Rasta House

I’ve been on a quest for a while to find great Jamacan Food in Pittsburgh. Needless to say my quest is still on going.
My wife had wanted to try this place for a while so I finally gave in so she could stop nagging me. This is more of a to go place as there is only one or two small circular tables with a couple of chairs to eat at. The place is a dive but, the painted walls are pretty cool though.
I ordered three orders of jerk chicken dinners to go. Two hot and one mild for our daughter. Each dinner came with legs and thigh meat, plantains, greens and rice and peas. About 20 minutes and almost $ 40 later my food was ready. It smelled great. I flew home so we could ding in. If only it tasted as good as it smelled.
The jerk flavor was overly spicy and just too much. It made the chicken almost inedible. The jerk seasoning was almost paste like and really thick. The poor wings looked like they came from a baby bird. The plantains were dry and had little to no flavor at all. The greens were good and the rice and peas were ok though. I went in the early evening after work so maybe it was just an off day. I don’t know.
My quest continues…

I have lived and worked all over the United States and the Rasha House is by far one of the best Caribbean restaurants I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating at. The food is delicious. Some of my favorite items are the homemade greens and mac and cheese. But by far one of the best keep secrets is their rum cake. I am telling you if you’ve tried rum cake before like me and didn’t care for it to much you MUST give their’s a try.
Kelly one of the owners of the restaurant is one of the nicest guys you will meet. He will help you to decide what to get. He’s helped me on more than one occasion to realize what I want. So when you go there and Kelly is working tell him Michael sent you.
Trust me there’s nothing on the menu that you won’t find absolutely delicious.

It has been so long since I have had jerk chicken. I really enjoy the flavor of jerk chicken when it is properly prepared. As I was in the area, I stopped in to get myself some food and see how it tasted.
Hot jerk chicken, red beans and rice, collards
The smells were so good. As I looked at my plate, I was a tad disappointed. I paid $ 18 for two halves of a thigh. I understand how difficult it is for a small business, but it just seemed disproportionate. I decided to dig in since I had already made my purchase. The flavors were so good with the extra sauce I asked them to put on the chicken and rice. I just wish there was more.
My biggest complaint about this establishment is lack of inherent value in the meal. The large amount paid for the extremely small portions just doesn’t seem appropriate.

Maybe I caught them on an off day, but I wasn’t super impressed with the food here or the prices. I stopped in to grab takeout lunch for my dad and myself and chose the jerk chicken for myself and curried chicken for Dad. I had my heart set on collard greens and cabbage as my sides, but they were out of collard greens among multiple other choices for sides so I got the cabbage and white rice. I ordered the same for my dads curried chicken as well as a side of mac and cheese for us to try.
The inside décor is super bright and fun with great music and an extremely friendly woman at the counter offering suggestions for which sides to pair with which dishes. There are only two or three tables, so this place is probably better for takeout. You can get the meals in a regular size portion or a large. I opted for regular sizes at $ 15 for the jerk chicken and $ 10 for the curry plus another $ 5 for the mac & cheese.
Mine came with two drumsticks that were small to medium in size and two other small chunks of meat — one of which was not edible because it was all fat/​bone/​cartilage. My dad’s order had a better selection of meat in it. The cabbage was fine — not super flavorful and I don’t think you can really go wrong with steamed rice. The mac & cheese was good but not super creamy the way I normally like it. It was probably the best thing we got, though. I ordered my jerk sauce on the side and I’m glad I did because even though I specified mild, it was still very very spicy.
I give three stars for the atmosphere and woman at the front counter, but if I ever went back, I would try a dish with shrimp and then I might update my review. For $ 29, I can probably find a takeout lunch that’s a little better than mediocre.

Great takeout, excellent, quick service! I had the brown stew chicken with plantains and red beans and rice as my sides. Very flavorful, not spicy at all. Next time I’ll try the curry chicken!

I am disappointed. I came here about 4 months ago and was pleased with my small meal — rice and peas. This time we ordered jerk chicken, plantains, wings, and rice and peas. The bill was $ 25 which was steep. The rice was dry. The plantains were extraordinarily dry. The wings were of very poor quality. The jerk chicken was ok, but tasted watery. We wanted white meat curry and were told that the owners think white meat is too expensive so the restaurant does not carry white meat!. The location is easy to find but there are many peddlers and homeless men walking around. Very uninviting. Overall — won’t go back for sure.

