Mobay Cafe offers a vibrant taste of Jamaica and beyond
Escovitch fish from Mobay Cafe — a whole red snapper under sweet red pepper and carrot, with slices of pan-fried ripe plantain arranged just so over rice and peas — was pretty as a picture. A couple of quick photos, and I hurried to eat. With vinegar and allspice scenting the vegetables, the Jamaican dish smelled as good as it looked.
Even though the fish was packaged in a carryout container (with great care, obviously), it was beautiful, and that fish ($20) remained perfectly moist.
Nadine Dixon, originally from Jamaica, opened her long-planned Mobay Cafe in Walker's Point in August, in the midst of the pandemic. Mobay (named for Jamaica's Montego Bay) is one of the growing number of Milwaukee restaurants serving food from Jamaica, the Bahamas and other island nations.
Dixon wanted to serve foods from beyond Jamaica, so Mobay's menu includes classic dishes from around the Caribbean and West Indies, and she included a remarkable number of vegetarian and vegan dishes, as well. That certainly appealed to me, as someone who's continually on the hunt for more meatless meals.
I was happy to find cou cou, like polenta; this Trinidadian version of cooked cornmeal is made with coconut milk, fresh thyme and green onions. Mobay serves it with slices of grilled zucchini and a mix of sweet peppers and onion. (Dixon notes the dish is at its best when eaten immediately, at the restaurant, while the cou cou is still soft.)
Dixon also put stuffed plantain on the menu, something she dreamed up with her kitchen staff, and it's a very good idea: The plantain is grilled and filled with a mix
of well-seasoned peas, or kidney beans. It's richly flavorful and satisfying, too.
Seafood is the light centerpiece for several menu items. Besides shrimp dishes, Mobay offers kingfish, a kind of mackerel with a meaty texture served as a steak cut. I ordered it baked, but it can be steamed or fried, or in brown stew. Like other entrees, it's served with rice and peas (or white rice by request) along with plantains and steamed cabbage.
But diners looking for the classic meat dishes will find them, like excellent jerk chicken ($10 small portion, $12 large) on the bone. It's decidedly spicy, yes, but the sauce is far more complex than one note of heat.
Spicy curried goat stew ($12 or $14) on the bone carries an undertone of fresh ginger; the small oxtails ($14 or $18) are sticky and rich. Dixon noted that the restaurant has two-meat platters for diners who want to sample more widely: Goat and oxtail together are $20, other platters are $14 or $17. And, she said, dishes that were specials at first — spicy pepper steak and brown stew chicken — were so popular that they're now available every day.
Those larger portions of entrees are enough for two, I'd say, especially if you share an appetizer, like the grilled chicken wings (six for $8), glazed in a sauce made with Red Stripe beer; the giant egg rolls (two for $8), filled with cabbage and carrot (or shrimp, or chicken); and conch fritters (four for $10), served with sweet-spicy mango sauce.
Now, this is in no way normal, but I like the conch fritters cooled to room temperature — they're supposed to be eaten steaming from the fryer, and they stayed hot even transported for takeout. But an advantage of takeout is that, in the privacy of your home, no one can see your dining quirks, and you can just do you at dinner. (To me, the taste of the conch comes through much more clearly once the fritter has cooled, since the sturdy seafood must be chopped very fine. I find the fritters don't even need the sauce.)
Mobay had been serving Caribbean brunch items on Sundays in addition to its regular menu, although that will be coming to an end at the end of March. But brunch items like ackee and saltfish ($15), the national dish of Jamaica, still will be available off the menu, by request, Dixon said. Cooked ackee fruit, since it's mild and a little reminiscent of scrambled eggs, is a natural foil for salt cod (and it travels much better than scrambled eggs do for takeout). The dish came with a choice of sides, such as dense boiled dumplings, made from flour and shaped like biscuits.
After opening in the thick of the pandemic, Dixon is seeing sunnier days at the building that once was home to Chez Jacques. Lately, more diners have been stopping in, and takeout has increased, as well. "I've always been an optimistic person," she said. And what better place to enjoy sunnier days than the large patio behind the building, which Dixon plans to debut this year — by the end of May, if the weather cooperates. 1022 S. First St. (414) 988-9196. mobaycafe.com Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For takeout, order ahead by phone; curbside pickup is available. Delivery through UberEats and EatStreet. Open for in-person dining; reservations accepted. Handicapped accessible.
Carol Deptolla has been reviewing restaurants in Milwaukee and Wisconsin since 2008. Like all Journal Sentinel reporters, she buys all meals, accepts no gifts and is independent of all establishments she covers, working only for our readers.
Contact her at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 2242841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.