cAfé

Small and "unconstructed" it may seem, but this restaurant's previous digs (under its former name, A) were even cozier for both customers and staff. The menu remains very trim — just six apps and five entrées, including this sliced chicken breast with lime and jerk spices in a papaya puree ($15). Carefully composed, as you can see, though the flavor did shift abruptly from fruitiness at the front of the mouth to a peppery gnawing at the back; sopping up puree with a little couscous helped maintain the sweet-spicy balance.

cAfé
973 Columbus Ave. (107th-108th Sts.)
212-222-2033
www.marcandblue.com