Scotchie’s Jerk Center, Montego Bay, Jamaica

“Scotchie’s Restaurant in Montego Bay, Jamaica”

This BBQ stand easily ranks as the all-time favorite place to eat in all of Jamaica!

There are a few Scotchies restaurants located throughout the island and they are all known for their authentic Jamaican jerked chicken and jerked pork.
Along with great food and a real Jamaican outdoor atmosphere, the prices are relatively reasonable.

Scotchie’s serves what is arguably—and Jamaicans will argue this point for hours—the best jerk chicken on the island. Scotchie’s is the exact opposite of fancy: This is a no-frills type restaurant. Its appearance is rather rustic and authentic. Just a collection of tin-roofed structures around a few palapa-shaded tables by the side of the road.

The massive cooking station is perennially wreathed in the smoke where workers keep the meat cooking, sandwiched between a “grill” of sweetwood and pimento sticks and large sheets of corrugated tin. The menu couldn’t be simpler: ¼, ½, or a whole chicken—or the same in poundage of pork, chicken sausage, or pork sausage.
The meats here are cooked to perfection with mouth-watering barbecue/grilled flavor. If you can handle the heat, go ahead and add a few dashes of the hot sauce provided. You can also order fish which is fantastic!

What makes the food so tasty? Well, it would be a combination of perfect Jamaican seasoning and the food being cooked over pimento tree wood.

Get a side of roasted yam or sweet potato (yes, those are two entirely different tubers), or rice & peas (which actually means “kidney beans” in Jamaica), sweet corn, breadfruit, festival (like a sweet hush puppy), or plantains; maybe some conch or shrimp soup.

Take your foil-wrapped bounty to a picnic table, a high wooden chair at the bar, or a padded keg stool at a table under a palapa—spice it up, if you dare, with the homemade fire sauce made from the joint’s namesake Scotch Bonnet peppers.

For the adults, don’t forget to wash it all down with a very cold Red Stripe Beer. The kids can try a cold drink of coconut water or a bottle of Ting (grapefruit soda).

Happy Traveling!