EATING OUT: Truly sumptuous meal, but …
Vegetable korma, plain naan and bhajia from Kebab Korner. PHOTO | MADAME CONNOISSEUSE
What you need to know:
- This is probably one of those restaurants whose existence I would never have known about were it not for a platform like Jumia Food.
- My food arrived almost two hours since I placed the order.
- I all but had to crawl to the door because my body was already withering and eating itself at this point, and I was too famished to get into conversation with the rider so I promptly paid him and he left.
If there’s one thing I’ve come to learn, it's that all rationale goes out the window when you order food from a restaurant when you’re hungry.
It’s almost like walking into a supermarket in the evening when you haven’t eaten all day and suddenly you’re picking all the snacks and pasta off the shelves as if you're preparing for a Hollywood version of the apocalypse. I had one of those Saturdays where I had just done my annual run to
Gikomba market, and that place, as cheerful cheap as it is always sucks all the energy out of me. Seriously, by the time I was getting back home, it’s all I could do not to call an ambulance just so they could intravenously give me some glucose and carry me up the stairs of my apartment in a stretcher. You can imagine, then, the state I was in when I decided to order from Kebab Korner.
To be honest, this is probably one of those restaurants whose existence I would never have known about were it not for a platform like Jumia Food. I was just browsing on the site keen to try a new spot that would serve hearty comfort food, preferably a mix of African and Indian, and when I was told the order would arrive in 50 minutes, I tried to while away the next hour while constantly looking outside the window for the rider.
An hour later, I got a call from Jumia Food telling me the order would be delayed because it was a really busy Saturday at the restaurant, they had a lot of orders coming in, and my food would therefore take an extra 10 minutes.
Well, here’s an idea; for such a smart platform, why not give me that information at the time of placing my order just so I’m fully aware of what I’m getting myself into? These people have clearly never had to wait for food. But it was only 10 minutes … I could live through that. Another glass of water to quell my hunger pangs and I continued to wait.
I kid you not, my food arrived almost two hours since I placed the order. I all but had to crawl to the door because my body was already withering and eating itself at this point, and I was too famished to get into conversation with the rider so I promptly paid him and he left.
The food was thankfully still hot. I got a vegetable korma, plain naan and bhajia. The food did not disappoint. The spices in the curry were perfectly balanced and it was rounded off by a rich and creamy coconut gravy. The bhajia came with two sauces but the tomato one had spilt all over the delivery bag, leaving a chilli one which was way too hot for my palate. I had indeed ordered too much food for one, but their portions are actually pretty good. Their menu is extensive and there are still some items there I’m keen to try.
