So the first two reviewers on Yelp are one hit wonders
Not to derail this thread, but why do you even bother with Yelp? It’s all BS imo.
It’s not perfect, but Yelp is probably the single best tool in the US for finding information on a restaurant.
I’m definitely hitting it up for some half price rolls!!
Wow. When I’m doing research, I never look at Yelp listings. Eater and local magazines and Trip Advisor for me!
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We do find Yelp to be useful for getting an idea about a place. We’ve found that if a place has 4 or more stars from a decent volume of reviews we usually find the food to be good. 3.5 or less usually results in disappointment. My wife also likes looking at the pictures looking for technical errors such as broken sauces or just poorly constructed plates to get an idea if we want to take a chance.
Our rule held true Sunday as we went to the Oyster Creek Restaurant and Boat Bar near Smithville Sunday which had 3.5 stars and the meal was meh.
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I was looking for a menu online and there is nothing. Yelp was the first or second result on Google so I looked.
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Hammer it dude! It will be exactly what you expect it to be (I predict)
Yelp generally has more complete restaurant listings than TripAdvisor, far more reviews and more pictures. Eater is nice but at the end of the day it’s a just a place that showcases popular joints.
As an example, if you look for Haitian in Asbury, TripAdvisor returns nothing, while Yelp will give you 5 reviews and a bunch of pics for this place: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tijos-kreyol-kitchen-to-go-asbury-park?osq=haitian
Also if you search for Caribbean in Asbury, TripAdvisor returns nothing in the search because none of the Jamaican places are tagged that way, whereas Yelp will return a bunch of places. In my experience Yelp is better than TripAdvisor in just about every way.
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Thanks for using Haitian food as a test for Yelp.
I’m not well versed in the differences in food from various Caribbean Islands but we usually hit up The Islander on Memorial Parkway when in the mood for Caribbean food. Tijos looks really good and is now on the list to try.
I wouldn’t call that place “good”… 
Their best quality is that it’s incredibly cheap (4$/lb or something like that). It’s just a buffet station with what I imagine are basic Haitian staples. I’ve only had Haitian food at 2 places in Asbury (there used to be one at the current Ada’s location) and neither of them were particularly tasty. But the last time I was there was a couple years back so things might have changed.
Speaking of obscure restaurants, an interesting place is “Caribbean Restaurant” on Main St. It is now one of the oldest running restaurants in the area (nearing almost 20 years that I’m aware of?) but it still has no reviews on Yelp or TripAdvisor. Google somehow has 50 reviews now. I think it’s supposed to be like a Dominican / Puerto Rican type place but it’s run by Peruvians. Some interesting things there you don’t see often.
Maybe Haitian food just isn’t all that tasty.
“Caribbean Restaurant” sounds like it’s might be Latin Fusion -“Spanish cuisine including Puerto Rican & Peruvian fare served in an unfussy atmosphere” Will have to try it.
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So I liked Takumi! Food was fine and worth the money for sure. We got and shared a bunch of rolls. My friend ordered a spicy miso soup and it was miso soup with kimchi which I found pretty funny. I’ll definitely be back.
Edited to add: I don’t think these are worth full price - I think they’re a notch below the regular full price places, and a notch up from the permanent 1/2 price places in Freehold. I’m curious to see if they keep the pricing or what.
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Maybe Haitian food just isn’t all that tasty.
It’s possible, that kind of question in general is something I wrestle with time to time. I want to respect and enjoy all the different foods out there, but how do you make the determination that a given country’s cuisine just isn’t that good, especially compared to their neighbors. But of course who wants to be the person who claims an entire country’s food sucks?
I kind of feel that way about Filipino food. I’m no expert, as there’s not much exposure here. But I’ve eaten at a handful of places and for me it’s always inferior to every other dish I’ve had from SE Asia. I’ve had this conversation with a guy who travels there somewhat regularly for business and his response was “yeah, their food’s not that good.” Large sample size, I know.
I think you basically nailed it with the description of Caribbean Restaurant. It’s an interesting place, they also have a selection of nasty bit dishes!
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Not Me!! No disrespect intended to Haitian or any other cuisine.
I’ll pretty much eat anything at least once (and tendon and tripe in a hot pot any chance I get). But some cuisines have flavor profiles I just don’t enjoy.
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Nice looking plate. I agree with the price. At full pop, I’m going somewhere else, but this isnt bad for the money. Did any one roll stick out as the best?
Haitian food not tasty? Try some Pikliz.
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Maybe it is, Maybe it isn’t. I’ve just never knowingly had Haitian food. But that Pikliz recipe sounds good. I may have to try it out. Thank you for mentioning it.
If I’m remembering correctly that was my favorite part of the plates they used to do at a place in Asbury. It was burning hot which I loved.
But that’s kind of like if the best food at a BBQ place was their cole slaw… Some of their most common dishes seem to be meat that’s basically fried until it’s nearly beef jerky. Don’t get me wrong I love jerky, but just not enough to be a main on a platter. (Also the place I went to gave you like 70% rice and beans and a tiny bit of meat) And the place was pretty “authentic”… I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone speak English there. 
Yeah, front and center, it’s the Christmas roll I think. Like I mentioned I normally don’t go for what I call monster truck rolls but I enjoy them from time to time. This was as monster truck as it gets and an epic blasphemous flavor orgy. Like 2 kinds of sauces on top, a ton of fish eggs, mangoes, seared tuna. But somehow it all came together. We actually ordered a second one!
On the other hand, the mango shrimp roll was really fucking weird. I did not order that, and everyone regretted that person’s decision. Would not recommend.
I was also a bit disappointed by the spider roll. It’s clearly not full price spider roll quality. I couldn’t tell if what I was eating was even crab at all.
