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The Reef in Vancouver serves Jamaican themed dishes including jerk chicken and pork, escovèche and tomato jalapeno vodka soup. They also offer a decent selection of cocktails, wines, Jamaican Dragon stout, Red Strip, and Carib beer from Trinidad.
I was acting chauffeur for a few hours and as that ended us 3 ended up here for a quick late afternoon lunch.
Beyond the somewhat kitschy knick knacks on the wall I did find the space quaint. It opens up to the street and is in a pocket of Main St. where there is minimal foot traffic.
The menu is a bit of an adventure to look through but certain items stood out. We started out with a couple of their Jamaican patties. Pretty disappointing. Bland minced filling housed in a greasy though still flaky dough. The plantain chips were a nice touch but very bland. My gf ordered the jerk chicken breast sandwich. Bland with practically no discernable jerk taste. Our mutual friend ordered her usual tofu sandwich which she enjoyed. I ordered a staple dish, Ackee and Saltfish. It was my first ever experience and it was quite good. It's pretty high on the richness scale and was easily the best dish at the table. All the flavours seem to mash a bit too much for my liking as the creaminess overpowered the taste of the salted cod. It was served alongside a tangy vinegar-based coleslaw which helped take the edge off a lot.
Service is about par with Main St. restaurant standards. It's friendly enough with some hastiness, unintentional or otherwise.
The drink menu looks promising as they actually have cachaca and the endorsement of the Island Thyme Chicken from the previous reviewer should warrant another visit. Otherwise, it seems only a couple of dishes here are worth vying for.
I don't think anything beyond the Island Thyme Chicken really stands out as being special at The Reef. They start you out with some Johnny bread which isn't really my thing (a bit on the bland, tastless side and with a rough, chewy texture) and that leads in to a selection of pretty standard fare food. Burgers, wraps, none of which come with anything that makes them distinct from a place such a Red Robin. This isn't to say any of it is bad. The burger I had, the Moco (or something), was actually really nice. But it was just a burger.
The Island Thyme Chicken, on the other hand, IS worth a try. It's got nice taste and texture, and comes with mashed potatoes and veggies. Nice sides.
The BURGER THOUGH, it came with these plantain fries which weren't so good. Again, bad texture, bland taste. They through some mustard dip along with it for some reason, but that doesn't help. This place is without charm foodwise and offers little to differentiate itself from the similar foods you can find everywhere around it.
The decor and service is on the nice side though. It's small but cozy, with a kitchy Carribbean feel that is well complimented by the laid-back, polite service. Again, nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible.
One of the worst servers I've ever met. I cannot comment on the service as a whole, but one particular server was rude. She never said please or thank you, as soon as the last sip of beer was gone she asked if we would want the bill. The restaurant was not busy and there was more than enough room for lots of people so it is not as though we were being rude.
We left in a horrible mood. This server would be better suited to be a Customs Officer.
I was at the Reef on Main on June 18 for dinner with a friend. We decided to sit outside which was OK however it took AN HOUR to get our dinner. We did start off with a share plate of yam fries which weren't very good, overcooked and greasy - the dip was delicious however. When our dinners came came, they both looked fine until we TASTED them. The coleslaw was warm, the ackee and saltfish was lukewarm The roti was more roti than filling. The rice and peas were almost tasteless which is not the Jamaican/Caribbean way to cook rice and peas - you must flavour them! The only thing that saved dinner was the 2 complimentary johnny cakes. We didn't have any alcohol and the total bill was $40 with tip. My friend insisted on tipping because the server was the only saving grace of our dinner.
I have eaten at the Reef on Commercial (brunch) and it was outstanding. I will likely never eat at the Reef again - at either Vancouver location. It's too bad that Vancouver just can't get it together to serve consistently righteous Caribbean food.
If you're heading south on Main St, past King Edward on your right hand side you'll prob notice the Reef. It has a patio with faux palm tree. It helps create a nice atmosphere and feel, and very appropriate for the food served.
