Africola

Part one is here. Finally the main game – the peri peri 1/2 chicken. Oh my. Next time I’d skip the entree and just have this baby. Hello spice, hello flavour! The chicken was perfectly cooked and the (boom) chakalaka spicy leaves on top were so tasty. I loved the little pickled root vegetables and the crunch from the toasted pepitas. The chicken livers and hearts were deliciously rich and there was a fabulously spicy sauce coating the whole lot. A pot of polenta-like something came out with a lovely tomato sauce through it, which meant there was no way we were leaving hungry. We’d also ordered a plate of the yoghurt-baked carrots (also served with goat’s curd) and these were to die for. They were perfectly roasted and the flavours were so well-balanced! They also helped to cool down the spice from the chicken. Whilst the entrees felt ‘chefy’, the main was exactly what you would imagine South African food to be – hearty, jam-packed full of flavour and perfect for sharing. The wait staff were amazing, getting us fed in the one hour we had and regularly checking on the gas heaters and refilling our water. I’ll book for inside next time, because the vibe was amazing, but I’m glad I got to experience that chicken. I will be back for sure.

Africola, 4 East Terrace, Adelaide, SA                                     http://africola.com.au/

Africola

I finally made it to Africola! I was super excited to try South African food for the first time! We booked on a Friday night and were allocated outdoor seating, but we certainly weren’t neglected despite seating in front of Botanic Bar. I started with the Bluna cocktail – gin, orange wine, gooseberry and Rooibos cola combined into a light and lolly-sweet mix (yum!). Meals come with a complimentary serve of house-made flatbread and smoky goat’s curd – a perfect way to whet the appetite. Dish one was the charcoal marron served with a seaweed dressing. The marron was tender and soft and I mopped up all of the seaweed dressing – it was like the best nori in oil with a great salty hit. This dish was a real winner for flavour, but when they say entree size, they mean it. Entree two was the raw kingfish with mandarin segments, mandarin gel and goat’s curd. For me, the kingfish was the only thing that didn’t work – when I order fish I want to taste it, instead all I got was mandarin with the texture of fish, which was a bit odd. Overall I felt like the entrees were trying a bit too hard to be ‘chefy’. Part two to follow.

Africola, 4 East Terrace, Adelaide, SA                                     http://africola.com.au/