RESTAURANT REVIEW : A Taste of Jamaica

I’m not fond of minimalls per se, but I can’t forget that the same architectural ciphers that give us frozen yogurt, video and submarine sandwich shops are also home to what used to be called “the nice little hole in the wall,” the sort of small, family-run business where authentic ethnic dishes are assembled from good ingredients and a lot of heart.

The latest such establishment to come to my attention is the Jamaican Cafe, which sits nestled in a small metroplex on Westwood Boulevard, right above Santa Monica Boulevard. Airy and alive with primary colors, the little cafe has two small floors of tables dressed in loud red vinyl tablecloths patterned with bright baskets overflowing with fruit. Poster paintings of Jamaican market scenes hang on the walls. Cheerful reggae music plays at a soothing volume. Any sluggish appetites will be revived by the smell of spices and cooking meat wafting out of the kitchen.

The staff is friendly and attentive; our waitresses always warned us when a dish we wanted was especially spicy, a warning to be appreciated by those with tender palates.

Although I have never been to Jamaica, I have the distinct impression that the food at the Jamaican Cafe is not unlike what would find a a good local restaurant in Princeton. Unlike the nouvelle/California-Caribbean restaurants, the Jamaican Cafe serves earthy, tasty, plentiful food with assertive spices. Its chicken has bones and whole fish look up at you from its plates.

No alcoholic beverages are served, but there are four particularly refreshing home-made juice drinks. You could have pineapple juice spiked with fresh ginger, or a punch made (as far as we could tell) of watermelon, strawberries and bananas, or an oddly tea-colored but potent and delicious lemonade. I was particularly intrigued by the sorrel juice (Jamaican “sorrel” is the same purple hibiscus blossom sold in Latin markets as jamaica --you may recognize it as the basis of Red Zinger Tea). All drinks come with jolly paper umbrellas.

For appetizers, we tried the patties: flaky yellow pastry turnovers filled with spicy seafood or beef, and tasty enough, though the kitchen left one order in the microwave too long and the pastry turned tough, impervious to both fork and knife. The codfish fritters--made with salt cod, lightly battered and fried--were like a salty breaded fish cutlet.

The entrees all came with heaps of rice and peas, two strips of fried plantain and a cabbagey shredded green salad. The peas in question are not the usual green peas but pigeon peas, a highly nutritious tropical legume that looks and tastes like a rounder, softer lentil.

Jerked meats are marinated and roasted, and both the chicken and the pork at the Jamaican Cafe were tender and flavorful and flagrantly, delightfully hot. And if the meats themselves weren’t hot enough to maintain the desired level of pleasurable pain, there was a deceptive bit of sauce, something that looked like a few tablespoons of cloudy broth in a little plastic cup that could raise the temperature dramatically.

Other dishes were spicy, but not necessarily that spicy. A goat curry had many virtues other than heat: tenderness, a sweet hint of coconut, a faint lamb-like flavor. A whole fish, steamed in a mix of spices, was lively in taste and delicate in texture. My friend who ordered the “escovitched” fish was given a choice of whole fish or sliced fish. He chose the latter and received a dense fish steak lightly coated with flour and spices, sauteed and topped with onions and hot peppers.

A good oxtail stew had been made by cooking oxtails with broad beans forever, until the meat was falling off the bones and the beans had disintegrated into a rich, thick gravy. With the oxtails came two dumplings--chewy, finger-shaped things that had a pleasing resemblance to extra-thick egg noodles.

The lunch menu is identical to the dinner menu but prices are lower. Entrees are $2 less at lunch. Perhaps the portions are smaller too, but we couldn’t tell.

The Jamaican Cafe, 1771 Westwood Blvd . , Los Angeles, (213) 575-0707. Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. No alcohol. Parking lot. American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Dinner for two, food only, $19 to $28.