Enas Caribbean Kitchen Incorporated Columbus

The area of town Ena's is in isn't very posh. Within a block there are three churches, a pawnshop, a small community flower garden, and more than half-a-dozen boarded up businesses. It''s the kind of community that would, in more enlightened days, have been able to apply for and receive federal block grants for redevelopment.

That Ena's would do well there, and what's more, looks good, says much about both the community, and the food. It's a very clean if rather spartan place, with a few free standing tables. Mostly, it's for takeout,  and while we were there, at least eight orders came and went. We decided to eat in.

I had the jerk chicken; my wife, the lamb. For sides, I had the greens and red beans and rice, while she had a salad and red beans and rice. The chicken was melting-tender, and exceptionally moist--which made the lack of a knife understandable. My wife's lamb had a nice, gamey wham to it, more lamb flavor than I can recall on just about any previous occasion. The collard greens were also rich in flavor, and cooked long enough to remove any bitterness. (Something which our statewide supermarket chain, Buehler's, has yet to understand.) There were hardly any red beans accompanying the rice, and those that were, were mashed, but the whole thing had a fine, peppery heat to it that contrasted well with everything else. My wife didn't find the salad anything special, but she did like my greens, which is a compliment to the owner and cook (Ena), since my wife normally loathes greens.

We ended  up taking half of our meals home. Granted, Ena's is a bit out of the way, and as remarked above, not in an area that's financially flush. But the restaurant has been around for a long time, and the food is well worth the drive. Ena knows what she's doing: providing wholesome, large, ethnically interesting food for a low price. You can't go wrong with that mix.