Churrasqueira Restaurant
59-29 Sutphin Blvd., Jamaica

Cuisine: Portuguese & American

Open: 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.
          Monday-Friday

The Churrasqueira Restaurant is located on Sutphin Boulevard, just a block or two past the elevated tracks of the LIRR station, and straddles the shopping district of Jamaica and the Parsons Industrial Park. The tiny restaurant combines traditional Portuguese delicacies with Brazilian and other Latin and Mediterranean influences.

The result is dishes that are both exotic and appealingly familiar.

I got off to a good start with the Chourico Assado, which are grilled Portuguese sausages ($7.50) that came with grilled tomatoes in a basil compote.

It was nice, but things really heated up with the Escalopes de Vitela Grelhados, which are grilled veal cutlets sliced paper thin. ($13).

Churrasqueira offers two different kinds of the popular codfish dishes: one a grilled version and one broiled. (Oddly they don’t serve the soupy boiled version that is synonymous with the name.)

My companion rated the paella "excellent" and the spoonful I tasted certainly rated highly with my palate.

The best dish of the evening, however, was the Camarao Mocambique, which our server explained is hot shrimp Mozambique style.

The bulk of the recipe is borrowed from the 12th century Moorish conquerors and, like the rest of the menu, is an intriguing taste of Africa with a dash of down-home flavor.

— David Harris