This post was updated April 26 at 8:13 p.m.
On the corner of 48th Street and Gramercy Place lies a red barn with a sign that has two words – Tev’s Kitchen. Who is Tev, and what is he cooking in his kitchen?
This neighborhood gem and now-Los Angeles hotspot has turned this quiet barn into a barn burner with its Jamaican home cooking and buzzing atmosphere. White walls, a TV with a low-resolution menu and black booth chairs furnish the interior unceremoniously relative to the swarm of people there on a Sunday.
The menu is simple, with fewer than 10 total items rotating every few days. Saturday and Sunday feature curry goat and oxtail, items you can find in countless Instagram and TikTok food reviews.
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We ordered the oxtail, curry goat and jerk chicken off their weekend menu. While each of them are around $25 to $30 an order, they come loaded with mac and cheese, rice and peas, cabbage and a drink. The food was hearty, bursting with flavor and made you feel like you were at Tev’s backyard party.
Outside, a large TV and speaker played Afrobeats and Caribbean music for the patrons. Fake grass and a fence evoked a backyard family gathering. The patrons next to us assured us that what we ordered was delicious, as they had visited Tev’s many times before. That feeling is what makes Tev’s a reliable neighborhood spot.
Knowing that we’d order the oxtail as soon as we strolled in, the expectations were high, considering it is a meat that isn’t the easiest to find at most restaurants. The generous portion of oxtail made us feel satisfied that we were getting what we paid for. The meat of the oxtail fell off the bone, and the jerk sauce had such a delicious kick that adding more was nonnegotiable. Combined with the fixings that come on the plate, it became an explosion of flavor.
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While the oxtail, goat curry and jerk chicken were all standout proteins that had their own unique flavors, the magic came when everything in the seemingly-bursting plate was mixed together and eaten in one forkful. The crunch of the cabbage, the creaminess of the cheese, the tangy sauce and tender shreds of meat all blended into something that felt similar to the moment in “Ratatouille” when the main character Remy tastes cheese and strawberry together for the first time and sees bursts of color with the flavors of each bite.
The standout protein had to be the oxtail, with its tenderness mixed with the juices from the rendered fat and sauce – it’s hard to compete with a flavor profile so complex and a meat so tender. The goat curry was also incredibly flavorful and, in a way, had a more complex profile, but sometimes that overshadowed the flavor of the goat itself. The jerk chicken was also very good – juicy, flavorful and paired well with everything else – but at the end of the day, the inherently simple flavor of chicken didn’t bring enough to the table to compete with the goat curry or oxtail.
The bright red Kool-Aid that comes with each plate brought a sweet yet refreshing taste that transported you back to a hot summer day.
If you pay attention, you can see a security guard conversing and high-fiving a little kid as if she were his niece. A woman was selling her baked goods in plastic containers inside the restaurant. This commitment to local community members, while still staying true to its Jamaican roots, is what makes Tev’s stand out as not just a kitchen but a community center.
There is one truth that comes to light when you walk in that barn – Tev’s serves food with a heaping side of love and family.
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