Amazing. Best food I’ve had in Pittsburgh in a while. Cheap, great portions… curry chicken literally falls off the bone. Rice is cooked perfectly and the cabbage is flavorful. If you’re going to El Burro… don’t. This place is two doors down… you’ll get twice the amount of food for the same price, its way better and the people are great. Simple, delicious street food.

Located in an area I know we’ll it is still a little rough but gentrification is coming in a big way so the neighborhood may scare some but it is definitely worth it. My wife is from NY and loves Pittsburgh but has been yearning for a taste of home and the way she attacked the beef patty I could tell we found it. The place is small maybe space for 4 people to eat. the food is served in Styrofoam In other words it is not pretentious «which Pittsburghers hate» it’s like the neighborhood in a lot of ways rough on the outside but the flavor is unforgettable. The food is authentic flavorful and the price is spot on. I know we will be stopping in several times a month. I could definitely see this place expanding in the future. If this place was located in the strip I could see it in the summer with a little Café style seating a small bar serving Jamaican rum with Bob Marly playing over the sound system and live calypso.

Overpriced and bad service. No seating, unsanitary, and most importantly the food was not good. Also there is no bathroom to wash the dirty sauce off of your hands. Don’t waste your time here. Only good thing about this place is the music, but you’re probably better off streaming it on the Internet.

As a person of West Indian heritage and from NYC, Rasta House’s food is very delicious. The quality and taste reminds me of food from home. I recommend this place to anyone who is looking to enjoy some West Indian Food in Pittsburgh.

The food is delicious. I’m not going to write a long review but I will say that the food is great and reasonably priced so please get out there and give them your money because that’s how restaurants survive!

I honestly do not want to write this review for fear that my new favorite restaurant would be over Inundated with so many new customers that the owner of the restaurant would have to cut back on the quality of the food and/​or raise the prices to accommodate the new customers.
But as I speed back to Rasta House I can’t help but want to rave about their food.
As a NYC’er with west indian roots in the PGH I all but lost hope for any quality ethnic food pertaining to Caribbean cuisine.
Since I favor neighborhoods that were (and still are) low income, possibly high crime yet are on the cusp of gentrification, my girl and I went to the North Side to check out homes in the Mexican War Streets.
When our hunger pangs became unbearable we looked up Hook Chicken & Fish for some comfort food that would give us congenital heart disease and an unbelievable mountain of guilt. But as we turned the corner, my girl saw the words «RASTA HOUSE» and immediately we were like «eh, its worth a try.»
We walked in to the small space and was immediately brought back to the small carib Brooklyn restaurants in Flatbush or Crown Heights with roots reggae blasting in the background and a cantankerous cook, shouting at his staff in patois.
The restaurant had just two tables and a bench and every inch of the place was covered in a colorful mural detailing the Carib culture as if I was transported to a shack in Kingston, Jamaica.
We ordered, from the hip skinny cashier with glasses, my girl the curried goat, me the jerk shrimp. We both opted for rice and peas and cabbage and each side of mac & cheese. After 15 minutes of conversation with the young lad behind the counter, the food came to us piping hot in styrofoam, we both took a bite of our respective meals and only three words came to my mind…
HOLY SHIT. JACKPOT!
This food was great, and it was fresh, every ingredient popped with flavor in your mouth. The jerk sauce was spicy how i like it and my girl raved about the tenderness of the usually tough goat meat and savory curry sauce.
We both cleaned our plates with ease and were satisfied by food that was served hot, fresh and made with attitude. Just like home.
We’ve been back two times within a span of one week and I hope to Jah Rastafari that they don’t change a damn thing!

I haven’t had Jamaican food in years so every time I pass it I want to stop in — yesterday I finally got to try it out. The storefront itself is pretty small, so takeout might be the better option, but there is seating for a few people if you want to stay.
The woman behind the counter was super friendly and helped me decide what to order. Each order comes with 2 sides, so even the small order is pretty filling. I ordered the oxtail stew (more out of curiosity than anything else) with the mac and cheese and the collard greens on the side. The oxtail was great; i might say the words «too cheesy» for the first time in my life describing the mac and cheese but it was still very good; i also liked the collard greens. The desserts also looked great — i’ll have to wait for next time to try one.
All in all, it was very good especially for the price.