I suppose this is finer caribbean/jamaican food in the city. I like the food and atmosphere. And the price prob justifies the pricing. Sit at the bar or outside on the patio, grab a cold bevvy and enjoy the looking through the menu. Nice selection of traditional and updated version of food from the Caribbean.
The food does the job and is pretty aunthentic. The portion is about right, But small for my liking. U normally judge etnic food by the popularity with the etnic food. You seldom find Jamaicans/Trinidadian etc here.. . But rest assured they would approve of the the Reef.
We've eaten here before but we were really disappointed with our meal yesterday. The best part of the meal was the johnny cake served to start and the Ipanema caparinha I had to drink.
We shared an order of jerk chicken wings. It was a decent size portion. It was nice and moist, the chicken was moderately spicy but it was so lacking in flavour and taste. I had the special of the day - halibut with salsa and a caper and cream sauce. You would think that with salsa it would be fairly spicy but again it was completely lacking in flavour. I had a hard time finding any traces of salsa with the halibut. It was reasonably priced for halibut and the fish itself was nicely cooked but it was just so lacking in taste. My husband had the ribs which although nicely cooked were just so totally lackluster.
We used to really enjoy the Reef but based on our experience last evening I doubt that we'll return.
Food: came here for lunch and was happy to find out we were having brunch! Friends had the veggie curry, jamaican me crabby eggs and chicken roti while I had the chicken curry. Everything was tasty enough but didn't seem quite caribbean to me. Perhaps I needed to order something that had the jerk sauce but curry just seemed atypical. Crabcakes on eggs were quite tasty though. Had the plaintain chips again and I think they're amazing.
Service: Came in and there were 2-3 empty tables in the restaurant but we were seated right by the door! So I had to keep my jacket on the entire meal since the door is constantly being opened and closed. We received menus but it took a good 15 minutes to get drinks. 10 minutes later, the server said she'd be back to take our orders after she delivered some coffee outside but it took her another 20 minutes to come back to us! I saw her serving others and cleaning tables when she was supposed to take our orders. Food came in good time but it also took a good 20 minutes to get someone to get our bill. Too much waiting for such a small place.
Ambiance: Great reggae type music and love the decor. Felt really light and go-lucky in there.
I don't think I'll return again unless it's insisted by someone else. The service is just atrocious and I love those plaintain chips but not enough to wait so long.
I went to the Reef for a going-away party and instantly feel in love with the exotic decor. Some may say that it's too dark for a restaurant, but I think it just adds to the experience. Makes me feel like I'm dining at a restaurant on an exotic island. (The Victoria location gives off more of a Hawaiian feel with surf boards etc.) The only reason I gave the food a 'solid' rating was because I feel the prices are a little on the high side. The food itself is great. My place of work had a party catered by the Reef and they did an excellent job with both catering and for the dining in. The plantain chips are a must-try.
Maybe I have simple taste buds, but the Island Thyme Chicken dish I had here was amazing. Marinated in coconut milk, the chicken is covered in a sweet sauce and served with mashed potatoes. Sounds simple but I still have late night cravings months later. The mojitos here are probably the best in the city; accept no substitutes. I think the difference between the Reef's mojitos and other so called "best in the city" mojitos is that they use a simple sugar cane syrup / soda instead of sprite or 7up.
If you read my other posts here you will see my standards are not hard to meet. We ate here on a Saturday night with reservations at 6 pm. So, yes, it was busy but we had to wait an hour for our food!!! No exageration, try that with kids! We had some good plates with lamb curry and moca burger. However, the quesadilla, Callypso stew, and kids' nachos (burnt) were bland and unappealling. However, I may be over rating the food because we had to wait so long and we were HUNGRY! We didn't take itut on the staff and tipped well because we could see they were trying to make things work. Maybe it all has to do with the kitchen staff???
