Golden Krust has the largest US restaurant network of the three brands, with franchises in nine states. Juici Patties is the newest of the three in the US, with its first US restaurant opening in 2024 and stores listed in New York, Florida, Georgia and Philadelphia as of October 14, 2026. Tastee is a Jamaican chain whose official location page lists branches in Jamaica, so for Tastee the practical option is a Jamaican branch or a travel pack bought in Jamaica.
Juici began in May Pen, Clarendon, and its Jamaican business started in 1980. Golden Krust was founded in the Bronx, and Tastee in Kingston in 1966. Those origins matter less at the counter than the questions this guide answers: where each brand is, what it sells, and what it costs to open one.
Which chains you will find in America
Three brands are the ones to compare. Golden Krust was founded in the Bronx in 1989 by Lowell Hawthorne, a Jamaican immigrant, and his family. Juici Patties opened its first US restaurant in Hollywood, Florida, in April 2024, according to the Miami New Times. Tastee was founded in Kingston in 1966 by Vincent and Valerie Chang.
A fresh tray of golden patties, the item all three brands are built around.
Two other names turn up in US supermarkets and delis. Tower Isles began in New York in the late 1960s, when Earl and Joy Levi used Joy's family recipe. It runs a Brooklyn cafe and sells frozen Jamaican-style patties through supermarkets, delis, pizzerias and other retailers. Caribbean Food Delights, also known as Royal Caribbean Bakery, is a Jamaican-owned New York manufacturer and foodservice supplier. A 2005 Jamaica Information Service report called it one of the three leading patty manufacturers in the United States. It works mainly as a manufacturer and wholesaler rather than a nationwide walk-in chain.
A separate category is the independent Jamaican restaurant or bakery that sells patties under its own name. Those shops are not branches of Juici, Golden Krust or Tastee, even when their patty looks similar.
Where each chain has US restaurants
Golden Krust's franchise page lists locations or market availability in nine states: Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Texas. Its official locator is the place to find the store nearest you.
Juici's US locator lists open stores in New York (Brooklyn, Jamaica in Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan), Florida (20 listed cities, from Orlando and Tampa to Miami and Boca Raton), Georgia (Atlanta, Snellville and Decatur) and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia). Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas are on its coming-soon list. If you want the full city-by-city breakdown, read Juici Patties in the US: Every City It Has Opened In, and What Is Different From Jamaica.
Tastee's official location page lists Jamaican branches, including Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Catherine, St. Thomas and St. James. Its branches are the ones to plan around.
How the menus and patties differ
Juici's US menu centres on patties and quick combinations. The listed fillings are mild beef, spicy beef, spicy curry chicken and vegan or spinach-style vegetable options. You can order individual patties, a patty with coco bread, double-patty and triple-patty meals, breakfast patties with egg, bacon and cheese, six-packs and dozen packs. Coco bread is sold separately, and you can add cheese, avocado, egg or bacon. Banana chips and Jamaican sodas or juices round out the sides and drinks.
Patties and coco bread are on the menus of both Juici and Golden Krust.
Golden Krust offers a wider patty range. Its fillings include spicy beef, mild beef, curry chicken, jerk chicken, shrimp, vegetable, spinach, cheese-filled beef and cocktail patties, and its menu also includes patty and coco bread. Beyond patties, Golden Krust runs as a full Jamaican restaurant. The menu lists jerk chicken, curry goat, oxtail, brown stew chicken, fried chicken, rice and peas, steamed vegetables, plantains, festivals, fried dumplings, soups, breakfast dishes and Jamaican baked goods. Its sides include mac and cheese alongside the rice and peas, plantains, vegetables, festivals and dumplings.
Both brands describe their pastry as golden or flaky. Golden Krust says its crust is folded 20 times in its retail product material. Those are descriptions of what each company intends to make, not a verdict on taste.
Tastee's public menu and location materials focus on Jamaica. Its Jamaican business describes patties, fried chicken, Jamaican breakfast and lunch, pastries and travel packs, and says it offers more than 100 menu items. A side-by-side with the US menus is therefore limited, because its menu pages do not show a US restaurant menu.
For more on Jamaican patties at home, including prices and the brands, read Jamaican Patties Explained: Juici, Tastee and Mother's, Prices, and Why They Are Yellow.
Size and growth: what the numbers say
Golden Krust has the largest US restaurant network of the three. Its website says it operates more than 125 restaurants in North America and describes more than 100 franchise restaurants. A 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document summary reports 103 total units, made up of 101 franchised units and two company-owned units.
A generic counter order, a stack of patties ready to go.
