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At this West Indian restaurant and takeout joint, veteran Jamaican chefs cook up pots of oxtail in brown gravy, curried goat, and other Caribbean specialties. Thick and peppery soups brim with chunks of chicken, fish, and yucca; entrées like roast chicken or kingfish steak are sweetened by quintessential Caribbean sides like plantains and coconut rice and (actually, beans). The white tablecloths, peach walls, and potted palms in the empty-every-day-but-Sunday dining room might seem beside the point (they don't quite succeed in transporting you to the tropics), but the line at the takeout counter next door never flags. — Nicole LaRosa

Small roast chicken dinner, $6.50; stewed kingfish, $11