Savor Jamaica’s national dish and more Caribbean fare at Royal Taste of Jamaica

David and Miya Suarez think of Kingston often. It’s home—where the couple’s adult children still live—and it’s also the muse of their restaurant, Royal Taste of Jamaica.

After its 2018 beginnings as a catering business and a 2020 stint inside the former Millennial Park shipping container development, the eatery settled in 2021 at the Beauregard Town building formerly home to Christina’s breakfast café.

The interior is doused in a tricolor palette that pays homage to the Jamaican flag, with brick walls coated in golden yellow paint.

It’s one of the few restaurants in the area to find plates like ackee and saltfish. Crowned the national dish of Jamaica, it’s a medley of crumbly cod and ackee, a Caribbean fruit. With its buttery hue and fluffy appearance, boiled ackee almost resembles scrambled eggs. But though ackee and saltfish is often eaten for breakfast, the fruit’s texture is smoother, with a neutral flavor that soaks up the fish’s salty, garlicky, peppery seasonings.

“We wanted to bring something different to Baton Rouge,” Miya says.

The Suarezes are both converted vegetarians, but their memories of the island nation guide their loving preparation of curry goat and jerk chicken.

And as diners dig into oxtails bathed in brown gravy, perhaps they, too, will picture the country’s warm sunshine, seaside street food vendors and rolling reggae music.

This article was originally published in the March 2025 issue of 225 Magazine.