Palate Party at Kingston Cafe

One of my favorite places to eat in Pasadena was a Jamaican restaurant called Kingston Cafe. A few years ago, it shut its door and I was definitely sad to see it go, but now it's back and I was definitely ready to re-visit an old haunt with a couple of friends in tow. When making the trip to Kingston Cafe, there are a couple of things you should know. First, the building Kingston Cafe is in looks like a small house. The restaurant shares the space with a medical group and in fact, the space Kingston Cafe occupies used to be medical offices as well. As for parking, although the attached parking lot is a paid lot, it's free if you're having dinner. Just be sure to mention to your serving person that you're parked at that lot. I think it's $3 parking at lunch time.

More ...

When you enter the restaurant, you'll see about 3 smaller dining rooms to your left. There's a larger dining room towards the back where there's a live band playing Caribbean music. I think that band only plays during the weekend, so if you want a more intimate dining setting, you should ask to be seated in one of the smaller dining rooms. As soon as my friends and I sat down, the ginger beer was the first thing we ordered. I have to say that my palate party really started with this beer. There was quite a kick to it.

We decided to order an appetizer and opted for the Jamaican chicken patty. It arrived topped with a thick curry sauce. The chicken patty had more of a soft bread texture as opposed to a flaky pastry consistency and the filling was ground chicken. I took a little forkful of the chicken on its own and it had heat. When you eat the chicken patty with the sauce, there was a flame or two, but when you drink the Ginger beer immediately afterwards, be prepared for a little bonfire.

As for the entrees, they come with a salad and plantains, which were served in courses. First, our salad arrived in a martini glass. The salad consisted of mixed greens and a mango salsa with a house vinaigrette that tasted a bit citrusy. It was a pretty presentation, but not the easiest to eat out of the martini glass.

Next, we were served a plate of plantains and johnny cakes with crushed pineapple and a walnut dusted with brown sugar. For those of you who don't know, johnny cakes are basically a cake or biscuit made out of corn meal. It was an interesting plate of textures and flavors. The plantains were a bit sweet, but the tartness of the pineapple tempered that sweetness. I liked that the johnny cakes had a firm texture to go along with the softness of the plantains. Then you also had the sweet nutty crunch of the walnut added to the mix.

Soon our entrees arrived. For my meal, I ordered the Escovitched Fish which is fish simmered in fresh herbs, spices, scotch bonnet peppers and vinegar topped with onions and tomatoes. Served with rice and beans, you had a choice of red snapper or salmon. I decided on the snapper. The fish was moist and delicate and I loved the vinegary heat coming from each bite. For more of a tropical flavor and to also cut the heat, add some of the mango salsa which came in a tasting spoon on your plate.

I also got to sample the Jerked Chicken. My friend asked for it to be medium, but medium was still pretty hot. I can't even imagine how spicy would spicy be. The chicken was moist, tender and marinated with a house made jerk sauce.

The other entree to hit our table was the Curried Goat which was stewed with onion and fresh thyme and came on a mound of rice and beans. From the small bite of it that I had, the goat had a slight chew to it and it was definitely well seasoned with some kick to it. As my friend started eating into it more, she mentioned that it was a bit salty, but she still enjoyed it nonetheless.

We ended our meal with Kingston Cafe's housemade Rum Cake, which was dense and moist. After a couple of bites, I felt like I was tasting raisins, but when I asked our server about it, he said that there weren't any raisins in the recipe. My friend, who's from Trinidad, said that the rum cake we were enjoying was actually a Jamaican Black Cake. The ingredients of the black cake could include any combination of raisins, currants, dates and prunes that are soaked in a dark rum. In the end, the cake actually served as a great palate cleanser and soaked up all the lingering sparks left on our tastebuds from our meal.

Overall, I really enjoyed dining at Kingston Cafe. After a brief conversation with a couple of our servers and the manager, I found out that Kingston Cafe still has the original owners from its first incarnation. The main difference is that the family who owns this business decided to be more hands-on than in the past. They've only been open for a month and initially started with just 3 entrees and have just recently increased the number of their entrees to 7. The menu will be seeing expansion in the upcoming months as their new chef works on new dishes and recipes. They are currently open for lunch and I for one, really want to check out their Jerk Burger.

