South African Cafe
By Phyllis C. Richman
Washington Post Restaurant Critic
From The Washington Post Dining Guide, November 1996
The first South African restaurant in Washington, this one's a bit ramshackle, my image of a bus stop cafe in an underpopulated town. The kitchen isn't much bigger than the galley of a day-sailor, a squeeze for the one chef, one dishwasher and one manager to maneuver around each other. No wonder it takes a half-hour (at best) to get appetizers. Dinner here demands patience and congenial company.
The chef has a way with seasonings, and it shows best in appetizers. Peri peri wings are six pieces, rubbed with dark, fiery spices and broiled until crackly. Beef kebabs, even as appetizers, are enough for an entree. For vegetarians there are skewered mushrooms, broiled whole on a three-pronged "devil's fork." Vegetables (mostly cabbage) or beef make the fillings for samosa - smaller and thinner than the Indian version - or for patties, typically Jamaican, short-crusted pastries. Beef comes also as a sausage - hearty, lean and savory. And there's sweet-sour pickled fish, firm and chewy, with a vinegar tang and curry-yellow tint.
Making a meal of appetizers is a good idea here, perhaps the peri peri wings, or the sausage, which come as entrees as well. Otherwise, the best are the lamb curry - sweetly mild - and a seafood stew, herbed and lemony, pulsating with garlic. Anyone who loves extracting morsels of meat from bones will appreciate the straightforward oxtail stew, but even an Englishman raised on frozen fish and overcooked meat ought to find fault with the fish and chips and the mixed grill. Nor are the bobotie and chicken curry as good as they should be. The coffee is good, deserving of a homey sweet to accompany it: sweet potato cake with cream cheese frosting, "tipsy tart," milk tart, custard pie, apple crumb tart or bread pudding with rum sauce The desserts aren't elaborate or sophisticated, just good, family-style baking.
