Man, I loooooooove finding new places to eat at. My co-worker, who will be lovingly referred to as D-Bone, and I decided to check out African Safari Restaurant on a Wednesday for a quick lunch. Okay, quick might be a loose term, not that I’m complaining. I’ve passed by African Safari several times as it is close to one of my favourite restaurants in town, Café Amore. This place is nestled right on the corner and blends in with the rest of its surroundings.
The staff are all very friendly and there were two working the tables (one taking orders, the order bringing out dishes). We were seated right away and before we even had time to order, we were given a small salad, soup and jug of mango juice. Now that’s service! All included with your meal too, can someone say deal?
We wanted to try and share a variety of items so we both decided to go with the combination platter, which allows you to choose one item from part A of their list (rice or pasta) and another item from part B (meat such as camel, goat, chicken, fish and beef). We wanted to try their camel but according to the waiter, they only have it on Friday and Saturdays. Must head back on one of those days to try the elusive camel.
Salad
The salad is your typical, generic romaine lettuce with some shredded carrots. More of a get your stomach ready for other lunch goodies.
Vegetable soup
This soup was dynamite – everything you ever could want in a soup. If I could make soup like this, I’d be eating soup everyday. So flavourful, I could detect hints of curry and turmeric. There was a few vegetables and thin noodles (a la chicken noodle soup style) floating around. YUM.
Mango juice
Homemade mango juice and not just a glass, they give you a whole jug! We didn’t waste one drip which should give you an idea of how refreshing it was.
Baris (rice) and goat (waslad) ($14.00)
The rice was different than anything I’ve ever had. I can’t pinpoint exactly what type of spice they used but it was delicious, light and fragrant.
The goat was just as good – slight bit of spice to it, flavourful and super tender.
Pasta caraysan and chicken BBQ ($14.00)
The pasta caraysan was supposed to have some spice to it compared to the other pasta dishes but I didn’t really get that. It’s very simple, cook at home style type of pasta dish.
The chicken BBQ was tasty but we both thought it could have used a bit more char/grill to it, to enhance the flavours.
Overall, great value and everything we had was tasty. Must try the camel meat next time. Seriously, that is all – go and give African Safari a try. It’s easy on the wallet plus they’re open all day (8:30am – 11pm daily) to satisfy your meat cravings.
African Safari Restaurant
http://africansafarirestaurant.com/
10610-105 Street
Edmonton, AB
(780) 423-6614
CHERRY BOB-OMBS 