582 William St.
by Mike Niman & Laura McClusky
Buffalo Gazette Culinary Arts Critics

Get ready because we’re about to start doing it again - raving about a restaurant. To be honest, we check out a lot of restaurants. But we only write about a few of them. Auntie’s Jamaican Restaurant typifies exactly what we’re looking for. Good ambiance, great food and a convenient city location.

It’s hard to miss Auntie’s. The entire front of the building is one big colorful sign, letting folks know that this is the place for hot Carribean food and cool Caribbean runnings. Auntie’s is reminiscent of a tropical "cool spot," a small business with a few chairs and tables where you can step out of the hot sun, relax, and get some excellent home-style Caribbean cooking.

Inside is authentic Island Culture. The music, a reggae/soca/hiphop dub mix is always flowing. Mike is your host, your chef and your DJ. He’ll play what you want to hear — and if you like it, all the music is for sale. This includes hard to come by island street mixes by dubmasters such as DJ Precious. The decor is modest, clean, bright, airy and comfortable. Like we said, Islands.

We stopped by on a cold wet gray rainy afternoon. Bringing the tropics to Buffalo in March is a tall order. But Auntie’s pulls it off. Slinking back into low padded chairs by a potted palm tree near the heater we felt right at home.

But enough about ambience. Mike’s a great guy. The music’s good. We felt at home. But it’s the food that got us excited. It’s the food that we’re writing about. If you want island food, this is as good as it gets. Auntie’s, under new management, recently started dishing out the area’s best Jerk Chicken. And that’s real Jerk Chicken - not the Jerk Light they dish out in the pricy suburban eateries. This is Jamaican Jerk. It’s hot and spicy, yet complexly seasoned and perfectly marinated with a medley of flavors.

The chicken is so moist and tender it drops from the bone onto a bed of creole Coconut Rice and Red Beans (known as peas on the islands). Yes, we said Coconut Rice. The rice is cooked in sweet coconut milk — combining the texture of rice with a delicate coconut flavor.

We also ordered the Pepper Steak, a Chicken Patty and a Beef Patty, for what added up to a whole lot of food. The Pepper Steak, like the Jerk Chicken is cooked just right, moist and tender. The flavor, however, is more delicate. It’s also served over a bed of coconut rice and peas, but with moist lima beans added to the mix. Both the Jerk Chicken and the Pepper Steak were served as generous portions of meat.

All dinners come in three sizes, small ($4), medium ($6), and large ($7.50). Trust us, the medium is pretty large and a large should feed two fine. They also serve Baked, Stewed and Curried Chicken, Oxtail, Stew Beef, Cod Fish and Curried Shrimp as well as Jerk Ribs. Breakfast specials include Callaloo, Ackee and Cod Fish served with boiled bananas, Johnny cakes and fried plantains.

The patties ($1.50) were par for the course, with nothing really distinguishing them from other patties available around the city. The chicken patty has a curry flavor with plenty of cumin, the beef was sweet, hot and moist.

Mike and the crew at Auntie’s also mix up a few island drinks. They have a host of bottled Jamaican drinks and make their own Irish Moss (good for the back), Carrot Juice and Sorrel. For dessert there’s Jamaican style Bread Pudding, which has the consistency of a brownie, despite the "pudding" misnomer. It’s sweet, with strong flavors of raisons and cinnamon.

But let’s not forget, the real reason to go to Auntie’s is for the best authentic Jerk Chicken between New York and Toronto. With everyone from corporate fast food chains to plastic auto mall eateries touting their tired thawed out "Jerk" flavors, it’s rare to find the real thing -- and you can only find it here in the city. Don’t let it pass you by.

Auntie’s is conveniently located at 582 William Street just west of Emslie, across from the YMCA. They are open Monday thru Thursday from 7AM to 10PM and Friday and Saturday from 7AM to Midnight. On Sunday they are open from 8 to 8.

If you can’t come to the mountain, the mountain will come to you. Starting soon, Auntie’s will offer delivery (853-1179) within a 5-10 mile radius with a $10 order. The larger the order, the larger the radius. Given their center city location, Mike explained, this translates into delivery to most of the city, including the west side (with directions). But like we said, the ambiance is great, so head on over and experience Auntie’s first hand. Why should they have to bring the food to you — you’re the one who wants to eat, right?