Simply Irie Caribbean Cuisine

Located in downtown Calgary, Simply Irie is a pleasant little restaurant that brings a taste of vibrant Caribbean culture to Alberta. From the bright white and yellow interior, to their friendly staff, right of the bat you’ll notice how welcoming the restaurant is. The atmosphere inside is really great, although, I do wish they played more Caribbean music! Their menu is also rather large compared to other Caribbean restaurants I’ve visited in North America. To start, my friends and I tried the Jamaican Patty and the Chicken Roti. I really enjoyed the Jamaican Patty actually, it was a little different compared to the more common yellow patties. The Chicken roti was not bad as well, the curry flavour was great. For entrees, we ordered the large Oxtail and large Jerk Chicken Platters. Both plates were huge, tasty, and cooked to perfection. The oxtail was beyond tender, and the jerk chicken was moist. My only problem was that I just felt like in both the oxtail and jerk chicken, they used way too much browning. I found that the gravy/sauce in both dishes were rather sweet and not as savoury or spicy as most other oxtail and jerk chicken dishes I have tried. The rice and peas was delicious, but I even felt like the overly sweet gravy took away from the flavour of the rice. It’s by no means horrible, but it’s not my preferred flavour profile. Another thing to note is that there food takes a little while to be prepared. I’ve actually dined in and grabbed take out from them, and on both occasions I felt like the food took longer than expected. Overall, considering it’s tough to find great Caribbean cuisine in western Canada — I would still totally check Simply Irie to explore more of their menu and enjoy a taste of the tropical islands. 🏝

Sorry for the half-eaten food, I was really hungary before I took these photos. My fiancee and I came here for lunch on Sunday, and we were craving for soup and decided to order their chicken soup. It was really hearty and you can tell that its made from scratch and has great depth of flavour. One thing to comment is that the music is a little bit loud. It rumbles your brain as you are trying to eat... so maybe they can turn it down a bit! Overall a great experience!

Visited from Toronto and ordered with my sister, hubby and nephew. We were impressed for a few reasons (in no particular order) 1. The service was amazing! They were friendly, courteous and we had a good banter with the owner/manager. Perhaps the best service I've seen at a Jamaican restaurant. 5 stars for excellent service. 2. Very nice patio for outdoor dining. The restaurant was clean and very inviting. 3. Very good/wide selection of patties!! There's the regular beef etc but there's also ackee and saltfish and a beyond meat patty for vegetarians.They were all delish! 3. The food was tasty and the serving size was good. We ordered escovitch fish, oxtail, jerk chicken and jerk wings, beef, ackee and saltfish and beyond meat patties. Oooh, side plantains of fried breadfruit is a winner! The only downside is that the meals and patties were a bit pricey. Oxtail runs you a cool $23. Perhaps this is the norm for Calgary. Outside of the price it was an overall great experience. I would visit again!

I went there yesterday. I ordered the Tofu Curry dish and it was super excellent. I got almost three meals out of it! My partner had the jerk chicken meal and he said it was amazing! The lovely young lady at the counter was....lovely! The food was fresh, the place is super clean and has a great vibe! Thank you Simply Irie, I will be back!

So here's the deal. I'm Jamaican and the food Simply Irie is serving is down right awful. I bought oxtail and rice and peas. The rice and peas was barely passable. The oxtail - was just plain horrible. They somehow thought it a good idea to fill it with sugar. If seemed it like they were correcting a salt issue and dumped sugar in it to correct it. Made the whole thing worse. Added to that it was very tough. This is not my first time going to Simply Irie and I'm now convinced they don't know how to cook Jamaican food. I pray they will get a good chef. I know one if they want to reach out to me. Sorry, but I have to be truthful here. Hopefully they won't take offence, but will take steps to make it better. One Love

First time going to simply Irie and wow what an experience. We sat outside in the patio which was such a delight. The staff from the moment we arrived to the moment we left Never skipped a beat in making our experience such an enjoyable one. Management came outside to ask if we needed the heaters on as it was a bit chilly and that blew us with hotel much they cared about there customers. The food was so great and fresh we ended up trying different dishes and carrying home a lot as well. Perfectly centred with their location downtown and be sure to visit and experience the food and the culture of the Caribbean.