Sonia Thomas has delighted the taste buds of Jamaicans for close to 37 years. If you count her pudding business, which launched her foray into entrepreneurship, then it’s over four decades.

From the first restaurant on Windward Road to the present location on Central Avenue, off Constant Spring Road, Sonia’s Homestyle Cooking and Natural Juices has grown into an enterprise. Hundreds of people depend on the restaurant for lunch each day, and over 30 people rely on it for employment. “From opening the business, I haven’t had much [staff] turnover,” said Thomas. If you look at a framed 2008 press clipping that’s prominently placed by the entrance and head to the kitchen, you’ll see the same faces.

Quality, tasty, affordable and well-portioned dishes are the hallmark of Sonia’s Homestyle Cooking. Every day the takeout counter acts as a reunion spot, especially the new normal spawned by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

There’s always a buzz of activity at the restaurant. There are catering and standing corporate orders to fulfil, customers arriving in droves to grab lunch, and families with overseas visitors dining in. Look closely in one of the five dining areas, and you may even spot a local celebrity.

Though seafood is a mainstay on the restaurant’s menu, for Lent Thomas and her kitchen staff have made a concerted effort to ensure that there are a variety of delicious and creative meatless dishes on the menu. “Every day, we offer two non-meat specials that combine vegetables and protein — we use black-eyed peas, chickpeas, red peas, black beans, and gungo,” said Thomas.

On the day of our visit, Thursday Food was delighted with the menu’s offerings. There were curried vegetables, escoveitch fish, lentil stew, shrimp delight, tofu chop suey, plantain stew, and steamed fish. Sonia’s Homestyle Cooking’s Lenten offerings will gratify even people fuelled by fried chicken, rice and peas and curry gravy.

The use of fresh seasonings and herbs is apparent in every dish. We reckon the restaurant goes through hundreds of pounds of scallion, onion, garlic, thyme each week. Thursday Food witnessed several of Thomas’s suppliers delivering fresh produce, like crocus bags bursting with callaloo. From what we saw of the business’ operations, we know that the kitchen will use up that delivery within days.

The escoveitch fish was perfectly fried without a drop of grease making its way on the platter; the escoveitch sauce, redolent with pimento and Scotch bonnet, was done just right. To create the curried vegetable dish, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and black-eyed peas are enrobed in a moreish curry sauce. The tofu chop suey was an enjoyable and visually appealing combination of colourful fresh vegetables and tofu, pan-seared to perfection.

The steamed fish gravy did not compete with the star of the plate: the fish. Though rich in colour, the sauce was light and had so much okra and carrots they could serve as a side dish. The lentil stew is Thomas’ spin on traditional stew peas, replacing the red kidney beans with lentils and using cho-cho and carrots instead of meat. Don’t worry, there are lots of spinners (dumplings). The shrimp delight is almost self-explanatory. It’s a delightful shrimp dish comprising pasta, fresh vegetables, and, of course, lots of shrimp.

But, it was the plantain stew that stole the show. In addition to cubes of ripe plantain, the dish has broad beans, corn, chickpeas, okra, carrots, cho-cho and black-eyed peas. It takes a skilled hand to harmoniously orchestrate a complex dish with various flavours and textures; but then, Thomas is a culinary maestro.

No visit to Sonia’s Homestyle Cooking would be complete without slices of Thomas’s famous potato and cassava puddings, which, we reckon, are responsible for launching this business empire.