Welcome back, Kingston Cafe! I'm so happy to see you back in the Pasadena Dining Scene.

Kingston Cafe
333 S Fair Oaks Ave
Pasadena, CA 91105-2541
(626) 844-6477





^

Coley's Caribbean-American Cuisine

Whenever I had a craving for Jamaican food, off I went to Kingston Café in Pasadena. Unfortunately, it closed down several years ago and ever since then; I've been looking for a substitute. While doing some Googling one day, I came upon a listing of Jamaican restaurants in LA. Of the ones I found, Coley's Caribbean-American Cuisine had the best reviews in comparison, but even then the reviews were also mixed.

Either people really liked the food or not. There didn't seem to be a middle ground. Wanting to check it out for myself, I decided to bring my dining group for dinner to the North Hollywood location of Coley's Caribbean-American Cuisine. The original restaurant is in Inglewood.

With our group of 11 being the only diners in the restaurant, I was expecting attentive service. What we got was a waiter who was nice, chatty, but a little on the slow side when it came to getting us our drinks, taking our orders, etc. Being a Jamaican native, I think he was still on "island time" when things are done at a more leisurely pace. In fact, I think the whole restaurant was on "island time" because even the food was a little slow to arrive, but once the plates started hitting our table, it was time to see if the food was worth the wait.

A couple of us started with appetizers. I was curious about the Codfish Fritters so I ordered that to share with the group. When the fritters were put in front of me, they looked like rectangular corn bread. "Where's the fish?" I wondered. It's only with a closer inspection that you could see small pieces of fish sticking out of the Swiss cheese holes of the fritter. After a couple of bites, I did like the fritter's light and spongy texture, but I was let down because I didn't taste any fish. I knew it was there, but my taste buds weren't feeling the fishy love.

Dinner came with a choice of soup or salad, so I went with a cup of their Seafood Gumbo. The only kind of seafood gumbo I've had in the past has been either Creole-style or Cajun-style which usually included vegetables like onion, celery, bell peppers and sometimes okra and/or tomatoes along with the meat ingredients. I wasn't sure what to expect with a Jamaican version. Needless to say that I was surprised by what I got.

The cup of gumbo placed before me had a really dark brown broth. There were also no vegetables to be found unless they were just really cooked down which could have been possible. My particular soup had more sausage than seafood, but others in the group had it the opposite way. I was actually quite happy with the sausage. They were definitely meaty and had a nice smoky pepperiness that I liked. As for the broth itself, except for the fact that it was a little too salty, I enjoyed it. It was rich and there were a lot of things hitting my taste buds with each spoonful. I really can't describe what I tasted, but there was a depth of flavor there that hit the spot.

For my entrée, I went for the Oxtail and that dish made my night. On first sight, I was immediately drawn to how meaty those oxtails were. It's always a problem when you get more tail bone than ox, but I had no worries in this instance. Also, it was easy to tell that the meat was braised just right, because it was tender enough that no knife was needed. As for the sauce the meat came in, it was bursting with palate pizzazz. Just like the gumbo, I could taste a myriad of spices, but unlike the gumbo, there wasn't an overuse of salt. This is a dish I would definitely order again. The oxtail also came with plantains, rice, vegetables and festival bread, which kind of reminded me of a hush puppy.

Overall, even with the slow service, I think the food was good enough that I'd go back even if I had to wait a little longer than usual for my meal to arrive. If nothing else, I'd return just for that oxtail, but there were also other things on the menu that looked promising as well like the traditional Jamaican dish of Ackee and Codfish or their Curried Goat. Those are tasty journeys still to come, but for now, I'm happy that I've found a good alternative to a long gone favorite.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157602979596383/

Coley's Caribbean-American Cuisine
10842 Magnolia Boulevard
North Hollywood, CA 91601
(818) 761-4944
http://www.coleyscuisine.com/