NJ Dining: Belly Full Caribbean Take-Out (CLOSED)

Editor’s note: Belly Full appears to have closed.

Belly Full Caribbean Take Out
1040-C River Road
Edgewater, NJ
(201) 224-6700

Caribbean food is one of my favorite cuisines, but good examples of it are hard to find in North Jersey. I was pleasantly surprised when I encountered a new Island-style take out joint in Edgewater, Belly Full. It’s a family-run place with nice people, with great food.

Storefront on River Road in Edgewater.

Belly Full’s menu is an amalgam of favorite dishes from all the major Caribbean islands, including Jamaica, the USVI and Trinidad, as well as some Soul Food items like Southern Fried Chicken, fried fish and collard greens. The owners hail originally from St. Vincent. It’s got a few small tables where you can eat their fresh made dishes in the store, and watch Bob Marley videos on their HDTV. Be advised the 3 month old store is already very popular (in particular with a number of notable pro basketball and football athletes who live in the Ft. Lee and Edgewater area) so they run out of certain dishes at times.

A peice of Jerk Chicken thigh. Appropriately and authentically spicy.

A pair of Jamaican patties, a spicy beef and a spicy curry chicken. The crust is of the softer, more pie-like crust type, rather than the flaky, crumbly kind you see in commercial varieties like Tower Isles. While the store purchases these from a bakery in the city rather than made in-store, these were nice and fresh, are of an excellent variety and reminded me of the ones Rachel and I had in Ocho Rios back during a trip to Jamaica in 2000. Flavorful, with good meat fillings that were not at all greasy.

Beef Patty cross section.

Chicken Patty cross-section.

Home Made Sorrel drink, which we thought was nice and refreshing and less cloyingly sweet than the bottled kind sold in Jamaican groceries.

A sampler plate with rice and peas, BBQ chicken, Stew, and Oxtails, and Mac and Cheese.

Jerk Chicken sandwich, which had a great spicy dressing on it and came with a sweet carrot salad that was a real knockout. The sandwich itself was excellent and a nice size too, with a big juicy chicken breast on it.

Red Velvet cake, baked by a friend of the owners. It was probably one of the best I’ve ever tried. Apparently, they sell Carrot Cakes that are even better, but they disappear early in the day due to huge demand.