Sometimes we want an A-list chef, a great wine list, ultra-professional service. Other times, we crave small and homey. And cheaper.

We look for that undiscovered place that serves comfort food in a place you wouldn’t think to look. We don’t mean the ubiquitous diners, pizza joints, Chinese takeouts or burger-and-beer pubs. We’re talking eclectic comfort food, the kind you don’t find in a lot of other neighborhood restaurants.

Like Churrasco Grill (973 263-1590) in Lake Hiawatha. “Churrasco” is the Argentinean word for barbecue. And that’s what greets you—a colossal brick grill facing the dozen or so tables in the tiny, cramped dining room.

As waiters and patrons bump into each other, the chef stands before the red-hot (sometimes flaming) charcoal, grilling seafood, chicken and steak, steak, steak. Did we say steak? The menu lists four kinds, from $13.95 to $22.95.

Argentina-born owner José Pérez, who spent ten years as manager of New York’s luxurious Patroon restaurant, also brings dishes beyond South American steakhouse. You can get Asian noodles with seafood or poached filet of fish with fines herbes. From the Spanish-speaking Caribbean—four thousand miles from Buenos Aires—there’s black beans and the classic tostones, fried green plantains.

Another homey place that serves eclectic comfort food is at the other end of the state. McGlade’s Backstreet Café in West Cape May (609 884-7660) does not overlook the ocean and is not in a beautifully renovated Victorian. Instead, it’s in a little strip mall half a mile from the beaches and gingerbread mansions that make Cape May City famous.

You won’t find a lot of tourists. This is where locals go for dinner out.

What attracts them is the food—fish is a specialty—at reasonable prices. “Culinary Institute of America alumna Theresa McGlade’s a fanatic about fresh ingredients, from the Jersey tomatoes in the salads to the strawberries in the homemade shortcake,” say our friends at www.capemaytimes.com, who first brought us to McGlade’s a couple of years ago.

Do you know more places like Churrasco and McGlade’s? Unpretentious, out-of-the-way restaurants that serve distinctive home-cooking at reasonable prices? Let us know. We will visit, and write back.