I enjoy Caribbean spiced food and one of my regular Jamaican restaurants recently closed. Not knowing where to go, I did a search and found a place not far away – Little Kingston Jamaican Restaurant. It is located on West Slauson Ave. just west of South La Brea Ave.
Despite arriving at 5 p.m. on a Saturday, the restaurant was alive and packed. Customers, mostly families, were there eating, talking and having a good time. A few people stood in front of the counter waiting to place their order and I found the menu printed on the wall behind the counter.
Little Kingston Jamaican opened in September 2017. The walls are painted bright Jamaican green with bright yellow trim. The place was decorated as if they just celebrated in a big way complete with table decorations. Cool reggae music set the great vibe.
The menu has many of the typical Jamaican items like curries, jerk, oxtail, short ribs, etc. What I haven’t seen in an LA restaurant before is cow foot, Jamaican patties, cornmeal porridge, and conch soup. They even have an extensive dessert menu with items like rum cake, rock cake, and sweet potato pudding.
Curry Shrimp with assorted veggies 
Fluffy Roti
The Saturday special was various items served with roti, a type of flatbread. The Curry Shrimp Roti had a large piece of roti wrapped in paper. Once unwrapped, it was a warm and moist fluffy flatbread that would pair nicely with any type of sauce. While the curry sauce was delicious, I felt the shrimp was a bit hard and overcooked.
The jerk chicken ($7) more than made up for the shrimp as the aromatic spices, like Jamaican allspice, caught my attention even before I took a bite. Moist and tender, I could taste the spices down to the bone. It was obvious that the meat had been in a marinade for quite some time.
Short Ribs ($14 small / $18 large) are served in a thick reddish-brown sauce alongside plantains, rice, and cabbage. Because the short ribs are braised, the meat simply slides off the bone. The brown sauce contains a number of herbs and spices and benefits from heat reduction.
A lot of restaurants treat sides as an afterthought with no emphasis on taste. I am not a cabbage fan, but I was impressed that their cabbage salad also included lima beans, corn and sliced carrots and the dressing was quite tasty.
In addition to lunch and dinner, Little Kingston Jamaican is also open for breakfast. Some of their items include the national Jamaican dish, Ackee and Saltfish, Callaloo (greens), and Liver.
I have to take my hat off to the chefs at Little Kingston Jamaican. They use quality meat and produce and they don’t appear to take short-cuts in their preparation. This is reflected in the taste of the jerk chicken and even with the assortment of vegetables in the curry shrimp.
If you like Jamaican food, Little Kingston Jamaican is definitely worth a visit.
Little Kingston Jamaican Restaurant, 4716 W Slauson Ave, View Park-Windsor Hills, CA 90056; 323.295.5596
littlekingstonjamaicanrestaurantlosangeles.cafecityguide.website