The 10 best Jamaican and Caribbean restaurants in the Charlotte area

Jamaican kitchens make up half of this list, from oxtail and curry goat at a concrete-block kitchen off West Boulevard to firewood jerk chicken in Plaza Midwood, and Cuban and Dominican kitchens cook in Madison Park, east Charlotte, Concord and Huntersville. This list covers 10 restaurants for jerk chicken, oxtail, patties, ropa vieja and mofongo, from takeout windows to a Cuban supper club with live music. It is for anyone hunting a plate of oxtail on a weeknight, a group that wants a sit-down Cuban dinner and anyone who misses the food from home. Entries are listed alphabetically, not ranked.

How we chose

Every restaurant here passed a 2026 health inspection in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus or Gaston County, and most also had a 2026 menu, ordering page or news story. Picks are based on independent local coverage, including Axios Charlotte’s 2023 guide to Caribbean food and a September 2026 Axios feature on Havana Carolina, QCity Metro’s 2023 Caribbean food guide, the Charlotte Observer and historian Tom Hanchett’s History South, along with how long each kitchen has been cooking and who is behind each restaurant. Several well-known names were left off because they have closed or had no 2026 inspection on record. No restaurant paid to be included.

Azucar Cuban Restaurant

Huntersville, 15906 Old Statesville Rd., with a second location at Ballantyne Village

A family with a chef from Cuba runs Azucar Cuban Restaurant, which opened on Old Statesville Road in Huntersville in February 2022, the Charlotte Observer reported, and co-owner Alex Gutierrez’s family later added a second location at Ballantyne Village. Axios Charlotte included Azucar in a list of the 20 best restaurants in Ballantyne in November 2025.

Weekday lunch specials are $10, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with ropa vieja, vaca frita, palomilla steak or masas, the fried pork chunks, each served with white rice, black beans and sweet plantains. Dinner brings rabo, braised oxtail with moro rice, plus arroz con pollo imperial, three paellas and Cuban sandwiches, according to the menu.

Weekend brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with bottomless sangria or mimosas. Both locations stay open until 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Caribbean Hut

University City, 9605 N. Tryon St., with locations on Woodlawn Road, in Huntersville and in Gastonia

Owner Trevor Lewis started Caribbean Hut because he wanted Charlotte to have the authentic Caribbean restaurant experience he found missing, according to the restaurant, which now has four locations, two in Charlotte and one each in Huntersville and Gastonia. Axios Charlotte included the restaurant in a 2023 guide to Caribbean food.

The menu is short on purpose: chicken, goat, oxtail, shrimp and stew beef, plus a veggie platter and curry tofu. Fish and shrimp are cooked to order, and the other dishes simmer from early morning, according to the restaurant. House juices include sorrel, Irish moss, carrot juice and fruit punch, and Axios priced curry goat with yellow rice and vegetables at $18.50 in 2023.

The North Tryon location serves Saturday breakfast from 8 a.m. and stays open until 10:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Hours differ at the other locations, and all four earned A grades on county inspections in 2026.

El Bohio Tipico Restaurant

East Charlotte, 3600 N. Sharon Amity Rd.

East Charlotte’s El Bohio Tipico Restaurant has served antojitos, the Dominican snacks whose name means little cravings, along with Dominican specialties since 2014, QCity Metro reported in a 2023 guide to the city’s Caribbean kitchens.

Mofongo, the mashed plantain dish, and chicharrones, fried pork belly, are the popular orders, according to QCity Metro. Service is buffet-style, so a first visit can cover several dishes at once, and El Bohio is the one Dominican kitchen on this list.

Mecklenburg County inspectors gave the restaurant A grades twice in 2026, a 94.5 in February and a 94 in June. The restaurant’s website was down on October 19, 2026, so check social media for current hours before making the drive.

El Puro Cuban Restaurant

Madison Park, 5033 South Blvd., Suite H (Madison Corners)

Manny Pérez Ochoa, his sister Ana and their mother, Dania, the family behind Havana Carolina in Concord, opened El Puro Cuban Restaurant on November 19, 2021, with a look back at pre-revolutionary 1950s Cuba, Axios Charlotte reported. The name honors the family patriarch: in Cuba, el puro means cigar but can also be an affectionate word for a father, according to the restaurant.

The restaurant fills 5,500 square feet at Madison Corners, the Charlotte Business Journal reported. On the current dinner menu, ropa vieja is $30, rabo encendido, a braised oxtail, is $40, masitas de la loma, fried pork shoulder with garlic mojo, is $17 and four ham croquetas are $12. Live music plays Wednesday through Sunday, with a different band each night.

Wednesday is Bohemian Nights, with $10 cocktails all day, and Sunday brunch starts at noon. Reservations run through OpenTable.

Havana Carolina Restaurant & Bar

Downtown Concord, 11 Union St. S., Suite 108, Concord

Idael Pérez Maldonado and Dania Ochoa Hernández came from Cuba to Lincolnton in 2015 with their children, Manny and Ana, and bought Havana Carolina Restaurant & Bar, reopening the restaurant on October 17, 2017, Axios Charlotte reported in a September 2026 feature. Idael died in a car crash the day before Thanksgiving that year, at 44, and Dania kept the restaurant going while Manny was in college and Ana finished high school.

