The Best Caribbean Food in New York, Dish by Dish
Jerk off the drum on Flatbush Avenue, doubles before noon on Fulton Street, griot and black rice on Rogers Avenue, mofongo in Loisaida, a Cubano by Times Square and pepperpot on Liberty Avenue — the islands, one plate at a time.
20 dishes · 19 kitchens
New York is one of the great Caribbean cities, though its islands are spread across the map. Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, Guyana and the smaller islands of the English- and French-speaking Caribbean meet along Nostrand and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn, the corridor known as Little Caribbean. The Dominican Republic is uptown in Washington Heights and Inwood. Puerto Rico is in Loisaida and the South Bronx. Guyana is on Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill, at the end of the A train.
So this guide goes dish by dish, island by island: jerk chopped on the block, doubles and roti, curry goat and oxtail, Haitian griot and black rice, Dominican mangú and chicharrón, Puerto Rican mofongo, lechón and alcapurrias, a Cuban sandwich and ropa vieja, Guyanese pepperpot, and the bakeries that hold it all together.
Most of these kitchens are counters, many are cash-friendly rather than card-friendly, and a few are only open part of the week. Go early, order what the place is known for, and don't be shy about asking how hot the pepper is — the answer is usually more honest than the menu.
Jerk
Allspice, Scotch bonnet and smoke — chicken chopped on the block and eaten on the sidewalk.
- 01
Jerk chicken with rice and peas
Peppa's Jerk Chicken · FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN
The charcoal on this stretch of Flatbush Avenue has been going since the mid-1990s, and the skin comes off it blackened and sticky. Order by size, let them chop it, and take the house sauce on the side so you control the heat.
- 02
Jerk chicken, or the oxtail, with gravy
Jerk Pan · MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN
A loud Jamaican truck that has held 48th and Park among the bank towers since 2009. Jerk chicken or oxtail over rice and peas, and when they ask about gravy, say yes; the oxtail can sell out before the lunch rush ends.
Doubles & roti
Trinidad's breakfast and lunch, wrapped in paper.
- 03
Doubles, slight pepper
A&A Bake & Doubles · BEDFORD–STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN
Soft bara folded around curried channa with tamarind and cucumber chutney, from the James Beard America's Classic on Fulton Street. Get them before noon, one per person at least, with pholourie on the side.
- 04
Goat roti and doubles
Trinidad Golden Place · CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN
A Crown Heights bakery-counter with a line most of the day and nowhere to sit. The goat roti is enormous, the doubles are worth adding, and you should bring cash.
Curry goat & oxtail
- 05
Goat curry with callaloo and mashed pumpkin
Gee's Caribbean Restaurant · CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN
The staff at this Trinidadian counter will let you taste before you choose. Try the goat curry against the oxtail — the goat usually wins — and take it as a combo with callaloo and pumpkin.
Haiti: griot & black rice
Fried pork, pikliz, and rice turned dark by Haitian mushrooms.
- 06
Griot with sos pwa and pikliz
Lakou Cafe · CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN
Cassandre Davilmar's art-filled café on Utica Avenue does a classic fried-pork griot (and a jackfruit version) with black-bean sauce and pikliz for heat. Come in the morning for a patty and a Haitian-spiced latte, or later for the plate.
- 07
Fried turkey with black rice (diri djon djon)
Joenise Restaurant · CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN
An easygoing Rogers Avenue counter where the menu changes daily. Fried turkey with black rice is what most people order; add lalo, and a tub of cow foot soup if it's on.
Dominican: mangú, chicharrón & pollo
Breakfast mash, crackling pork and rotisserie chicken, uptown and in Brooklyn.
- 08
Los tres golpes with mangú
Puerto Viejo · CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN
Fried eggs, queso frito and salami beside mangú with pickled onions, at a Dominican corner restaurant open since 1986. Come back for mofongo at dinner.
- 09
Pollo al carbón with wasakaka
Malecon · WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, MANHATTAN
The rotisserie chickens in the window at Broadway and 175th Street have anchored the corner since 1987. Get half a chicken with extra garlicky wasakaka, rice and beans, and sweet plantains — and mangú if it's breakfast.
- 10
Chicharrón de cerdo
Elsa La Reina del Chicharrón · INWOOD, MANHATTAN
The queen of chicharrón fries pork belly into crackling chunks and sells it by the plate with rice and beans, a few doors from the Dyckman Farmhouse in Inwood. Chicken gets the same treatment.
- 11
Chicharrón and pernil with maduros
Rico Pollo · RIDGEWOOD, QUEENS
A Dominican steam-table room on Myrtle Avenue with a slab of chicharrón you can hear being cut. Build the plate the regulars build: chicharrón, crisp-edged pernil and sweet plantains.
Puerto Rico: mofongo, lechón & alcapurrias
- 12
Mofongo with pernil
Casa Adela · EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
Loisaida's Nuyorican kitchen since the 1970s, on a corner now co-named for Adela Fargas. Split a mofongo with pernil and the rotisserie chicken, and open with alcapurrias.
- 13
Lechón with arroz con gandules
Lechonera La Piraña · LONGWOOD, BRONX
On weekends a trailer in the South Bronx turns into a Guavate-style roadside stand, with Angel 'Chapi Chulo' Jimenez carving whole roast pig with a machete. Arrive near opening; when the pig is gone, the day is over.
- 14
Crab alcapurria
Margarita's Restaurant · LONGWOOD, BRONX
Green banana and yautía masa, tinted with achiote and stuffed with crab, fried to order by the family that started out with a food truck around the corner. Add a seafood pastelillo.
Cuba: the sandwich & the stew
- 15
Cubano
Margon · MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN
A Cuban lunch counter a block from Times Square since the 1970s. Roast pork, ham, Swiss, pickles and mustard pressed on crackly bread — get it early, before the lunch line, with a café cubano.
- 16
Ropa vieja
Victor's Café · MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN
Family-owned since 1963 and on West 52nd Street since 1980, in skylit rooms full of Cuban art. Shredded beef braised with tomato and peppers is the order before a show; lechón asado if someone wants pork.
Guyana
- 17
Pepperpot with plait bread
Sybil's Bakery & Restaurant · RICHMOND HILL, QUEENS
Little Guyana's bakery-restaurant on Liberty Avenue, where you take a ticket and wait. Pepperpot — dark with cassareep and cinnamon — comes with a slab of plait bread; buy pine tarts and cheese rolls on the way out.
Patties, currant rolls & sweets
Flaky pastry, from a sixty-year-old family bakery to a chef's daiquiri bar.
- 18
Currant roll and a beef patty
Allan's Bakery · FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN
Allan and Gloria Smith started out selling pastries at cricket games in 1958; their family still runs the Nostrand Avenue bakery. The currant roll is the famous one, and a loaf of hard dough bread is the thing to carry home.
- 19
Pepperpot duck patty
Bar Kabawa · EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
Paul Carmichael's East Village daiquiri bar serves patties baked or fried, the fried ones with a swirled, laminated crust. Start with pepperpot duck and foie, then short rib with conch, alongside a classic daiquiri.
- 20
Coconut rolls and raisin buns
Trinidad Golden Place · CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN
The other half of the line at this Crown Heights counter is for the bakery case. Take a coconut roll and a raisin bun for later — they are what most people in the queue are waiting for.
Every kitchen here was confirmed open as of 2026-10-14. Menus change — confirm a dish is on before you make the trip.