Puerto Viejo in Crown Heights is a Dominican restaurant that’s been a part of this neighborhood for more than 30 years. The menu includes expected Dominican dishes like hearty sancocho with pieces of chicken and pork, along with surprises like the encebollado steak sauteed with wine and onions. The homemade hot sauce, available to order online, is a must and adds fruity heat to the simple and satisfying dishes.

This first location of vegan restaurant Greedi Kitchen, which opened in 2018, has since been renamed Greedi To-Go, but it continues to serve a menu that accommodates a range of dietary restrictions. There’s hearty vegan sandwiches — a “turkey” sandwich with banana peppers and a jerk-style burger are standouts — along with entrees like a meatless and gluten-free take on fried chicken and waffles.

Nostrand Avenue’s La Ñapa comes from Francisco Anton, a chef who ran a similar concept in Miami. He opened this Latin American restaurant right before the pandemic, serving wine and snacky dishes, including croquettes with salted cod, patatas bravas, and a hunky chicken torta with black bean puree, cheddar, and guacamole, on a brioche bun. The arepas in particular, between $10 and $15 each, are heaping and well-worth their higher-than-usual price tag.

Founded in 1995 as Danny & Pepper’s, Gavin Hussey moved his iconic jerk chicken establishment further up Flatbush Avenue a few years later, occupying a very modest storefront near Prospect Park. A flock of newer branches operated by family members later sprung up, including this very slick one decorated with reggae album covers in Crown Heights. The jerk chicken and escovitch fish are as good as ever, but a handful of other Jamaican staples like oxtails and curry goat have been added to the regular menu, and are also well worth ordering.

This tiny Franklin Avenue lunch counter packs a punch with its suya bowls, the namesake Nigerian spice blend made with peanuts and spices that’s dusted over several proteins like steak, shrimp, and tofu. Here, you can opt for kale or rice as your base and choose from three different heat levels. Add-ons include plantains, hardboiled eggs, eggplant, and more items that help round out the meal with color and crunch.

Nestled between Brooklyn Suya and Island Cz Cafe is Ras Plant Based, a pandemic newcomer that’s become a quick hit in the neighborhood for its vegan Ethiopian fare. Owners Romeo and Milka Regalli also run the non-vegan, Cobble Hill location of Awash Ethiopian Restaurant, but here their tibs are made with mushrooms and their kitfo comes from crumbled pea protein. Platters with five to six dishes can be portioned for larger groups ($19 each), and extra injera costs a dollar more.

Though there’s probably better jerk chicken or rice and peas in the neighborhood, there’s few better places to eat it than the usually humming dining room at Island Cz Cafe. This corner restaurant specializes in moderately priced Caribbean fare, including satisfying callaloo (a Jamaican vegetable dish), saucy jerk chicken wings, and takeout containers of oxtail priced around $12. Heaping cocktails, previously seen up and down Franklin Avenue in plastic takeout containers during the pandemic, are served with names like “Hennessy Shirley Temple” and “Call a Cab” (around $12 each). Order them “king size,” a 32-ounce serving, for double the price.

Breakfast burritos are the draw at this Sterling Street takeout counter, which also sells stuffed sopapillas, green chile cheeseburgers, and other New Mexican fare. Come before noon, when burritos are sold, and prepare for a wait that’s well worth it, especially if you order the version made with chorizo. The flour tortilla-wrapped creations come stuffed with scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheese, and smoky red or green chiles that owner Eric See imports from New Mexico.

You’ll find plenty to enjoy on the wide-reaching menu at this Haitian-American cafe, opened by Cassandre Davilmar in 2018. Daily offerings include a Haitian boulette with vegan meatballs that can be ordered as a sandwich or a plate, as well as a fried oyster mushroom sandwich with an herby epis sauce. Crepes are feature heavily throughout the menu, with flavors that range from Haitian peanut butter and ginger jam to a savory curry chickpea version.

Step inside this Nostrand Avenue bakery whose front window advertises divorce lawyers ($349 before a $335 court fee) to find reasonably priced Trinidadian-Chinese fare, along with doubles, roti, and a lengthy display case of pastries. “Chicken and fried rice,” are some of the most common words uttered here, and at $8, there’s no confusion about why the sizable takeout containers of Trini-style chicken with Scotch bonnet sauce on the side are a hit. Time your visit around 3 p.m., when currant rolls ($2 each) come fresh from the oven like clockwork.

Though Colina Cuervo is ostensibly a coffee shop — with a standout horchata latte — you won’t find the usual cafe fare here. This Latin American spot offers excellent brunch options like scrambled eggs with salsa verde, tamales, empanadas, mushroom tacos with chimichurri sauce, and a pork hash with Peruvian hominy. The cafe is from Ecuadorian chef Jorge Salamea, who pulls experience from Anissa, Ssam Bar, and Ma Peche, among other restaurants.

This recently opened Eastern European lunch counter highlights dishes that pull from owner Jeremy Salamon’s Hungarian and Jewish-American roots in a vintage, diner setting. Sandwiches run the gamut from the “Ritzy Titzy,” a pickled grape and chicken salad that’s a play on a Waldorf, to the leberkase, a pork pate and fried egg version with a pear mostarda. A range of pastries, from chef Renee Hudson, include the gerbeaud cake with apricot and chocolate ganache, as well as a Friday-only sacher-torte cake.

Ali’s is a reliable option for quick, reasonably priced meal with lots of flavor. Stop by for West Indies dishes such as its plentiful doubles — stuffed with chana — or the curry goat roti. Bolstered by its popularity, this Trinidadian restaurant, located on Utica Avenue, has expanded with additional outposts at Francis Lewis Boulevard and on Flatbush Avenue.

Izzy’s, originally known as Izzy’s Barbecue Addiction, was one among a rash of kosher barbecues that opened a half-decade ago in Brooklyn, and eventually, it brought the phenomenon to Manhattan. When available, the hulking beef rib is a good choice, but the brisket here is always fine, fat-edged and smoke-ringed.

German’s Soup is a unique dining institution, an actual branch of a place famous in Guyana’s capital of Georgetown, founded in 1960 by Hubert “German” Urling. This Crown Heights outpost, run by son Clinton Urling, sells more than its namesake dish, though the cow foot soup, with its unctuous and viscous broth, and collagen, would be a standout on any menu in town. Additionally, find Caribbean-Chinese lo meins, pepperpot, oxtails, and red snapper stew.

Gloria’s permanently closed following a tragic, decades-long legal battle last year, but owner Gloria Wilson’s Trinidadian fare remains available from this second location in southern Crown Heights. There’s no menu listed, so come prepared with your order or follow the recommendation of whoever’s working the counter, as one should. Nourishing, tamarind-packed doubles are a reliable bet, or opt for the gargantuan oxtail dinner (around $15 for a large), which comes with plantains, rice and peas, and a choice of two sides.