...because they were the only ones with flavour . I have eaten at several Carribean restuarants and was excited to try this one. I was extremely disappointed. Their jerk chicken wings were just ok. Their Jamaican patties lacked the flavour I was used to. The pastry although flaky I found was a bit ont he tough side. I ordered the chicken curry as my main dish and it was bland. I had to douse it with hot sauce, hoping that it would jolt the flavour out of this sad dish. Unfortunately it didn't work. Even my friend who had been there before and suggested we go to this place was also surprised. We decided never to go back to this restaurant again.
I went to the Reef on Main with a group of friends, wanting to try Carribean food for the first time. All in all, I would say I left feeling just slightly disappointed. I was expecting a lot more flavour in the food. While some dishes were pretty good, others were quite bland.
We started with some drinks and appies - the Jamaican Beef Patty, Coco Prawns, Island Crab Cakes and Plantain Chips. The Patty was good, but I found the mango chutney was really overwhelming - I couldn't taste much other than the cloves in the chutney. The coco prawns were pretty average, but the crab cakes were delicious. I thought the curry might be too strong for the crab, but it was wonderfully balanced. The Plantain chips were good, but not a whole lot of flavour except in the jerk mayo - it was so good that one of the people in our group actually used her finger to get every last bit of it out of the little dish.
To drink, I had the Jamaican Dragon Stout, which is apparently exclusive to the Reef. It's a smaller bottle of beer - 300ml - but it's 7.5% alcohol. Despite that, I didn't really feel that it was "too" strong of a beer, as it is very flavourful and I really enjoyed it.
For my entrée, I had the Ackee & Saltfish served with rice & coleslaw. When I got my plate, I thought there was a mix-up, because it looked like an omelette with green peppers and onions. In fact, it actually tasted like an omelette. Not a lot of flavour other than slightly salty, but I couldn't even tell that I was eating fish - it looked and tasted too much like eggs - I know, weird! The rice was bland so I put some of their hot sauce on it (very good stuff) but the coleslaw was quite nice, as it was not made with mayo. Very light tasting and a nice complement to the rest of the meal.
I should have gone with the Mahi Mahi. Two people at my table had that, and I got to try a little bit. Very nice flavour, nicely cooked and a good sized portion. If I go back, I will have that or maybe try the Oxtail, as it's not a common menu item and I'm curious to see what it would be like.
I would have liked to have had dessert, but I had to leave early and didn't have time. They only have one item for dessert, which is fried bananas with ice cream.
If I did go back, I'd probably stick with appies and drinks, but I think I would try another Carribean place before going to the Reef again.
I've been to the reef a number of times over the last few years and have always enjoyed my food. Last evening I ordered the Rosehall Rundown and was completely disappointed. The coconut/tomato broth tasted like luke-warm mayo, the seasonal vegetables amounted to a few roughly cut, undercooked peppers, and the tilapia was overdone and soggy. Do not order this dish unless you can't stand spicy food. I definitely feel that my $15 was wasted. I tried my girlfriend's Mission Tacos, priced at $9, and instantly became jealous.
From now on I will stick to their more flavourful jerk dishes. Other than that, the service and ambiance were acceptable as always, but they really need to turn the tacky "world-music" down.
The space is nice for a late night rum, and they do have some nice ones, if you can get the attention of the pretentious hipster waiter or bartender. But don't bother with the food. Form over function, style over taste. We'd had such a mediocre experience the first time that when we were forced back with a group, we decided to just get a beef pie. Good grief. I assumed they got them from Cisco or something, but these weren't even that good. Hell, the ones from the costco freezer are better.
I don't still know.
We didn't bother sticking around as soon as we paid. The restaurant's quality was horrid anyway. Our clothes smell of sticky grease! Ventilation was awful!? Staff was so rude and tried to feed us with cutlery that was dirty! We saw rice and grease on cutlery we were about to use, and so we asked for clean cutlery because it was obvious that someone was eating there just before us. Not sure why these people even want to be in this business if they are not interested in customer service or why people find this funky. I do not recommend no matter what you order due to the above issues.
