Why go: This electric-colored cafe—formerly a takeout operation, now with 50 seats—dishes out the area’s best Caribbean cooking plus 20 to 30 kinds of muffins baked daily.
What to get: From the muffin case, rum-raisin, carrot-cake, cranberry-nut. At the table: goat roti, the thick, well-curried hunks of meat bundled in a soft, eggy crepe; a lively jerk shrimp, the tangy, peppery crustaceans supported by a nest of julienne carrots and water chestnuts; a decidedly non-Jamaican crab-stuffed jumbo shrimp with coleslaw and fries that would be the envy of Crisfield's.
Best for: A quick, portable breakfast; a gut-busting weekend lunch to carry you through the night.
Insider tip: The carrot-cake muffins are a local legend, and longtime patrons tend to gobble them up early.
See all Cheap Eats 2008 restaurants
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
