De Palm Tree Jamaican Cuisine, University City

Stepping into De Palm Tree Restaurant is like stumbling into a portal and ending up in the Caribbean. Exposed-brick walls give way to decorative support beams that end on a vibrant crimson ceiling, recalling a beachside cabana fanned by ocean breezes. Flecks of culture spread across the walls as well, from a framed collection of Jamaican dollars and a national flag to portraits of Bob Marley and metallic replicas of tribal art. But as in Jamaica, the community at De Palm Tree Restaurant forms around the food.

Feasts of fragrant, spicy curries, flaky fish, and hearty bean stews follow frosty glasses of ginger beer and freshly squeezed fruit juices. The menu’s rum cakes, stuffed pastries, seafood, and plantains reflect the lush, tropical landscape of Jamaica, with its abundant fruit trees, teeming oceans, and waving fields of jerk-chicken plants. Well-known dishes such as tender jerk pork or curry chicken anchor the offerings, whereas exotic island delicacies such as akees and saltfish, oxtail stew, or spicy pickled escovitch fish tempt adventurous diners.