I live in Bryn Mawr at college and wanted to support a Black-owned vegetarian business, so I typed that into Google expecting only Philly restaurants to appear. I only found about three of the type of places that I was looking for in West Philly, but since I was taking my mom out as a late birthday/Mother's Day treat and she lives in Cherry Hill, I was pleasantly surprised to see such a business in NJ. I took Uber to my mom's house, and from there we headed to Merchantville to Rastas Kitchen. The place was a lot smaller than I anticipated, but there were two tables and one counter with chairs to sit inside, so we did. I ordered the vegetarian meal with oyster mushrooms, peas and rice, cabbage and side orders of plantains and mac and cheese. My mom ordered a shrimp dish with the two sides that came with it. We both had the sea moss drinks and I took home a slice of rum cake (which was so strong with rum that I couldn't finish the whole thing.) All in all, with a pretty generous tip, my total came to about $83.00.
There was a young man at the counter waiting on us, the owner (looked like him from the website) and an older gentleman were cooking in the back, and two ladies working on the side were filling up things. When we first went in, there was only one other person, but by the time our food came more than an hour later, the room was nearly filled up. I heard one other woman ask about the time to make the food - it definitely felt as if we weren't being served according to our arrival but according to the time it was taking to make our food relative to others, perhaps. They certainly need more workers with the amount of service that they received on that Friday, May 17, 2024.
My takeaways: Customer service was okay at best, the one gentleman in the front was pleasant but it was clear that he was a bit overwhelmed and very busy, also helping to prepare food away from the cash register - 3 out of 5 stars; Atmosphere was a bit disappointing as it was extremely small and at times cramped with a big fan blowing in one direction which made it a bit too cold (plus fans aren't always clean so I worried about dust due to my allergies.) This is definitely more of a take-out place than dining in - 2 out of 5 stars; Food was the highlight as I initially thought that the prices were outrageously high, but the portions are indeed huge, and I was fed fully for two days. The food came out hot, well- seasoned and delicious and I was satisfied, and the sea moss drinks were great as well. I know that my mom enjoyed her meal as well though she asked if the rice and peas were usually so dry, and I told her that in comparison to say Mexican rice and beans which are usually always cooked in pork fat (at least when I lived in Mexico for a year), that the rice and peas were vegetarian and I thought that it was fine. My only suggestion is to go easy on the rum in the cake because it overpowers all of the other flavors - 4 out of 5 stars.
All in all, I recommend this place for anyone craving Jamaican food or a different type of vegetarian cuisine and who lives conveniently close. However, I don't think that we will be back because we weren't all that awed, the wait time was exceedingly long, and there are too many other options closer to me in Philly. Best of luck to Rasta Kitchen though! read more