4100 NE Fremont
282-2118
Alright, let's just get it over with. Doug E. Doug will not be serving you your entrée at Cool Runnings. Now let us proceed.
A mix of Jamaican, Caribbean, and Cajun food (three genres you never see enough of), Cool Runnings' fare is prepared with care, skill, marvel, and big serving spoons. They offer gumbo, jambalaya, blackened catfish, collard greens with black-eyed peas, Cajun breakfasts, ribs, salads, and even a blackened tofu sandwich. (Finally, a way to give tofu some actual flavor.) They also serve exotic meats like goat, and crawfish tails, and gator. And since the novel I'm reading constantly describes the adventurers eating polar bear, and arctic birds, and barnacles, I long daily for something more daring than turkey sausage.
If you just want to dip your toe into the waters of Cool Runnings' spicy fare, order one of the Po Boy sandwiches. Served on a big, fresh, crispy baguette--with a choice of a great salad or homemade soup or slaw or cajun potato salad or fresh fruit--the sandwich is stuffed with so many huge, plump, delicious pan-fried oysters (or crawfish tails or catfish or chicken or gator), the bun can hardly contain it all. They load on tomatoes and lettuce and cheese, too, so a half ($6) is like a whole, and a whole ($8) will feed you twice.
The dinner entrees are huge and cap out at $14; and for $14 you can get one of the specials, like shark with a blue cheese and butter compound or my dish of choice, the Tilapia (a Caribbean whitefish, sort of like trout) with a perfectly executed, slow burning mango chutney. Loaded with onions, peppers, and made spicy with habañeros, the sweet chutney went perfectly with the whitefish. Instead of the vegetable and white rice that was supposed to accompany it, I ordered the collard greens and black-eyed peas. The collards were pleasantly bitter combined with the tender peas (beans) and had the taste of having been cooked all day. Unlike most I've had, the greens were pleasantly dry rather than oily.
Another superb dish is the curried goat, served on the bone in huge hunks with white rice, bathed in a rich curry of the highest quality. Goat meat--a lot like lamb--is rich and a bit chewy, and a perfect match with the creamy, garlicky sauce. It takes a little work to pull the meat from the bone, but it's worth it. My buddy and I sat outside with our dishes and passersby stalked us as if we were Ben and J.Lo, trying to get a look at our dinners. (It also might have been our resemblance to Ben and J.Lo).
My only complaint about Cool Runnings' food was that the Jerk Chicken sandwich contained bones, which is risky for a sandwich. The taste, however, was up to snuff and it could have been a fluke.
Cool Runnings' chef is skilled and daring, and gives your mouth a beautiful kick in the ass. Plus, their service is super friendly and informed, so those shy of the exotic will have a willing tour guide. Believe you me, even if you think the name is goofy and you sold back all your Bob Marley CDs five years ago, you still need to give Cool Runnings a try.
