Little Jamaica: the Caribbean food still on Eglinton West

The Jamaican and Caribbean kitchens holding the Eglinton West strip after a decade of LRT construction, what each is known for, and the phone number for every one.

Little Jamaica is the stretch of Eglinton Avenue West around Oakwood, running roughly from the Allen in the east to Keele in the west. It has been the centre of Toronto's Jamaican trade since the 1960s, and for the last decade it has been eating a subway. The Eglinton Crosstown LRT tore up the road for years, and the businesses that survived that did so on takeout, regulars and stubbornness, not foot traffic.

So this is not a long list, and that is the point. Every kitchen below is one that made it through. The number on each page is the business's own, not a delivery app, and on this strip a phone call still means more than it does most places, because hours move with the day's cooking and a Sunday can sell out by mid-afternoon.

What the strip is known for

Four things carry Little Jamaica, and knowing them makes any counter here easier.

• The patty is the local test. A Jamaican patty is a flaky pastry shell around seasoned beef, chicken or vegetable filling, and the strip has argued about whose is best for fifty years. Order one before you commit to a plate. A shop that keeps its pastry flaky in volume is telling you how it treats everything else.
• Jerk is a marinade and a method, not a sauce poured on at the end. Real jerk comes with char and a heat that builds. If it turns up wet, orange and mild, someone took a shortcut.
• Roti is the bread, not the dish. Say chicken roti or goat roti. The West Indian spots on Eglinton pull from Trinidadian and Guyanese kitchens as much as Jamaican ones, so the same block can give you a curry goat roti and a Jamaican oxtail two doors apart.
• Ital and veggie cooking has a real home here. Look for the takeaways that name it, and expect callaloo, ackee done without the saltfish, and stewed peas rather than an afterthought salad.

The kitchens holding the strip

These are the Caribbean and Jamaican spots in the directory along Eglinton West and its side streets right now. Ratings and review counts come from Google and move; the phone number is theirs.

A few things worth knowing off the map. Randy's Take-Out sits on Eglinton near Oakwood and trades on the patty, so it is the one to test the strip against. Kingston 12 Patty Shop puts the claim in its name and lives a few blocks east. Roti King and Tinnel's carry the West Indian side, the roti and the buss-up-shut, rather than the Jamaican plate. Irie Veggie Takeout is the one to ring first if you are eating ital. Names and numbers change on a strip that has taken this much disruption, so a call before a long trip is not wasted.

Ordering for a crowd

A Caribbean spread travels well, which is half of why these kitchens survived the construction years on takeout. If you are feeding a hall for a christening or a nine-night, call a day ahead, ask what holds and what does not, and get the rice and peas packed separate from anything wet so it arrives right.

Before you go

Ring first, every time. The Crosstown reshaped this strip and the survivors run lean, so hours are real hours, not a printed schedule, and the good stuff goes early. The numbers on these pages reach the people doing the cooking, which on Eglinton West is still the whole point.

Written by See The Six · kept current from the directory, last checked 2026-08-24