By Helen Tran
If you are looking for a good restaurant in Connecticut, I strongly recommend the Sidibe African Restaurant in East Hartford. I was determined to try new foods from different cultures, so I made plans to spend a day with my best friend, after six months of not seeing each other. I did prior research for the perfect restaurant that’s different from our typical Chinese takeout. The ratings are impressive and reliable with over 164 Google reviews and an average rating of 4.4 stars. I looked up the menu and the prices were reasonable. Based on the menu items, the food is originated from West Africa like fufu, hausa koko, kose, dege, and jollof rice.
Sidibe African Restaurant - Nhyira. Our wonderful menu and prices. Facebook, 17 July 2018, https://www.facebook.com/sidibeafricanresaurant/. Accessed 23 March 2021.
If there’s one critique I would give to this restaurant, it would be on how hard it was to find. We accidentally ended up in Kentucky Fried Chicken, even though my best friend is a vegetarian. We turned around and found a small building that matches the picture from Google maps. We were confused with the fact that the name of the place didn’t match the google search because there’s a green sign outside saying, “Tasty Ethnic Foods”, but once you see that sign you are in the right place.
As we walked in, I was really happy to see a steady pace of customers ordering and leaving. I assumed that this restaurant had a community of loyal customers who love their food. Another observation was the interior design. The walls were painted orange with red wood, which gives off a warm atmosphere. Though the restaurant is a smaller space and we are still in a pandemic, everyone followed social distance protocols by standing in line 6 feet apart and would immediately leave once they paid for their order. Right now, there’s only takeout and delivery.
Sidibe African Restaurant - Nhyira. Come to Sidibe African Resaurant - Nhyira a wonderful place to eat and lounge. Facebook, 10 June 2017, https://www.facebook.com/sidibeafricanresaurant/. Accessed 23 March 2021.
Though I planned in advance to order fufu and jollof rice, my best friend is a vegetarian so we asked the owner for any vegetarian options. He was very nice and offered peanut soup without meat for the fufu, but I still ordered jollof rice with chicken. The fufu was already prepared, but still warm and soft with hot peanut soup. To sum up the fufu experience, it tasted like potatoes and mochi, but the consistency is not the same. Some would either swallow or chew it, but I prefer to chew it to savor the flavor with the soup, where you can taste the peanut and spices, but it’s not meant to be spicy. The jollof rice came in a big portion especially since there’s a lot of ingredients like vegetables, two chicken legs, meat, and a boiled egg on top of the rice. What stood out to me was how the meat was soft and chewy. There’s a lot of flavor in this giant portion of food and I would come back to order it again. In conclusion, eating their food with my best friend was literally the highlight of this semester. I give this place 5 stars!
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