Le Kilimanjaro Restaurant; Gelato Blue; Bank Hotel, Newtown

After being at home a lot during this break between semesters, on a windy Tuesday afternoon, I made my way to Newtown to have some African food. I did not have any idea of what African food would taste like. It ended up being somewhat reminiscent of Indian food and apparently has some Middle-Eastern and Spanish flavours, according to my friends.

The restaurant wasn't open for dinner until 6pm so we had some pre-dinner beers at the nearby Bank Hotel. I got a glass of Hahn White, a low-carb beer, for $6 before we spotted a poster that said that until 9pm jugs of beer were 10 bucks. And we had each paid $6 for 1 glass of beer. Imagine our chagrin. XD



Le Kilimanjaro Restaurant is a short walk from the station. We were walking down King Street looking for it and were met with a wall with a giant painting of Africa on it. We were "Ah, maybe this is it?"




We arrived around 10 past 6 and we were the first customers in the restaurant. Rather than giving out menus at the table, their menu is on the wall.




We ordered 3 mains and a few side dishes. The side dishes arrived first.




These are some of the side dishes. I loved all of them. Especially the African flat bread ($2.00 per person). Loved loved loved that. The meatball looking things is accara (black-eyed beans soaked overnight and then ground with mild African spices, $6.00). Tasted like meat to me but obviously it's not. Similar to falafel. I forget what that vegetable side-dish is. Ack. Bad blogger.


Bissap (African flower drink quite natural and refreshing!) $2.00; Ginger drink (Freshly squeezed ginger with vanilla sugar, very nice and fragrant!) $2.00

The red drinks are bissap and the lone yellow one is the ginger drink. I had the bissap and the smell reminded me of chrysanthemum. Both drinks were very nice. Ginger drink very gingery.

And here are the mains:

Clockwise: Sagua-sagua $10.50; Rice $2.00 per person; Ndambe lamb $10.50

Sagua-sagua

Rice

Yassa $10.50

Tangy! Highly recommended! Chicken off the bone, marinated for hours with mild African spices, fried and then steamed with onions.

This would have to be my favourite of all the mains. It reminded me of curry chicken and my other friend suggested it was like coconut chicken. Either way, it was very, very good.

Couscous grain $2.00 per person

I think the waiter forgot about the couscous because it hadn't arrived with the rest of the mains. We had to remind him. This was the first time I've ever had couscous and I really, really enjoyed it. It does the same job as rice but is not rice. I want to try to make it at home some time.

On the way back to the Bank Hotel we had dessert at Gelato Blue. Was so full after this.

My 1 scoop of tiramisu $4.50. I love tiramisu. It was freshly made too.

They also sell various kinds of chocolate in store too. Very tempting.

We headed back to the Bank Hotel to enjoy $10 jugs of beer. It's in such a convenient location, on the way back to the train station. XD

Beer battered chips $7.00

They tasted AMAZING after drinking all that beer. Crunchy and warm and hot and just perfect.

Great Tuesday night out. Think I might eat at Newtown more often. Walked by lots of different and tempting restaurants that night. Ah, now I'm hungry all over again.

• Find Le Kilimanjaro Restaurant at 280 King Street, Newtown.
• Find Gelato Blue at 318 King Street, Newtown.
• Find Bank Hotel at 324 King Street, Newtown.