Lunch Tuesday: Ritz Caribbean Foods
Posted February 9, 2010 12:09 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
For the uninitiated, oxtail is exactly what it sounds like.
And it is delicious.
Last week, I had it stewed at Ritz Caribbean Foods. The tender, still-on-the-bone meat came ladled over rice and with a scoop of coleslaw on top (small dinner: $8).
Because I haven’t learned from last week’s lunchtime overload, I also ordered a side of fried plantains ($1.25). Ritz offers the snack both prepackaged and house-made, and I chose the ones cooked on-site. They look like irregular chunks of a large, deep-fried banana and I wish I could show you a picture, but I ate them far too quickly.
“Everything’s fresh,” confirms manager and co-owner Tania Moore. While waiting for her to finish wiping down tables in the bright green location at 211 Yonge Street, I watched workers bring tray after tray of food from the kitchen to the display out front.
When she finally sits down, Moore is eager to talk about the business – and the food.
“We [she and husband Richard Moore] have been running Ritz for about 12 years. This location is our second-newest location. We also have one at Jarvis and Lower Esplanade, the Ritz Sports Bar.
“The company was my husband’s idea. He built it; his dream. He’s Jamaican and he knows how to cook.”
The daily special – served from 11am to 3pm – is heavy on the poultry: your choice of jerk chicken, barbecued chicken or fried chicken. It’s currently $3.99, but, Moore warns, the price will soon be going up.
“We also have king fish; ackee and saltfish, which is a Jamaican traditional dish; we have callaloo, which is similar to a spinach; we have fried plantain; we have chicken soup today; fried dumplings; boiled dumplings; green bananas…The fish varies sometimes. Sometimes we have snapper, sometimes we have kingfish. We have roti. Have you heard of roti?” she asks.
It’s one of the few things on the menu I have tried, both at Ritz and elsewhere. Their chicken roti is on par with other Toronto joints, and my only complaint is that it’s not spicy enough.
So I set out to eat what I’d never eaten before: I’d go back for the saltfish and ackee (small dinner: $8) and I can see how green bananas – boiled whole in their skins and slit open by the counter staff just before serving – could be an acceptable starch alternative, but I’m pretty sure that was my first – and last – boiled dumpling.
“We try to offer fast service, good food and value for money. And we cater to everybody. It doesn’t matter your background or where you’re from,” Moore says.
Locations
450 Yonge St.
45 Overlea Blvd.
211 Yonge St
606 Yonge St
77 Lower Jarvis St
