Orange Snail

Albert and his wife run the Orange Snail and these people are amazing. I have ordered from Albert for some catering events in the past but tonight I had the chance to sit down and dine on some jerk chicken, rice, and salad. Albert warned me that I might want some more spice and he was right. I popped back in for some hot sauce in a cup. The hot sauce is made in house and it is amazing!!! They need to bottle it up and sell it! Food was abundant and tasty! I couldn’t finish my food but I wish I could have. I will need to pop in more often and enjoy some food as there are a few more things on the menu I need to try.

I always the the snail burger here — a burger with a hash brown — with a side of potatoes. You’re going to have to put condiments on yourself, but they always have a bunch out on the counter. The food is affordable and is made to order, no stale fries here. Only wish they would fry the hash so it was crispier.

For a restaurant on campus, to say the least… Its mediocre. The hamburger here is dreadful please avoid. It doesnt even taste like real beef, its very rubbery, and isn’t how a burger should be made at all. The salads here were okay to be honest, nothing here is really that fresh though, be warned! The chicken club sandwich was good, so was the chicken alfredo pasta. I’m not totally putting this place down, because its really not that big of a dive, its tolerable, especially since there isn’t that many options on campus. Check it out though, you might be pleasantly surprised, or on the opposite side of the spectrum… You might totally be disgusted like I was with the burger! :D Try it!

My food was delicious and authentic. My only complaint is there was not enough meat on the bones of my oxtail. This place is really hidden but when I finally found it, it was not empty and with good reason

Do you like carbs? Do you like to listen to a television blaring soap operas? Then you will enjoy The Orange Snail!
Located in the basement of Stong College at York University the Orange Snail is an independently owned restaurant /​pub. The owners are a Caribbean husband and wife and they serve Caribbean food, but they are best known for their lunch «buffet». The buffet (which is not all you can eat) is pretty cheap (around $ 6) Your food is given to you by a server — they will give you a HUGE amount of carbs — usually either plain rice or pasta — I’m talking two or three cups of rice, and then a smaller amount of protein (whatever they’ve made that day) quality ranges from pretty mediocre to quite good, but it’s pretty much luck of the draw as to what they decided to make that day. You also get a separate plate or container for salad which you can help yourself — the salad is quite plain though about 95% lettuce or you can take coleslaw or cheap pasta salad.
It’s very evident that the snail tries to keep it’s food costs down to a bare minimum and offer a large amount of (cheap) food for a low price.
If you don’t opt for the buffet (or arrive after lunch hour) you can order from the menu. They do have several vegetarian options as well. I’ve found that service is extremely slow so it’s normal to wait 15 minutes or sometimes much longer to get an order.
The owners are usually quite friendly and chatty, but I think overall the food is medicocre and the service is slow. On one hand I’m happy that there are still some places on campus that are independently owned (not owned by evil Amark) but I wish the owners of the Snail would do something better with the place. Oh during the day they ALWAYS have soap operas blasting on the televsion. I’m pretty sure at a university not too many of the students or staff are really interested in the latest developments of The Young and The Restless so I would pretty much never dine in for that reason.