Unique African Cuisine

I had never tasted authentic dishes from the Ivory Coast, so upon discovering this Westchase bar and grill, I made the ~30 min drive and boy was it worth it. The casual place is fun, well decorated, and feels very local, with small tables arranged across a tile floor, a long bar at the back, and a giant projector that was showing a clip of an African music festival. The menu features familiar Nigerian staples like jollof rice, egusi, and suya, but I stuck strictly to the Ivorian fare for my take-out order. Here is an accounting of this adventure:Gnamakoudji - a popular street drink in West Africa containing ginger and pineapple juice. Not knowing what to expect, I took a hefty pull from the straw and immediately started coughing. There's a reason it is sometimes colloquially called "spicy/chili water." It has an extremely sharp and intense ginger barb upfront that is subsequently cooled by sugary tropical fruit tones. It grew on me, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't sear my throat and clear my sinuses. Garba and Attiéké - Garba is a beloved snack sold in street stalls across Côte d'Ivoire in the form of fried bone-in tuna served over attiéké (coarsely grated fermented cassava) with a relish of diced tomatoes, onions, and peppers, plus oil and a single Maggi cube as condiments. You'll want to eat this piping hot and with your hands like I did. The fish was juicy and intense and melded so well with the veggies, especially with an added pop of MSG from the Maggi seasoning.Alloco - sweet, earthy, funky plantain chunks fried in peanut or palm oil until almost reddish-brown. The side order comes with a ton. Kedjenou - a traditional rustic stew of chicken that achieves peak moistness after simmering in its own juices in an earthenware pot. The meat was oh-so-tender and had leeched all its gelatin and fat into the smoky, aromatic broth filled with peppers and onions. Just absolutely delicious over rice. The staff in person and on the phone were friendly and helpful, and the quantity of food more than justifies the price. Ivorian cuisine has won me over, and I can't wait to further explore its depths.

Wow I just tried this location for the first time and I'm so disappointed. The prices are ok but the quality and flavor is just not there. I had the egusi with beef and it literally tasted like NOTHING but tap water. No Seasoning NO spice. The beef suya was so dry n tough and the temperature was Luke warm at best. The fried plantain is the reason for the one star. I believe that was the only thing item that was made fresh and correctly. This does not represent Nigerian authentic African cuisine. I refuse to believe that an African is back there cooking.

I drove around this restaurant many times and have always wanted to try it, frankly I was a little intimidated to go inside because I didn't know what I wanted but Eugene was at the front and greeted me so kindly! I listed the flavors that I really liked and he walked me through it all including all the questions that I had. I ended up getting a palmnut based soup with lamb and beef as my protein and of course with the yam fufu on the side! It was packed with flavor. I recommend getting two orders of the fufu yams because it is a lot of soup. Or, you could add an order of the jollof rice. Unfortunately they did run out and I came at 8:00PM! which just means that the jollof rice is amazing. I will definitely be coming back for their nice hospitality and jam packed with flavored food! I'd like to note that fufu does take a long time to make, I waited about 20-25 minutes very eagerly but it was worth the while. I would suggest placing an order over the phone ahead of time!

Excellent west African/cote d'ivorien cuisine. Casual ambience. Takes some time to prepare but food was freshly done. Halal too.

Second time trying egisu with beef... sadly the other place was better. The meat wasn't tender and the spice level was low. The poundo was really sticky and not like the first one I tried. The guy at the front was really nice but the lady in the back not so much.

Clean restaurant, big space with a stage im guessing dubs as a dance floor or serves a podium for various events. The building itself is a bit old, but is well maintained. Servers were friendly and attentive. The food was good and promptly served, something rarely seen in African restaurants. Will def go back and try an authentic Ivorian dish.

If God himself commanded me to come to this restaurant again... I'd probably understand Eve. I'd open the portal to human abomination & damnation before I even THOUGHT about eating this food again because if that's what you really want all you'd have to do was send them to this restaurant. My egusi had WATER in it. The ogbono ... Dirt mixed with water. I'm convinced. I'd bet every dime I have they don't serve this food to their family and if they do/ did... they're single with no family. I could've went on TikTok and made something better than this! This is an actual disgrace, I couldn't even be nice about this situation if I wanted to. Absolutely DISGUSTING.

I guess this warrants more like two and a half stars. I saw this place while Ubering with my sister and we thought about going but ended up not going due to time constraints and having other reservations. I'm glad I didn't take my sister because we both would be disappointed as we love cuisine from different regions in Africa. We prefer Nigerian food the most with Senegalese being a close second.This is food made by chefs from Cote d' Ivoire or Ivory Coast. I went to pick some up from for my coworkers and myself and ended up ordering two orders of Jollof rice with goat and an order of fried plantains.Well, the plantains were fried so hard they were inedible. Almost as if they were sitting out all day and they chose to reheat them in the dryer with old oil. If they were fried fresh to order then they need to change their oil and watch your product as to not over fry them.The Jollof rice was terrible. Nothing beats Nigerian Jollof, I know, but this was terrible. It tasted like it was fried with too much old oil and had a slight burnt flavor. It wasn't even spicy at all. The goat that came with it was nice, which was good.

Service was nice, it took about 16 minutes or so for the food to come out. I was shown everything I ordered before paying which was appreciated.I ordered the palm soup with beef and yam fufu and fried sweet plantains. I ordered it to go and felt everything tasted good. The portions are slightly small, for the soup at least. There was good flavor and I'd come back. Might not dine in as the restaurant was playing loud music but it's great to know there's west African cuisine that's fairly close to my workplace.

We visited Houston and knew they had a Nigerian population so we checked Yelp and Unique came up nearby with good reviews. We walk in and I think made the waiter nervous. Two Latinas coming in to an African place might be unique to them but we love some good fufu and stew. My teen daughter is very picky but absolutely loved the lamb and plantains. And she hates bananas but these plantains were gold. The waiter fumbled around and dropped a few things lol. Poor guy. We just wanted some good African cuisine. He asked if I liked spicy but I know they lay it on hot hot so I asked for it on the side and I was right. It was flaming hot spice. The decor was unimpressive but the giant tv had some dope AfroBeats music videos. We do hope to go back. We were stuffed and happy.