New Haven, CTCaribbean

A Jamaican kitchen on Hamden's Dixwell Avenue, opened in 2018 by Nicole Ellis, who emigrated from Jamaica at thirteen and studied her mother's restaurant business for her graduate thesis. New Haven Independent's Today's Special series followed her oxtail: bought from Minore's Meats on Whalley Avenue, dry-rubbed overnight with garlic, onion, black pepper, thyme, and scallions, then sauteed and browned for hours. Order the oxtail, braised to fall-off-the-bone tenderness, the dish Ellis learned from her mother.

A Jamaican spot on a long-vacant Fair Haven corner, run by mother-son co-owners Eulita Clarke and Jamiel Bowen, who grew up near Kingston. New Haven Independent covered their move into the former Grand Cafe storefront with help from the Fair Haven nonprofit CitySeed, and the Yale Daily News reported it too. The kitchen is built around jerk chicken, oxtail, brown stew, and Jamaican patties. Order the oxtail or the jerk chicken, the dishes the family carried up from their earlier Middletown restaurant.

A family-run Jamaican restaurant in the Hill, where chef Damian Clarke and partner Taneisha Young season with spices imported directly from Jamaica. New Haven Independent watched Clarke build the popular salmon entree: peppers, onions, scallions, and thyme sauteed with the house Jammin Sauce, the salmon added and finished with more sauce, served over rice with plantains. Order the salmon, or the fried chicken the piece praised as crunchy, moist, and peppery without being heavy.

An off-Whalley Jamaican restaurant that Donna Tracey founded in 2010 after arriving from Jamaica, now carried on by her daughter Nadine. New Haven Independent profiled the Oxtail Lunch as one of its most-ordered takeout plates: oxtail with rice and beans, carrots, and cabbage, described in loving sensory detail. Donna opened the place wanting to bring what she considered real, authentic Jamaican cooking to the city. Order the Oxtail Lunch.