If you find yourself longing for a reminder of summer, a visit to Jerk Fish, a charming, unassuming Jamaican restaurant on Main Street, may provide a taste of the tropics to take you away from the ice storms and slush-filled streets that plague these bitter winter months.

Jerk Fish’s lime and creamsicle-orange walls, miniature palm trees, and glossy photographs of beachscapes give it a fun-loving ambiance. This casual vibe makes the place feel like more of a hang-out than a restaurant; you order your food at the cash register, decide for yourself at which table you want to dine, and a larger-than-life image of Bob Marley keeps you company throughout your meal.

The food is not mindblowing or revelatory, so if your standards are impeccable, this eatery may not be the right fit.  However, its dishes are applause-worthy for their authenticity and rich flavors.  The menu is quite varied, offering bona fide Jamaican delights like stew peas with pigtail, curried shrimp, salted codfish, and a spectrum of meat-filled patties. Most dishes come in small, medium, or large sizes, and are served alongside rice and beans, steamed vegetables, and plantains.  The beverages include sodas that hail from the homeland, obscure juices such as Irish moss and plant root extract, and your average corporate American drink selection.

The dishes sampled had their high and low points, but by and large they were pleasing and ultimately fulfilling.  The curried goat was spirited, and infused with a piquant multi-note sauce.  (Tip: to get the most out of the peppery curry, order the coco bread and dunk repeatedly).  An unfortunate byproduct of the curry was that its intensity overpowered the intrinsic gamey taste of the goat.  Texturally, the meat was spot on; it was cooked to a state of perfect succulence.

As for the sides, the rice and beans had well-rounded flavor, yet the vegetables were run-of-the-mill. The plantains were drab and starchy, offering almost none of their typical toasty fruitiness.

Jerk fish, their eponymous dish, is a whole red snapper fried to a crunchy crisp and flavored with traditional Jamaican jerk sauce.  According to its mythology, the name jerk derives from the “jerky” wrist motion one makes when cooking it. The snapper was meaty and jam-packed with morsels of smoky, sweet flavor.  Eating the eyeballs is highly recommended.  There was a serious excess of salt, yet despite this quibble, the snapper’s skeleton was left exposed at the end of the meal.

Although it isn’t within walking distance of campus, Jerk Fish is definitely Wes-friendly: they deliver to campus and accept Middletown Cash.  So get off the beaten path and check out Jerk Fish’s fiery Caribbean fare.

Hours: Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m to 7 p.m.

Location: 276 E Main St.

Price Range: $-$$ (appetizers cost between $1.75 and $7.00, small entrees range from $5.50-$7.00, and large dishes fall between $8.00 and $10.00)