The Angry Jerk

An underrepresented cuisine that should be experienced.The Angry Jerk is a cafeteria style bar and restaurant. You walk to the counter, order your meal, then sit in 4-person tables until someone brings your food or calls for you to pick up (I've experienced both depending on how busy the restaurant is). The food is Jamaican, with a focus on heavily seasoned meats and fish. For my first visit, I sampled their half chicken and stewed chicken for my main courses with sides of rice & peas, yucca fries, plantains, and steamed cabbage. The half chicken was a rotisserie cooked chicken covered in jerk spices. The meat was flavorful but a bit dry, though applying some of their sauces helped add some needed moisture. The chicken is a perfect vessel for their large number of sauces. The stewed chicken lacked the spice, but was heavy in a rich stew and bursting with juice. They paired well with the sides. The rice & peas, which is the Jamaican way of calling rice and beans is a great filler, catching all the sauces, juices, and seasonings from the other dishes and changing flavor over the course of the meal. It's extremely hearty and filling. The plantains were not as sweet as I expected and were more starchy, but went quite well with their sweet sauce. The yucca fries were my favorite side, having a crispy outside and fluffy inside while coated in a slightly spicy seasoning. It was perfect for dipping into the plethora of sauces. The steamed cabbage was...well it's steamed cabbage. I wouldn't recommend it unless you absolutely need something green and leafy to help digest the otherwise extremely heavy meal. The Angry Jerk is still a very new establishment and is suffering from some missing amenities. I came in when it was raining and there was no rug near the entrance to catch the water from dripping patrons, leaving for a slippery floor. Sauces play a huge part in their food, but they give you incredibly small cups of sauce. You can ask for more, but going up to order more constantly ruins the overall experience. Having bottles of their sauces on each table and larger cups for take-out orders would make each meal much better. And finally, I am no expert on Jamaican cuisine, but I expected the food to be much spicier. With a name like the Angry Jerk and a logo showing three angry scotch bonnet peppers, I was hoping to leave with a numbed tongue. The only thing that got close was their Angry Angry sauce, their signature super hot sauce, which was delicious and spicy, but I felt it was more of a "mid" level spicy and not an authentic Jamaican spicy. I understand wanting to appeal to a larger customer base, but having selectable spice levels for each dish ranging from "Non-Spicy" to "True Jamaican Heat" would be better.Columbia has a lot of amazing Asian restaurants but lacking foods from the Caribbean. I want to experience more of what the Angry Jerk has to offer. The service was super friendly, the space was clean and spacious, and with a few little tweaks to how they serve their food, and it can really be something special. If you need something new with a blast of flavor, then experience the Angry Jerk for some spice in your life, even if you're not screaming for water when you're done.

I came in to ask questions and get a good look at the place in preparation for event hosting. I met with the owner and he answered all of my questions an was very helpful. They are set up cafeteria style and I hope that works for them. I am aware some dishes are prepared the same when dining at casual restaurants but not all dishes and I'm not a fan. If you're in a rush, this hopefully is a great choice for you and I may come here to grab lunch even rushing so it may work for me as well.

My first order by DoorDash.I paid extra 2,99 for fast delivery and it was fast!Side details was good. The portion pretty big!Only think chicken and rice wasnt that good. İt was ok...I can order again. I don't say it's bad! My expectation was little high I think!

The Angry Jerk has finally opened! I had been waiting for this for quite some time. Excited to have a new restaurant added to Merriweather. The restaurant is spacious, well lit, and has plenty of seating. The set up is similar to a chipotle, where you have cafeteria style ordering. The menu has variety of Caribbean options that you get either as a bowl or tacos. I grabbed a bowl with a base of rice & peas, cabbage, curry chicken, and jerk cauliflower. My overall thoughts were that the food was just ok. It wasn't anything that I haven't had from other similar Caribbean restaurants. I will say, the jerk cauliflower was a nice touch. The other issue I had was the portion size of the protein option. For $17 I would have like a bit more of the curry chicken. Although I wasn't wowed, I will stop in for a quick bite and to try some of their other options.

Overall- delicious fast casual jerk food with large portion sizes and a menu with great variety, fast and kind service, clean ambiance, and an inclusive single stall restroom I love jerk food, but I don't frequent jerk places because I often find it hard to get a balanced meal that includes veggies. This is a jerk place that has great vegetable options so I imagine we will be regulars here. You can choose tacos, a bowl, or a chicken entree. There are tons of options for sides and toppings to personalize your meal the way you like to. I think the pricing is fair for the quality and serving size you get here. There is a small bar with a couple of beers on tap, indoor seating, and 4 small outdoor tables. I had a jerk chicken bowl and my partner had jerk shrimp. We both enjoyed the chow mein base, our protein, and all of our toppings, especially the cauliflower and the plantains. I'm already looking forward to when we return. We go to Colorburst weekly. We love all of the restaurants there, but we've been talking about how they need a fast casual spot and Angry Jerk definitely filled that need. The only thing I would improve is that you can't see the menu from where you stand in line. The font is really small and half of it gets blocked by the wall.

summary: a new spot in the Color Burst Park area of Merriweather that is a welcome change of pace to the area. In a place that's populated with sit-down restaurants, Angry Jerk brings a Chipotle-style order system with a simple, but tasty menu to the business block.Angry Jerk is new, so I think it's fair to expect a few hiccups with your experience in the first couple of months. That said, the service was very kind and accommodating albeit slightly slow (totally understandable!).The portion sizes were very generous especially given the price point and everything was delicious. I had the Chow Mein Bowl with Jerk Shrimp and everything was well-balanced and fresh. The Angry Jerk sauce reminded me of something reminiscent of a Teriyaki-based sauce with a small kick to it. All of the sides were tasty as well.There looks to be a ton of indoor seating and 4 tables for outdoor seating. Since it's located in Color Burst Park, you can also take your meal into the Commons area on a nice day. Side note: they also have a small bar menu!I love the new addition to the area and already looking forward to my next visit.

When I saw this place was finally open I was super excited because I love Caribbean food. The atmosphere was quite clean and spacious. The food however, was a little disappointing. I ordered the jerk chicken & salmon entrees. Each entree comes with two sides. My salmon was cooked halfway... :( didn't realize until I was home eating it and half way towards the center I realized how undercooked it was. I mean, good thing I like sushi...? And thank goodness the jerk chicken was cooked all the way through, or else this would be a much different review. For such a pricey salmon dish you would hope that it'd be cooked thoroughly and I wouldn't have to put half cooked salmon in the oven to finish cooking it.

Only thing that Barely survived was a piece of soft Tasty Cookies & Cream Cake. Decent portions of amazing Fresh food. Lovely efficient staff. Recommend for a great family meal. 5 out of 5 Stars

I like the concept with the options of entrees and/or customized bowls and tacos. I got the rice and peas bowl with the shredded oxtail and added sides cabbage, carrots, jerk cauliflower and plantains. Portion size was a bit small and the side options could use a flavor boost but all in all I think it's off to a good start and again I like the concept of the food bar. It's like Chipotle and Cava. Ive been to other establishments by Jason so I'm a bit underwhelmed here but I would def be back to try something else. Plus, I'm glad to see more food options coming to Columbia! Parking is a little weird here but it's not the restaurants fault - just thought I'd mention it.

It's alright, really depends on what you pick and how well it pairs together. That being said what I got didn't really work well together. The curry chicken was really good tho and they also let you sample the meats to help you decide what you want. I do feel compared to it's peers like Chipotle, Cava, and BIBIBOP Asian Grill it is over priced.