has jerk chicken or pork. It was SO good. I am going to be a regular. People are going to need to pull me away from this place. The owner is super nice as well. It is a bit difficult to find (I used GPS) but once you do you’ll be glad you did. I tried the jerk pork and chicken because I couldn’t make up my mind. Both were excellent. There is also a parking lot so parking won’t be an issue. You can smell the deliciousness from the parking lot.

Location — located a little past Dunn River. Parking is not the best and can be a squeeze parking and leaving. Entrance is at the side of the building with no hanging signs. Sign to the building is on the glass. (–1 for parking)
Aesthetics — As you enter, you come into a foyer, then to your right is the dinning room and to the left is the counter where you order. If you’re dinning in, I believe you order your food at the counter and then take it to the dinning room as I witnessed today. I’m not sure what it’s like on other days. Place looks very clean and new.
Menu/​Food — Posted right on the outside of the counter but didn’t have everything listed on it as I came specifically to try their fried chicken which I was told I had to ask for and wasn’t listed on the menu. (–1)
Food tasted great. I had the rice and beans, vegetables, and fried chicken with the sweet dipping sauce (also available is jerk chicken sauce as well). The sweet sauce had a bit of sweet and tangy flavor/​taste to it.
Service — Very friendly and courteous. Portion sizes were a lot and I had the small.
Rating — ³⁄₅. Definitely not bad for the price of $ 6 and change (if you only came with a credit card like I did, before that your order total must be $ 8 and above to use the card)

Ever find yourself hungry at midnight but too lazy to cook because you don’t have any food or you hate doing dishes? The Jerk Pit is opened at the weirdest hour! I don’t know the exact hours but they’re open at like 2AM on the weekend because they cater to the partying crowd. I’ve had food from the Jerk Pit multiple times in the past recent month. I don’t normally eat chicken but sucked it up and had jerk chicken and fried chicken for the sake of trying it out this month. The fried chicken here is amazing! They make a home made chicken dip. The sauce is sweet and I’m assuming sugarcane based? I have no idea but the sweet and tangy goes very well with the fried chicken. For $ 6 you get fried chicken and rice and peas. That’s not a bad deal at all! What I love about this place is that they serve fried plantains with their meals! Most Jamaican places charge extra but here Ms. Beverly and her crew throw three slices on top for me all the time– its much appreciated! Oh another thing you can ask for white or dark meat if you call in your order!
On a side note– their rice is not cooked with coconut milk because for some coconut milk can cause gastrointestinal side effects.

Portion sizes are HUGE! get a small if you want to get multiple items.
Wonderful flavors. Right amount of sweet packed with heat, makes you craving flavor even more! I got Jerk Chicken and Goat Curry.
The Jerk chicken was the best i Have ever had. They top it with Gravy, and they will ask you which gravy you want.
The rice and peas combination is incredible. The veggies on the side might seem out of place at first, but when you eat it together with the goat curry, it comes together beautifully. Crunchy yet flavorful.
The Goat Curry was totally worth the half an hour drive it took me to get the food.
Will come back again!