Andrew Coppolino's recommended 'hidden gems' and hole-in-the wall eateries in Waterloo region

With the power of advertising, the big restaurant brands and national chains dominate the restaurant landscape, but small mom-and-pop venues are unknown, hidden off the main streets, or unable to get the word out about what they do.

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While it would be impossible to name them all, here are a few lesser known or less visible restaurants but ones popular with the people in their neighbourhoods.

Cambridge

Bright yellow and green, Ivey's is a small restaurant on Wellington Street near Dickson that has been serving Caribbean food for 13 years. If you ask what's special, they say, "everything." The Jamaican patties aren't made in-house, but they do prepare generous portions of jerks and curries and stews. And, if you like, cow foot and beans.

Chef Steve Chaves of Malasada World, a Portuguese doughnutshop in Galt, Cambridge (and itself a small specialty venue), says he heads to the informal Bombay Sizzler on Main Street for northern Indian and to Stoyles on Main for Newfoundland-style fish and chips "and dressing."

Latinoamerica Unida on Concession is tucked out of easy view and across from a gas station, but it serves Mexican fare (the owner is from near Mexico City) to a loyal following. That includes plates like enchiladas and chimichangas in a dining room that seats about two dozen. Ona personal note,I really like the enchilada rojas.

Obscured by pylon signs at a very busy intersection, Hakka Hut on Hespeler Road just south of Highway 401 serves Indo-Chinese dishes, the staples of people from southeastern China and their diaspora to India, Nepal, Burma and Bhutan. With hakka, Indian spices blend with Chinese ingredients and techniques. Look for "chili chicken" as an example.

Across from Hakka Hut on Eagle Street, and located next door to an auto glass-repair garage, is Marcelo's Restaurant. Marcel Crotoiru is of Romanian heritage, and he cooks Italian in an inventive and unique way. His grilled calamari is one the best in Waterloo Region, as far as I'm concerned.

Kitchener

In the central core downtown, there are a few restaurants that quietly go about their business, from Ellison's Bistro for Jamaican on Charles to Queen Shawarma and Kabab (delicious baklava too) on Ontario Street. Both are near the bus terminal; both are about two-metres wide; both are operated by wonderful, hard-working people.

A few steps from Queen Shawarma on Ontario is Mi Tienda Latina, a Salvadoran grocery store with, literally, a square cut-out to the kitchen and a few posted menu items that change daily: some good soups, pupusas, fried fish and fried chicken with rice and beans.

Look up to the second storey along King Street near City Hall and you'll see The Guanaquita, a popular Salvadoran restaurant that may go unnoticed to passersby. It's a good place for tamales and pastelitos (savoury Salvadoran hand-pie pastries)and Latin dancing too.

Travelling to a commercial district that is home to machine shops and small factories on Dumart Place is Big Jerk Smokehouse for Caribbean foods. Chef-owner Kevin Thomas visited The Morning Edition at THEMUSEUM and prepared rice and peas for Sounds of the Season this past December. If you've had a Jamaican pattie in the area, it very likely could have been made by Thomashe makes hundreds of them each week and distributes them to other food shops.

The long-standing Algarve Restaurant prepares Portuguese food from its location in the plaza at Stirling and Courtland, Kitchener. The arroz de mariscos is a classic dish of rice and seafood. There's a good chance soccer will be on the television on the bar side.

On Hurst Avenue in the Courtland-Stirling neighbourhood, you'll find the new Wooden Boat Food Company. Chef-owner Thompson Tran prepares inventive dishes from his take-away "ghost kitchen." Items such as banh mi sandwiches, fried daikon fritters and Steckle Farm hot honey-fried chicken wings. The other notable aspect? It's a plastic-wrap-free kitchen, sustainable and is BYOC (bring your own container)-friendly.

Waterloo

The area around University Shops Plaza near University of Waterloo is perhaps the epicentre of small and hidden restaurants. There are too many to name, and they sometimes pop up out of nowhere and disappear just as suddenly.

Relatively new on the scene is Gol's hand-pulled noodles. You might find a lineup to get in, but you'll certainly find a fine bowl of Lanzhou-style noodles or soup. La mian noodles start with a thick rope of dough which is swung, tugged, stretched and folded a dozen times or so to produce a few thousand thin noodles. Frankly, it's magic.

A few blocks away, Tang's Dumpling House on Hemlock Street near Wilfrid Laurier University is obscured by poor signage, but the dumplings (boiled, not fried) are pretty good. A house it ain't: it's small with a dozen bar-stool seats at a ledge, serves only dumplings and could be called a hole-in-the-wall because of its diminutive size.

Two brothers opened a small, virtually undiscoverable and nearly subterranean restaurant below a student residence on Balsam Street. Bao Sandwich Bar is difficult to findbut worth the effort for delicious steam buns and banh mi. Small and can be crowded.

Elsewhere in Waterloo, Flame Meat Shop on Glen Forrest Boulevard in Lakeshore Village is hugely popular and unexpectedly located in a small strip plaza. Take-away only.

Shiri's Kitchen on Lexington Court near the Conestoga Parkway resides near plumbers' shops and print factories. It's primarily take-away, with a few tables for eat-in. I love the dosas, a southern Indian "crepe." (Dosas are also available at Classic Indian, located in a small strip plaza on Wissler Road.)

A quick shout out

Park Grocery Deli and Bar has just opened this week on Woolwich between McTague and London Road West in Guelph. It captures and sustains a building that has been serving food since the 1890s, and it's the most recent venture of Neighbourhood Group of Companies who operate Borealis Grille, Miijidaa and The Wooly Pub. A dish I will check out is the roasted piri piri chicken after its 72-hour marinade. The restaurant is also working on being a carbon-neutral operation, part of the Neighbourhood Group's identity.

More food columns from CBC Kitchener-Waterloo columnist Andrew Coppolino