Cuisine: Jamaican

Hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday; 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday

Telephone: 990-8931

There’s a bright, airy corner restaurant on Farmers Boulevard and 139th Avenue in Rochdale that serves some of the best Jamaican food in Southeast Queens.

The barbecued chicken dish, generously portioned with four pieces of chicken, a load of rice or roti and a side salad for only $5, was great on a recent visit to Kuntry Bickle in Rochdale.

The sauce was both sweet and spicy, and the chicken’s white meat was so tender it was falling off the bones with barely any effort.

The rice, served with peas, had a slightly seasoned flavor, and the salad was a nice cool complement to an otherwise steaming hot dish.

The entire dish had an overall peppery taste, great for flavor and for helping to clearing a cold.

Other dishes on the chicken menu include brown stewed, curried, jerk, fricassee and fried variations of the meat, all at $6 or less.

Other meat dishes available include peppered steak, stewed beef, oxtail with beans, curried goat, braised steak, jerk pork and beef chop suey, all for around $6 each and served with the same sides as the chicken dishes.

Seafood items include curried and buttered shrimp, served with the usual sides for $9, and steamed or stewed fish for $10.

One unique seafood dish is the coco fish, which is king fish in coconut sauce.

The restaurant also has a different soup every day, though none are vegetarian.

The most unique soup available is Thursday’s conch.

Vegetarians don’t have a whole lot of choices, in fact, at Kuntry Bickle.

This hearty establishment, made more so with its name, which is Jamaican slang for "country food," only serves two items—both stews—on its vegetarian menu.

A few sides—porridge, macaroni and cheese, salad and fried plantain—are also available as non-meat choices.

Breakfast is served at Kuntry Bickle for early risers (but not too early—the restaurant opens at 8). The usual Jamaican breakfast foods are served, including various vegetables with either codfish, liver, kidney or mackerel. All the breakfast dishes are around $5.

The decor at Kuntry Bickle is not as rustic as its name may suggest, but it is attractive and inviting nonetheless.

The restaurant is lined with large windows on the two sides that face the sidewalk, and the interior walls are lined with large mirrors, creating a bright, open feel to the place.

Twenty-two seats cover marbled tile floors, and, as if the owners are inviting people to stay and plug in their laptops to get some work done, 16 electrical outlets at tabletop height—a convenience not even available at Starbucks—are available.