The Classic Sybil's Goes Fully Halal

Sybil’s (@sybilshillside) is a long-standing Caribbean restaurant serving fresh food and baked goodies from hot foods bar. We visited their location on Hillside Avenue.

Snapper and Shark Platter

Food: 9.5/10
Lets just say our mouths were already watering from the door due to how good the restaurant smelled. Between countless main dishes and sides to freshly baked Guyanese pastries and breads, we enjoyed every bite. For starters, we had a plate of their famous pastry quadruplet. Pine tarts are filled with a pineapple jam, cheese rolls are filled with peppery melted cheese, chiney cakes are filled with sweetened black bean mash, and salara is filled with a red-colored grated coconut mixture rolled into a log and sliced. The dough crust on all of their pastries is so buttery and flaky! We also had their savory Guyanese-style chicken and beef patties, which were heapingly filled with ground chicken or beef, carrots, and peas, as well as their Jamaican-style pulled lamb patty. Each patty was so delicious and packed with flavor, though our fave was their Guyanese beef patty. Again, those crusts are divine. For the main course, we started with their pepper pot, a slow cooked beef stew primarily made with casareep, cinnamon, clove, and hot peppers, and their freshly baked guyanese plait bread. You cannot eat pepperpot without plait bread! It just doesn’t work. One of our members (ahem, Tahirah) is not a fan of pepperpot but this one won her over. We also had a platter of BBQ chicken over rice and beans, a platter of chicken chowmein, and a slice of their cheesy baked macaroni. The BBQ chicken was falling off the bone and smothered in delicious BBQ sauce, and the chicken chowmein was so homey and tasty. We ate the baked macaroni prematurely so it wasn’t melty and gooey, but it was definitely delicious!Last but not least, we had their new snapper and shark platter featuring fried fillet bites of snapper and shark, long wedges of fried plantain, spicy mashed cassava patties, corn halves, and a cabbage mix. This platter comes with a sauce but honestly, it wasn’t even needed since everything was so well seasoned! For drinks, we tried two traditional drinks called mauby, a spiced brew made with mauby bark, and their sorrel, a Jamaican hibiscus brew. Both drinks involve a nice long steeping process for optimal taste, and we really like that Sybil’s makes and bottles their own drinks. Overall we were not disappointed, and will definitely be back for more tasty bites!

Price: 8/10
Prices are a little high compared to other places.

Atmosphere: 8/10
Primarily a to-go restaurant. You wait in line to place your order with the next available server, and then you pay at the register. Since COVID, they stopped their in-store dining.

Service: 10/10
The staff are kind and helpful, and serve you as quickly as possible.

Sybil’s Bakery and Restaurant
159-24 Hillside Avenue
Jamaica, NY 11432

Beef and chicken patties

Jamaican-style lamb patty

BBQ Chicken

Baked macaroni

Chicken Chowmein

Pepperpot

Drinks