Sybil’s Bakery and Restaurant
159-24 Hillside Ave.
Jamaica; 297-2359/3236

Cuisine: Caribbean Cuisine and Vegetarian specialties

Open: Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Free deliveries are made Monday through Sunday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Maintaining the family restaurant and bakery is considered a labor of love for brothers Ken and Robert Bernard, who run Sybil’s Restaurant and Bakery on Hillside Avenue.

The family business has built a great reputation by serving up the best Caribbean dishes in all of Jamaica.

Sybil’s was started by Ken and Robert’s mother, Sybil Bernard-Kerrut who arrived in the United States in 1969.

After being laid off from her job in 1975, and with nine children to take care of, Sybil started baking bread and tennis rolls.

She sold her baked goods to neighbors in order to make ends meet.

Demand for her baked goods quickly grew and she soon discovered that her kitchen and basement did not offer enough space to keep up with the orders. As a result, she opened her first bakery and restaurant on Hillside Avenue in 1978. Since then, the business has expanded to two other locations, one in Ridhmond Hill and another in Brooklyn.

Unfortunately, Sybil passed away early this month and the reign of the business has been passed on to her family.

The Hillside restaurant offers small and large size dinner plates for $6.75 and $8. Some of the dinner specials include stew beef, stew chicken, curry goat, curry beef and chicken fried rice.

Some of the vegetarian dinners include veggie fried rice (small $3.75 and large $5.25), curry vegetable (small $5.50 and large $7) and veggie lo-mein (small $4.50 and large $6).

Fresh bread and pastries are also sold in the restaurant.

The bread list includes plat bread for $1.25, pan bread ($1.50 for a small size and $2 for a large size), and tennis rolls for $1.50. It is important to note that the restaurant uses no eggs in any of their bread products.

The pastries served at the restaurant include pineapple tart and cheese rolls for $3 each, chicken/beef patties for $1.25, Guyanese chicken/beef patties, and bread pudding sell for $1.

Caribbean sodas and drinks are also served at the restaurant.

Sodas cost $1 each, peanut punch and carrot juice costs $2.75, and ginger beer and Mauby costs $2.

The restaurant has a juice bar, for the health conscious, that offers over 52 juices and promises to cure ailments such as colds, depression and allergies. Each health juice costs only $4.

Sybil has everything for everyone, whether you’re a meat eater or a vegetarian, your appetite will be satisfied.