TL;DR summary: No waitstaff, no menus, no alcohol, not much space, off the beaten track, but delicious, friendly, inexpensive, huge portions (an order can easily feed two for less than $15), and worth the trip. Oh, and food is cooked to order, so if you don't call ahead, be prepared to wait 45 minutes while your meal is prepared.
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A friend of mine wanted to have dinner at a place that doesn't serve the typical ethnic-food-made-bland-for-Americans, and she reads this blog called EatTheWorldNYC (am I allowed to mention a food blog in a Yelp review?), and told me to pick a place in the Bronx (where she lives) for us to eat. I am a huge fan of Ethiopian food, so I chose Adaya, which serves food from Guinea. Yes, I know that Guinea (in western Africa) is nowhere near Ethiopia (in eastern Africa), and that AFRICA AIN'T A COUNTRY, and that even within countries the food can be very different in various regions. So... I wanted to try African food from somewhere else.
On a Friday night, the parking was easy, and a short 15-minute walk from the D or the 4 subway lines, or an 8-minute walk from the Metro North. This is in the heart of the South Bronx, which is not as bad as many places in Brooklyn (e.g., Bed-Stuy), but you should probably go with a friend.
When you enter, you quickly realize that it's not a typical "restaurant". The only greeting you receive is the slightly pungent yet fragrant aroma of the spices used to cook the food. There is no waitstaff. There are no menus. In the front there are nine tables, eight of which seat two people, and one of which seats four, although any two of the small ones could be pushed together to seat four (this is not a great place for groups). There is a refrigerator, the kind you might find at a bodega with a sliding glass door, containing beverages (soft drinks and water, no wine or beer) to purchase to be consumed with your meal. There is also a big screen TV with the local news on, and a few solitary locals eating dinner. In the back, there is a counter with some food under a glass like you would see at a hot salad bar, except that customers can't reach the food.
I walked in and went to the back where there was a woman behind a counter who was the cook, and I am guessing also the server, the accountant, dishwasher, the janitor, and the owner. I asked her "What's good tonight?" and she answered with a smile, "The beef, the chicken, the lamb, the goat, and the fish."... which were all the dishes that she was making that night. She actually seemed a bit surprised to find my friend and me in her restaurant, I assume because mostly Africans frequent her eatery (I am Latino, she is Russian).
My friend chose the wiser path and asked someone who was there waiting for takeout food what was good. He said that he liked the lamb. My friend was deliberating whether to get the lamb or the fish, and asked me what I was going to get. I warned her that the portions were HUGE, maybe we should just get one to share. She said no problem, she was hungry. I led her out to one of the tables and showed her a "portion" that someone else had been served. I managed to convince her to share and that if we were still hungry after dinner, we could order more.
We decided on lamb with rice and spinach. The woman responded, "OK, it will be ready in 45 minutes." So we asked, "OK, how long for the fish?" "45 minutes." I then realized that she cooks the meals as people ordered them. So we chose lamb.
The rice was soft and fluffy, and either a medium or a short-grain rice (as opposed to the long-grain rice you get in most Asian restaurants). About a ladle full of a kind of creamed potato leaf was layered on top of the rice, as well as creamed cassava leaf (it turned out we just *thought* what we saw was spinach). The meat turned out to be fried lamb chops. I was a little disappointed because I was expecting a nice tender juicy stewed kind of meat, and this was fried, and as a result, a bit dry, salty, a little tough, and not as flavorful as I expected. But still very edible. It reminded me of pork chops, which is not my favorite kind of meat. Next time I know to ask a bit more about how a given meat is prepared.
In the end, however, I ate a LOT. After about 3/4 of the dish we were sharing was finished, my friend said she was FULL and was glad we didn't order two dishes. I finished the rest, and was very satisfied. I'll go back again, but it's definitely not the kind of place where you take a date. More the kind of place you take someone who likes exploring new and authentic ethnic food. Which could be a date... if you're lucky. :-) read more