J & B Family Restaurant

"Family restaurant" is the label on the Victoria Street North sign, and Serbian cooking is what shows up on the plate. The kitchen at J & B has been built around the schnitzel section since 2006, with Karadjordjeva — a pork cutlet stuffed with kajmak, breaded, fried, then served with potato or rice and vegetables — at the centre of the menu. Downtown Kitchener carries plenty of casual dining rooms; what this one carries is a regional lane with the schnitzel as the form that gets pointed at first.

The schnitzel section is where range first becomes visible. Karadjordjeva and Boem land on the richer end, J&B and Nature Schnitzel on the simpler one, and a chicken schnitzel sits in for diners who want a lighter version of the same form. The grill section adds Chevaps, skewers, and a Punjena Pljeskavica stuffed with feta, with the Mixed Grill Platter pulling Chevaps, chicken schnitzel, pljeskavica, chicken breast, and a potato or rice choice onto one two-person order. The supporting plates carry the same regional weight — lepinja with kajmak as an opening note, goulash soup as the homemade tell, a Shopska Salad of cucumber, tomato, and feta, and palacinke and baklava as the dessert path that keeps the meal inside its own tradition.