We were a party of four who made a reservation to try Makula, based on the good reviews. It wasn't…read morefor us. We were looking to try out West African food (I studied Wolof in college and am interested in the area). Plus we had two guests visiting us.
If you're looking to try out West African food, then you might look elsewhere. The food we had was basically European recipes with African yams, except for the very good appetizers. We felt as if we spent the entire night accommodating the whims of the chef, like his strange but emphatic insistence we drink alcohol towards the end of the dinner. Despite us saying that we didn't want the schnapps because two of the girls don't drink, he brought us the schnapps anyway plus this chili schnapps. He spent the rest of the evening goading us into drinking the chili schnapps (The most awkward moment of the night was when he stuck a fork into the schnapps despite her insistence no and pushed it towards her mouth, all while wedged in between the wall and her shoulder). I'm giving two stars as benefit of the doubt and for an evening that bonds people together because it was so incredibly strange.
So if you're looking to be entertained by a chef with a big personality and for that relaxed feeling of sitting in a friend's living room, you'll do well here.
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If you're interested how things got weird:
The dinner was the lowest point of the meal but at least we were allowed to eat in relative comfort. I ordered yams with a tomato sauce. Tomatoes are a base for many sauces in Togo and Benin, but what I got was 1/4 cup of an Italian marinara sauce sitting next to 7 cubes of boiled yams, 2 chunks of boiled sweet potatoes, and 2 pieces of broccoli. One of the girls ordered a vegetarian Thai-style curry with yams and rice. My boyfriend's dish had a sauce that tasted like a typical German brown gravy and was the same as the gravy on the chicken dish that we ordered. The other girl got her dinner after half of us were finished with ours.
The Chef/Owner had a problem all night with me asking for a side of rice. I had thought the dish I ordered was some vegetarian version of a West-African sauce-feuille or another tomato-based sauce that you can eat with rice or millet. So I asked for rice or another grain. He said it wouldn't go well together, and I trust his judgment then, so I said of course, no rice. Then he then lectured me about how it would be like ordering french fries to a nice dish. When I repeated it again, that it was fine and that he is the Chef, he explained that he could bring me rice, but that it was bad taste to eat yams and rice (which, coincidentally is what was served to my friend). Towards the end of the dinner, the waiter brings rice. And when we were paying, the chef had to explain again about how ordering rice was like ordering french fries. At the point, I was getting annoyed. By the way, it turns out, the dish is just one way how he likes to eat yams, as he explained in the second lecture...
After we had eaten, shit just got strange...the Chef said we hadn't drunk enough alcohol and basically spent the rest of the night like a jokey older brother trying to get his younger sisters to drink. He made some weird joke with my boyfriend about checking the ages of girls, asked how old we were, and brought us schnapps even though we said we didn't want any, as two of our two guests don't drink any alcohol. The girls were so worried that the chef would make a big scene about her not drinking the schnapps that of them poured some of the schnapps into the water glass so that he thought she had drank it. Then he brought us a shot glass of chili schnaps and my boyfriend drank it. Chef Robert brought water, which is actually terrible for spicy food, and then brought a glass of wine, which solved the problem. (Thank you for that!)
But then he brought another glass of chili schnapps and played some weird cat-and-mouse dance with it, daring us girls to try it. He stuck a fork in the chili schnaps and put it close to one their faces, but she said no. Then he pushed the chili schnaps to me, and when I moved towards to the glass and said I would try it, he took the glass away and said, "No, no" and put it back down in front of me. This went on again another two times.
Had to wait 45 minutes for the bill because only the chef could give us the bill (seems he had to write it out by hand). The Chef was sitting outside with another patron of the table next to us. They had left their beers on the table, and the girl was taking a smoke break. He tells us that we wouldn't have to pay for the schnapps because we hadn't wanted them. It was handwritten, and we couldn't read what was on there, but it didn't seem like enough (only 58 EUR for four people without dessert) so we left 10% extra. He made a dramatic show about us leaving without saying good-bye, but we were in a hurry to leave because he had made us wait so long and bc the night had not been enjoyable.
