African Kitchen is located in Phoenix Arizona not too far from the Metro Center Area. They offer mostly Liberian and other African Cuisine like Nigerian and Ghanaian. It’s a casual small restaurant. I noticed many people with a similar accents to the man serving us doing take out and dining here. Soft beverages and some unique soft beverages like ginger juice are offered. The atmosphere is loud. They have a TV on with a soccer game playing. The people dining here are into loud conversation while dining.
The menu is on the green board at the rear of the restaurant. They also have printed menus. There are many foods that are seldom found at any restaurants that I know of. They offer foods such as ahieke (a fermented kind of couscous), potato greens, torborgee soup (a spicy bitter Liberian stew of beans, palm oil, dried meat), chuck rice (Liberian green rice), egusi soup (Usually Nigerian or Ghanaian melon seed, bitter leaf, and meat soup).
Ingredients are listed on the wall with the menu.
My husband was going to order the torborgee soup but was warned if you aren’t used to the ingredients in that soup it has very unpleasant effects on you that aren’t good to talk about while you are reading about food……….So he got the palaver sauce soup that comes with rice.
It’s a popular West African stew of beef, turkey, skin-on chicken ….It seems like it was prepared well but is very different from American Food or any food that I have tried before…..Besides the unfamiliar flavors and funk (maybe bitter leaf, palm oil, smoked dried fish, melon seeds)…..The amount of rice is enormous. The protein amounts really are very small in the two dishes that we tried. Maybe two – three ounces at the most.
I planed to order the chuck rice (green rice) with fish gravy but was told that they weren’t serving that today and made a quick switch……
I had the tilapia with dry rice and plantains. Again an enormous amount of rice. The rice fills the whole plate and is higher than it looks.
The fish is prepared reasonably well. The plantains are nicely fried. The rice is very unusual to me. It’s not dry like the name implies. It’s actually kind of slime-ee in an okra kind of way. It probably contains okra and little bits of fish and cubes of beef that are similar to lunch meat or hot dogs. This rice might be delicious for an acquired taste.
I did notice that everyone dining there had enormous plates of rice that they actually were finishing. It looks like that is how African people eat.
African Kitchen in Phoenix AZ sure seems like the real deal.
Try it for a taste of Africa.
African Kitchen Phoenix AZ
3543 W Dunlap Ave Phoenix AZ
480-532-5512
Everything is subject to change.
