Irie Myrie

On a Thursday at Irie Myrie, the choice that matters is curry chicken or curry goat. Both arrive as full plates — rice and peas or beans, plantain, festival or dumplings, and steamed vegetables or a garden salad — and both run only inside the eleven-to-two lunch window, the kind of detail that turns a Cambridge Jamaican kitchen into a place people plan a week around. The menu on Cherry Blossom Road is wide enough that a table rarely argues for long: jerk chicken for the person who wants heat, oxtail for the one who wants something slow-cooked, ackee with salt fish for the one who already knows the order. The restaurant's own line is "Jamaica Got Closer," and the food on the plate does the work of backing it up.

The plates share one format, and that format is most of the appeal. A main anchors each one — jerk chicken that comes spicy or mild, fresh Ontario oxtail braised down into its own gravy, ackee with salt fish seasoned with sweet peppers and onions — and the same rice and beans, plantain, festival, and steamed vegetables ring the plate every time. The seafood holds its place: fresh Caribbean king fish and red snapper get the identical full-plate treatment as the meat. There is range past the obvious order, too. Seasoned ackee with chickpeas reads as a real vegetarian plate rather than an afterthought, the Jamaican beef patties and a rotating soup cover the lighter end, and the jerk chicken poutine — fries, cheese curds, mozzarella, beef gravy, shredded jerk chicken, and house jerk sauce — is the kitchen's one clear wink at the country it cooks in.