Prices Axios cited in September 2026 include a $12 tamale, $25 vaca frita and $27 pescado with maduros and congrí, and the starters run to croquetas and bolitas de yuca. Entrees are big enough for two to share, and Axios suggested finishing with a cortadito.

The restaurant is on Union Street in downtown Concord. Axios reported in September 2026 that the restaurant is open daily, though some visitor listings show Tuesday closures, so call before an early-week trip.

Irie Nation Restaurant & Bar

North Tryon Street, 2729 N. Tryon St., Suite G, with locations on South Tryon Street and in University City

A family-owned, Black-owned restaurant and bar, Irie Nation Restaurant & Bar has cooked Jamaican food in Charlotte since 2019, according to the restaurant, and now has three locations. The flagship on North Tryon Street, just north of Uptown, earned A grades on both 2026 county inspections.

Jerk, barbecue jerk, curry and brown stew chicken plates start at $13.99, oxtails start at $24.99 and curry-coconut salmon starts at $21.99, according to the restaurant’s menu. An oxtail-and-chicken combo starts at $29.99, and chicken, jerk chicken or veggie patties are $5 each.

Hours vary by location. The North Tryon flagship is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and the University City location is in the shopping center at 440 E. McCullough Dr.

Lawrence Caribbean

West Boulevard, 3011 West Blvd.

Gavin Lawrence was born in Jamaica, grew up in Queens and worked for Pathmark supermarkets in New York before a grocery chain recruited him south to manage stores, and he opened Lawrence Caribbean in 2015, according to the restaurant. Historian Tom Hanchett described the plain white concrete-block building, tucked down an embankment near a railroad bridge on West Boulevard, in a 2017 History South essay.

On the current online menu, an oxtail plate with three sides is $25 or $30, a jerk chicken plate is $14 or $17, curry goat is $21 or $26 and a beef patty is $4, or $6 in coco bread. Lawrence told Hanchett his stew is not spicy, his curry somewhat spicy and his jerk really spicy. The bakery case has bulla, gizzada and rum cake, and the sorrel and ginger beer are homemade.

Ackee and saltfish, $25, is sold only on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant is closed Sundays and open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Mama’s Caribbean Grill

Plaza Midwood, 1504 Central Ave.

Vinroy Reid moved to Charlotte from Jamaica in 1994 and opened Mama’s Caribbean Grill on Central Avenue in 2000, QCity Metro reported. Reid also organized the Charlotte International Jerk Festival in Uptown, WCCB reported in 2021, and the Charlotte International Cabinet gave him the International Entrepreneur Award at the Mayor’s International Community Awards in May 2021.

The restaurant is known for Jamaican-style jerk chicken cooked over firewood, with rice and peas and coco bread, and for all-natural seasonings in place of powdered ones, QCity Metro reported in 2023. Axios Charlotte listed curried goat from $16 and curry or jerk chicken from $10.99 the same year, with sorrel and Irish moss to drink.

Mama’s stays open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, according to the Charlotte’s Got A Lot visitor guide, which makes the restaurant a late-night option in Plaza Midwood. Call 704-375-8414 to confirm hours and current prices.

Quidley’s Delight

University City, 10901 University City Blvd., Suite 106

Omar Quidley’s Quidley’s Delight moved from North Tryon Street to University City Boulevard, just east of Interstate 485, in 2018, according to a post the restaurant published on QCity Metro’s site. Axios Charlotte included the restaurant in a 2023 guide to Caribbean food in Charlotte.

Seafood is the specialty. Axios priced a shrimp plate at $16.62 and snapper plates at $26 to $31 in 2023, each in stew, jerk or curry sauce, with sides such as pumpkin rice and candied yams. Mecklenburg County inspectors gave the kitchen an A, 95 points, in August 2026.

Dishes are cooked to order, according to the restaurant, so budget extra time. There is no website, and in 2023 the restaurant was closed Mondays, so confirm hours before you go.

Tropical Goodies

West Charlotte, 2316 Lasalle St., with a second location on Tuckaseegee Road

The takeout kitchens at Tropical Goodies on Lasalle Street and Tuckaseegee Road call their food Caribbean soul food, built around jerk chicken, curry goat, oxtails and whole fried wings tossed in the house special sauce, according to the restaurant. Axios Charlotte said in 2023 that the business had been open for more than a decade and put Tropical Goodies on two lists that year, one for Caribbean food and one for must-try takeout.

Axios recommended the beef ribs, from $9.25, and the curry goat, from $10, in several sizes, with sides such as sweet fried plantains, cabbage and collard greens. Both locations earned A grades, 97 points each, on county inspections in September 2026.

Both locations are inspected as food stands, so plan on takeout. The Lasalle Street kitchen is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and closed Sunday.

This list was last checked on October 19, 2026. Spot something out of date or a place that belongs here? Send corrections through our contact form.