Cute atmosphere -- Caribbean Beach Bar, but the food was a
disappointment. Do they even have a Caribbean cook? The menu seems to have lost it's focus. Burgers and wraps trying to hide as Caribbean food.
And curries?? -- fusion run amok. The food was really so-so. I wanted a more authentic experience.
Had the jerked salmon - the sauce was too overpowering for the delicate salmon fillet. I was expecting a drier rub. The bean/rice side that came with the salmon was merely, okay/tolerable/acceptable filler, and definitely nothing to write home about. My partner had a stuffed curry roti which was okay. I had a ginger beer which was spicy and refreshing but you can buy them at groceries stores for half the price. I thought their deep-fried dough balls were pretty tasty. Ambiance is Main street funky - but the food is not interesting or intricate enough to keep me coming back.
Substance and value over style anyday. I would recommend The Locus across the street - whose style, matches its substance.
Me and my wife went there a few hours ago was very busy ordered drinks which were okay for starters ordered jerk chicken wings which were almost burned and heated in oven not fresh and not flavorful.For main course ordered Chicken curry and jerk chicken .believe me after a few bites we left our food paid the bill and went to Mc Donalds.I have eaten authentic Jamaican food jerk chicken is supposed to be dry and spicy here it was just salty with no spice and curry chicken was without any flavour.I wont recommend this place to any one.Its far from jamaican.
Professional duties have called me out of the city in recent months and I am relishing my current sojourn into delicious living. What better way to finish off my week-long vacation home than a festive "trip" to the Caribbean?
The lamb burger was a humongous offering of juicy tastiness, complete with plantain chips (or salad, if you prefer). Plantain chips are basically banana chips -- but so much better! My better half chose the mahi-mahi and enjoyed it very much. The rice that comes with it is very coconut-creamy.
A warning to the uninitiated: that harmless looking bottle of yellow gooey sauce is disturbingly spicy, so use sparingly if you're not used to it.
The host, bartender, and staff are all very friendly. No complaints here :)
It was little loud, so it was kind of hard to have a conversation without shouting. The larger groups of people, however, didn't seem to have any problems with it.
Will return!
Last night was my third time dining at the Reef. I must say it was the best experience of the three - and yes, I have to say that it was better than the one in Victoria.
As expected, The Reef was fully packed when we showed up at ~7 pm on a Friday night. To our surprise, we were seated within 5 minutes and were warm and cozy - we said several times how, with the overhead heaters and the pitcher of beverage, it felt "just like being on the island!" :p
The waitress was great. She showed up at the right times to offer us menus, food and beverage selections, and also to check on us and take away used plates and cutlery. She recommended the Ipanema cocktail and the pork jerk entree. Between three people, we shared her suggestions, and three appys - yam fries, plantain chips, and jerk wings. The food was SO good! The pork was perfectly tender, and the yam fries, although not as crispy as we would have liked, were delicious with the spiced mayo sauce.
One of my companions is part Jamaican, and she told me that there was no way this was authentic Jamaican / Carribean food, but it was damned tasty.
It was a pretty loud in the restaurant, but we made out ok. Bill came to ~$60 which was very reasonable.
The only bad thing that came out of this was that now I'll be craving jerked pork...
| 1. | Commercial (3.7 km) |  |
| 2. | East Yale (85 km) | |
| 3. | Yates (93.4 km) | |
| 1. | Sweet Revenge Patisserie (9 m) | |
| 2. | Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co. (22 m) |  |
| 3. | Spice Up Indian Cuisine (23 m) | |
| 4. | Yutaka Japanese Cuisine (25 m) |  |
| 5. | Good View Seafood Restaurant (33 m) | |
| 6. | Blenz Coffee (43 m) | |
| 7. | Main, The (46 m) | |
| 8. | Cambie Vietnamese Restaurant (46 m) | |
| 9. | Mui Garden Restaurant (52 m) | |
| 10. | Locus, The (54 m) | |
