Food: Street Shak Caribbean Kitchen Restaurant

As the presence of black owned restaurants continues to grow throughout Toronto, the selections has particularly grown in the downtown core. This is perfect for me as downtown Toronto is my hood, so always looking for great new food places to check out.

Open for a bit over a year, Street Shak Caribbean Kitchen located at 646 Queen St. W. in the bustling downtown Queen West area and offers a modern environment that celebrates rich Caribbean heritage and cuisine. I had been seeing and hearing a lot about Street Shak on social media, so I was definitely hoping to try it out at some point. I was finally able to make time to visit the restaurant and with my friend Nikki and I must say it was a great experience...

According to Tony Bradshaw, owner of Street Shak, the inspiration for the restaurant came from the food that he enjoyed while growing up in Barbados. Therefore, his cuisine is a way through which he is bringing guests to Barbados and having them experience some of the local dishes featured at street food shacks on the island. Furthermore, Street Shak provides a modern casual dining environment that celebrates rich Caribbean heritage.
 

The first thing I said when I arrived at Street Shak was "OMG! I see orange!!!" So of course, I already liked it before even entering the restaurant. Their choice of a bright and fresh orange interior design immediately won them major points in my book LOL.

Once we entered, we received a warm welcome and proceeded to the from counter to have a look at the menu and order. Once inside, I was also able to fully take in the unique interior design. I absolute loved the inclusion of the black wall with various Bajan sayings written all over it. Such cool design element which brought a lot of character and fun vibes to the space.

Streek Shak's menu offers a great variety of appetizers, sandwiches, Roti and Main dishes. With everything looking so good and wanting to sample a number of items, we opted to order 3 appetizers to share and 2 mains. Furthermore, The menu also offers a election of alcoholic and non-alcholic drinks with he addition of popular Caribbean drinks.

Menu

Therefore, we got a likkle Calypso and Ting to start things off! :)

Fish Cakes & Bakes

For appetizers, we ordered the Fish Cakes & Bakes, Bajan Macaroni Pie and Fries Plantain. We did not have to wait too long to receive them, which we were happy about as we were both very hungry. Everything tested great, the Fish Cakes & Bakes were definitely my fave.

Bajan Macaroni Pie

Fried Plantain

Oxtail, Rice & Peas, Sauteed mix vegetables

While enjoying our appetizers, our main dishes came. Due to my love or oxtail, I ordered the oxtail with rice & peas with sauteed mix vegetables as my main. For her main, Niki ordered the jerk chicken with fried rice and mix vegetables.

Jerk Chicken, Fried Rice, Sauteed mix vegetables

Our main dishes were just delicious as our appetizers. As we enjoyed our meals, this also got us chatting about our upcoming trip to Barbados for Cropover in August and how we definitely need to try some of the street food shacks while in town.

Overall, we had a great experience trying out Street Shak Caribbean Kitchen Restaurant. They provided great customer service, we enjoyed our meals and of course I LOVED the interior design of the space! In addition, while at Street Shak we were fortunate enough to have a chance to chat with the owner Tony who was so nice and happily told us more about the restaurant and his long career as a restaurateur. We were also able to bond a bit more over our love for orange as I commended him for the excellent colour choice in designing his restaurant lol.

Curry Goat, Fried Rice, Sauteed mix vegetable / Fish Cakes & Bakes / Curry Chicken, Rice & Peas, Sauteed mix vegetable

With such great service and delicious food, we have since gone back to Street Shak on another occasion and that time tried their curry goat and curry chicken dishes, which we enjoyed as well.

With owner Tony Bradshaw

Thanks so much for having us Street Shak! I am now even more excited to visit Barbados, not just for Cropover but also to try some of the street food shacks in town.

Definitely check out the Street Shak Caribbean Kitchen Restaurant whenever you are in the Queen West area.

Also, check out Street Shak on their online pages: Website / Instgram

As they say...when you en got hourse, ride cow ;)


~G~