September 11, 2017
Inglewood, California – I had unknowingly passed by this place several times during my visits to Inglewood. It wasn’t until I stopped at a traffic light some time later that I saw it in the corner of a strip mall. When I noticed it was a Jamaican restaurant, I made plans to visit the next time I was in the area.
As I mentioned, Lee’s Caribbean Restaurant and Market sits in a strip mall. There’s plenty of parking in the lot, but be aware that a couple of the stalls are in tight and/or precarious locations.
Once you walk in, you’ll find yourself in a large area of mostly unused space. Not sure if they use all that space for any other purpose but it certainly could be used for dancing and/or dining for larger events.
The interior of the space is painted green. A large map of Jamaica and her parishes is painted on the north wall. Maybe a dozen tables with chairs are scattered across the room. The counter has a handful of stools posted in front of it. There is a flat screen TV above the counter. A small ‘market’ sits off to the left side of the counter. It felt like being in a market in Jamaica.
After perusing the menu for a minute or two, I decided to get a large order of Jerk Chicken ($13.50), a side order of short ribs ($11.25), a Ting ($2.75), and a Tropical Rhythms Fruit Punch ($3.25). I got all this to go.
While I waited for my order to be prepared, I checked out the market. I was sold when I saw that they carried all my favorite Jamaican foods, sauces, and drinks all in one place. In addition to the meals, I ended up with some jerk BBQ sauce (you have got to try this on jerk pork ribs), Walkerswood jerk seasoning (I use this when I make jerk chicken at home), and a can of callaloo.
Let’s get started: The jerk chicken comes with rice and peas with ‘gravy’ on the rice, plantains, vegetables (cabbage), and festival.
Those vegetables will wake you up. They are seasoned with lots of pepper. The broth they cook them in is flavorful yet still allows the taste of the cabbage to come though. I enjoyed these.
As you may know by now, I am not a fan of plantains so I ate these fairly quickly without paying much attention to the taste. The festival was good but did not make much of an impression on me beyond that.
The rice in the rice and peas was pretty fluffy, not dry. I was glad to see that. The extra ‘gravy’ also carries some heat. That is not something I expected. Mixed together, it takes just a tiny bit of attention away from the flavor of rice and peas while at the same time taking the taste up another level.
Careful, that jerk chicken packs some heat. It’s just about right for me but if you are sensitive to very spicy foods, you might want try a different dish. Lee’s does a good job cooking the chicken; it was very tender. Though it is quite spicy, it is not overly so; you can still taste the chicken itself.
I had the Ting with the jerk chicken. Even though it is a carbonated drink and doesn’t do anything to alleviate the heat of the chicken, it is very cool and refreshing. I’ve come to believe that Ting is the perfect accompaniment to jerk chicken. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that Ting always reminds me of the first time I had it in Jamaica.
Moving to the short ribs, they were very tender. So tender in fact, meat from one of the ribs had already fallen off the bone by the time I opened the container. As far as the taste, it carried a subtle but hearty beefy flavor. The ribs were cooked well and still had a lot of the juices. The Tropical Rhythms Fruit Punch went very well with the ribs.
I was very glad I stopped in here. A restaurant with good food and a market with my favorite Jamaican products in the same place? What more could a lover of Jamaican food want?
Lee’s Caribbean Restaurant and Market – 4.5 forks. Highly recommended. A virtual one-stop shop for Jamaican food and drink. Except the rum part.
Kanale Eats 