Jambo Jambo African Restaurant

For those who have never tried Ethiopian food go here NOW and go hungry. I have taken both large parties and small to this place and never been disappointed. It suits both meat eaters and vegetarians alike. The staff is very welcoming and accommodating. My tip is to always order a platter to share– best value for money and the best way to experience the cuisine.

I love the food here — there’s just something about eating from a shared banquet dish with your hands with your family and friends.
Owner is super friendly and loves showing off his love for the food and making a show out of the coffee.
Prices are pretty steep, however. $ 25 gets you a ladel full of curry on bread. Can only ever afford to come here on voucher, sadly.

This place is SO GOOD! The owner, Joseph is very down to earth and is always willing to make you something special and delicious. After moving here from Oakland, CA I was so grateful to find my Kitfo fix. Don’t be put off by the location, it’s all about the good eats and real culture.

A very interesting place and not a good place to go if you are vegetarian. Virtually all dishes are meat based with only one vegi dish. The portion sizes are small considering the cost. The flavours are good, tasty and different. The way you eat the food is to scoop it up in the flat bread they supply. The bread comes rolled up looking like a small hand towel, it has a taste and texture too dissimilar from a citrus flavoured wetex. My wife hated it, I won’t repeat what she said about it. All in all an interesting experience but not one I will be repeating.

What a great introduction to Ethiopian cuisine. The idea of eating using the bread as a utensil was foreign to me but very enjoyable not to mention the edible bread platter the meal was presented on.
My gf and I were a little concerned that we would be served bread as she cannot have gluten — but when we asked the chef advised that Ethiopian breads do not normally contain wheat flour which was quite a shock but I suppose the culture pre dates wheat farming so I shouldn’t have been surprised. The grains are flown in from Ethiopia and proofed in a fridge for a couple of days and it develops a distinct lemon taste which occurs naturally during fermentation.
If that wasn’t enough we finished with the coffee ceremony (with no ceremony it seems). We were presented with a hand made clay coffee pot containing coffee that the chef had roasted earlier that day it was a nice light blend reminiscent of an Eastern European brew but without the syrup texture or consistency.
To anyone reading this who wants to experience another culture through its food you must go to Jambo Jambo — and eat until you are Jumbo Jumbo :) enjoy!

Bread as table.
Stay with me here and this will make sense. So, ever since my bro told me about this Ethiopian restaurant he ate at in London I’ve been jonesing to try one here, and lo and behold, I read a Unilocal review about this place that opened just around the corner from me. Boom-​town, right? Well, yes and no.
It’s a tiny and super-​welcoming place with awesome African posters adorning the walls and a delicious-​sounding menu heavy on the meat-​based stews, which I’m all about. Joseph the cook wanders around and checks on diners, asks how everything is, tops up your bread, and brings around skillets full of dry-​roasting coffee beans for you to smell, he’s a wonderfully charismatic guy. And the food was lovely, with a huge circle of bread that pretty much covered the entire table brought out and the curries we ordered dished out atop this bread, the idea being you rip off the bread from the big circle and scoop the curries up with it, eating with your hands. Lots of fun and super different. The bread is this weird spongy, airy, fluffy creation with a slight citrus tang, never had anything like it.
The downside? Value for money isn’t great. The chicken curry we ordered was $ 25 and the portion dished out on the big circle of bread was one chicken leg and a hard-​boiled egg in some sauce. For $ 25? Err. Same with the other meat curries. And the vegetable one we ordered was around $ 20 from memory and consisted of a large spoonful of cabbage and potato.
So, go try it for the experience. But either order lots, or. .. I don’t know how to finish that. Get a bunch of entrees maybe. Yeah. Try that.

What a lovely place to have lunch! Jambo Jambo means Hello Hello in Swahili and can I say chef Joseph made us the most lovely repast… my friend Chai sun and I started with a mixed entrée jerky, salami, a type of samosa, flat bread pieces olives and honey, then for main a plate consisting of Injera a sourdough type of flatbread made with Teff which forms the centrepiece of many Ethiopian meals. On top was placed the five different stews or Wats, a spicy chicken Doro Wat, a beef Key Wat and three vegetable dishes, you tear off pieces of bread with your right hand and scoop up your stew or you can roll it up like a wrap. Whichever way it tastes delicious. What followed had me in heaven, a delightful type of cheesecake soo yummy. Then Joseph made us freshly roasted coffee. This was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours and we will definitely be back.