Tashana’s Jamaican Cuisine brings smoke, spice and a serious plate to Yulee

Outside the Home Depot in Yulee, you never really know what you’ll find. One day it might be a cheesesteak truck, some dang good coffee, or on a recent Monday, something unexpected: Jamaican food. Parked among the rotating food trucks outside the Home Depot was Tashana’s Jamaican Cuisine, a bright green-and-yellow trailer serving everything from jerk chicken and curry chicken to oxtail, fish and fries, breakfast sandwiches and fresh lemonade. Jamaican food from a food truck was enough to catch my attention, so I decided to stop and see what was going on.

The truck is hard to miss. Jamaican colors cover most of the exterior, along with palm trees, flames and multiple nods to the U.S. Army. Tashana herself is an Army veteran, something she proudly highlights both on the truck and through the business online. Tashana’s has been operating since October 2025, making it just under a year old when I stopped by. There’s also a large sign on the side promising “delicios food,” losing a “u” somewhere along the way, but the smell of jerk chicken coming through the service window was certainly delicious and piqued my interest.

The menu is fairly focused, which I appreciate. There’s enough variety to make you think for a minute, but not so much that you need a study guide before ordering. You’ll find oxtail, jerk chicken, curry chicken, fish, wings, rice and peas, and a few different sides. I briefly considered becoming a more adventurous version of myself and ordering the oxtail, but I chickened out and went with the jerk chicken instead.

The jerk chicken plate comes with rice and peas and one side. A regular is $15 and a large is $25. Naturally, I went with the large and chose fried plantains for my side, then added a $5 freshly squeezed lemonade. After tax, I was a little over $30 into lunch. That sounds like a lot for a food truck until they hand you the box.

I was only the second person in line, and the whole process moved quickly. Tashana was visible inside preparing food, and I waited less than 10 minutes before my order was ready. There were no tables or chairs, no music playing and not much in the way of shade. You order at the window, take your food, and go. What you do get while waiting is the smell of Jamaican spices, probably the truck's best sales pitch.

When my plate came out, it was almost alarmingly hot. The bottom of the container was warm enough that I had to shift it in my hands immediately. Whatever else I was about to find inside, it certainly wasn’t coming to me cold.

Visually, this is not food that tries to wow you with its appearance. Opening the box revealed a pile of dark, charred chicken spread over a large serving of rice and peas, with fried plantains tucked into the corner. It looked hearty more than photogenic. There was no careful drizzle of sauce or little sprig of something green trying to convince me I was having a refined experience. It was chicken, rice and plantains packed into a foam container, and there was a lot of it.

The jerk chicken was easily the strongest part of the meal. The seasoning had a smoky quality, with warm allspice and clove notes underneath, while the charred skin added crispy, blackened spots that carried even more of that grilled flavor. There was some heat, but nothing I’d call aggressive. I don’t have an especially high spice tolerance, and I handled it without a problem. It was the kind of spice that slowly made itself known rather than punching you in the mouth on the first bite.

More importantly, the chicken itself was cooked beautifully. It was juicy, tender and genuinely falling off the bone. I could pull the meat away with a fork, and pieces practically separated on their own. Between the smoke, seasoning and tenderness, this was the part of the plate that made the strongest impression.

The fried plantains were also enjoyable, though they leaned more heavily toward the fried side of things. They had that caramelized sweetness you want from a ripe plantain, but the grease came through a little stronger than the sweetness. Inside, they were soft and moist, with a fresh-from-the-fryer quality that made them hard to dislike. They also worked as a sweeter break between bites of chicken.

The rice and peas were the most subdued part of the meal. On their own, I found them a little dry and fairly unremarkable compared with everything happening around them. Once the juices from the jerk chicken started working their way into the rice, however, things improved considerably. The seasoning and moisture gave the rice more life, and the plate started making more sense as a whole.

Then there was the lemonade. For $5, you get a cup just shy of what I’d consider Big Gulp territory. There was nothing fancy about it. No fruit floating around, no unusual flavor combination and no attempt to turn lemonade into something it didn’t need to be. It was simply lemonade, and very good lemonade. What surprised me most was how tart it was. So many lemonades lean hard into sugar, but this one had enough acidity to make me genuinely pucker on the first sip. It was refreshing without being syrupy and worked especially well beside the smoky jerk seasoning.

As for the large plate, understand what you’re getting yourself into. I couldn’t finish it in one sitting, and I made an honest attempt. There’s easily enough food here to turn lunch into dinner later, which makes that $25 price feel considerably more reasonable. If you finish the entire thing in one sitting, you may need to spend the rest of the afternoon reconsidering your decisions.

Not every part of my meal stuck the landing, but the jerk chicken gave Tashana’s Jamaican Cuisine a clear identity. It was smoky, deeply seasoned and remarkably tender, while the tart lemonade gave the meal another memorable bright spot. Tashana’s offers something genuinely different among the rotating food trucks in the area, and for me, the chicken was the reason the stop was worth making.