Chicagoans know the Rogers Park neighborhood for its palpable diversity. Its diversity extends beyond its dwellers and shops and into the realm of food. Rogers Park dining captures the ethnicity a city like Chicago offers. If you’re looking for a Rogers Park meal to amuse your palate, this list of ethnic restaurants is sure to do the trick.

Royal Coffee

Photo by Flickr/ nate steiner: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nate/ Royal Coffee is known for their dark Ethiopian Coffee.

6764 N. Sheridan

Royal Coffee is an authentic Ethiopian café famous for its coffee. It has been imported straight from Ethiopia and is sold by the bag. The coffee beans have been sundried by Ethiopian farmers, and baristas preserve the pure taste of the Ethiopian delicacy. The unblended coffee upholds the Ethiopian sincerity of the café. They serve  simple to lavish breakfasts, ranging from smoothies to an Ethiopian style dish of scrambled eggs with tomato, green pepper, onion, chile powder, and injera, which is a spongy yeast flat bread. For lunch and dinner, Royal Coffee offers salads and sandwiches along with more exotic entrées. They prepare dishes like fava beans and injera in beef stew. Vegetarians have plenty of options, such as their veggie plate of red lentils, split peas, gomen, potatoes, green beans and carrots. And at last, to soothe their customers’ sweet tooth, Royal Coffee serves ice cream and dessert crepes.

Jamaica Jerk

1631 N. Howard

Jamaica Jerk is a locally owned restaurant whose chefs pride themselves on their Jamaican and Caribbean food made from scratch. They modeled their interior with a wraparound gazebo facing a wall painted with water meeting sky. The design gives customers the illusion that they have gone somewhere warm, like Montego Bay, to set the mood for their Jamaican cuisine. Jamaican Jerk’s menu features food unfamiliar to the average Rogers Parker. They have pheasant with burning oak twigs, brown stew chicken, goat dishes, along with “festival,” which is fried sweet cornmeal dough, and grapenut ice cream.

Deta’s Café

7555 N. Ridge Road

Deta’s offers Mediterranean choices while somehow still making customers feel at home. The café is known for its familiar customer service. Deta, the owner, commonly asks her customers what they feel like eating. Most days she has three options: salad, bread, and a burek. A burek is  a thin pastry filled with onions and potatoes, spinach and cheese, or  beef and potatoes rolled into tubes. Sometimes she will make a special, like her peppers stuffed with beef, vegetables, and brown rice. Other times she’ll have dessert, like her grandmother’s recipe of honey and cream cakes.

Taste of Peru

6545 N. Clark St

Taste of Peru’s family restaurant provides Rogers Park with a Peruvian smorgasbord. The unique restaurant serves real Peruvian meals, landing it a segment on Diners, Drive ins, and Dives. Taste of Peru has a menu full of Peruvian food with images for descriptions. They serve a variety of seafood, paella anticucho, arroz con pollo, arroz con leche, chicken stew, and empanada along with many more ethnic dishes. And, as an addition to the friendly atmosphere, Taste of Peru hosts live music on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and the last Sunday of the month.