Juici's US website lists 38+ US locations and 67+ Jamaican locations as of October 2026. The Jamaica Observer reported in May 2025 that the Jamaican company had 73 total stores after new openings in Orlando, Brooklyn and Manchester. A 2025 FDD summary says Juici Food Services LLC began offering US franchises in May 2021.
Tastee's official site says its Jamaican business has 15+ or 18+ locations island-wide, depending on the page, with franchise locations inside Jamaica. The same site says Tastee is not currently offering new franchising opportunities. Tower Isles and Caribbean Food Delights are mainly US manufacturing, wholesale and retail distribution businesses, so their figures measure supermarket and foodservice reach rather than a franchised restaurant network.
Those counts come from different pages and dates, so read each one with its date rather than adding them together.
Juici or Golden Krust: choosing by what you need
The right chain depends on what decides your visit. Choose Golden Krust when the deciding factor is the broadest US restaurant network and a full Jamaican meal menu, with soups, curry goat and oxtail on the list. Choose Juici when you want the Jamaican-founded Juici brand in its current US markets, especially if you remember its patties and coco bread from home. Choose Tastee when you are going to Jamaica, where its branches and travel packs are the practical options.
Frozen patties sold through grocery and wholesale channels can be easier to find than a restaurant.
If the nearest restaurant is far away, the frozen patties from Tower Isles or Caribbean Food Delights may be easier to find, because both sell through grocery and wholesale channels. Check the grocery shelf or the retailer before you drive across town for a patty.
Before you travel, check the details that decide the trip. Juici's individual location pages publish store hours, and Tastee's Jamaican locator publishes hours for each branch. Golden Krust's locator identifies its locations, and local ordering pages may give current hours. Online ordering is available through some Juici and Golden Krust locations, but payment methods and delivery fees vary by restaurant and platform. Before you go, confirm the payment methods the store takes, especially if cash or one particular card matters to you.
Decide what you want before you walk in. A single fresh patty, a patty in coco bread, a six-pack or dozen, a cocktail pack and a full Jamaican meal are very different orders, and each chain prices them differently. For the Jamaican side of the story, use the restaurant directory to find Jamaican restaurants by parish, starting with Clarendon if you want to follow Juici's roots.
Common questions
The answers below take the questions readers ask most directly about these three brands.
Which Jamaican patty is the best in the US?
There is no objective ranking that settles it. Taste depends on the filling, the spice level, the crust, how fresh the patty is and what you grew up eating. Choose by need instead. Golden Krust has the largest US restaurant network, Juici is the brand to look for if you want its US stores, and Tastee's practical option is a branch or a travel pack in Jamaica.
Is Golden Krust Jamaican?
Yes, in heritage and menu. The company was founded in the Bronx in 1989 by Lowell Hawthorne, a Jamaican immigrant, with his wife Lorna, his siblings and their spouses. Its menu is built on Jamaican recipes, from patties and coco bread to jerk chicken and curry goat. The business itself was founded and built in the United States, so it is Jamaican in ownership heritage and food tradition, while its restaurant and corporate history is American.
Is Tastee in the US now?
Not as a restaurant chain, based on its official site. Tastee lists branches in Jamaica, including Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Catherine, St. Thomas and St. James, and it sells travel packs of six or 12 patties at those branches and at both major Jamaican international airports. US readers may come across unrelated businesses that use the Tastee name, so check who runs a shop before you assume it is a Tastee Jamaica branch.
What is the difference between Juici and Golden Krust patties?
The main differences are the menu, the filling range, the restaurant format and the number of stores. Juici's US menu centres on patties, coco bread, breakfast patties, six-packs and dozen packs. Golden Krust adds jerk chicken, shrimp, cheese-filled beef and cocktail patties, and its patties sit inside a larger Jamaican restaurant menu. Published calorie figures also differ. Juici lists 360 calories for its mild and spicy beef patties, and Golden Krust's menu lists 490 for its spicy or mild beef. Those figures describe each product and do not measure taste.
What do Jamaican patty franchises cost?
Juici's franchise page estimates initial investment, excluding a lease, at $339,850 to $569,117 for a small format, $472,950 to $939,450 for a standard format and $510,950 to $1,160,783 for a large format. Each range includes a $45,000 franchise fee, and a 2025 summary reports a 6% royalty and a 4% brand fund. Golden Krust's 2025 summary gives an estimated initial investment of $212,600 to $775,900, with a $40,000 initial franchise fee, a 5% royalty and a 1.5% advertising or brand-fund fee. Golden Krust's franchise page describes a 10-year term with renewal options. Tastee says it is not currently offering new franchise opportunities. These are estimates from franchise disclosure documents, not guaranteed costs, so ask the franchisor for the current Franchise Disclosure Document and have a franchise attorney and an accountant review it.