Skip to main content

Simba's Grill

Simba's Grill Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato Simba's Grill is an East African restaurant. The "African" part has a lot of mystique to it since most African restaurants are basically Ethiopian. Unfortunately, there is a very strong Indian influence to East African cuisine, so it's really hard or impossible to separate comparing them.
Going in, try NOT to compare them -- you are not truly going for Indian food, so drop those expectations. If you really want Indian food, just go to an Indian restaurant.

Muhogo ($8) deep fried cassava root
  • Recommended by the server as the most distinctly African dish.
  • We were asked if we wanted "mild, medium, or spicy". The fries were just noticeably salty when I asked for medium. They did however bring two fairly-to-really spicy sauces, a mango chili and a pili pili sauce.
  • Overall pretty good. Not as dense as potato. Crispy and not oily.
2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill - Muhogo

A trio of sauces is brought to your table when you order: Yogurt, coconut, tamarind. We got a yellow-coloured mango chili sauce (barely any mango flavour for me) and a quite hot red-coloured pili pili sauce came with our cassava fries.
The yogurt is very useful for clearing your palate if it's burning from the hot sauces.

2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill - condiments

Naan ($1.50)
  • We asked for naan instead of rice to go with our curries. Looked suspiciously like store bought flatbread, grilled and cut into quarters.
2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill - two orders of naan

Machicha Masala ($15) spinach cooked in tomato curry; with chicken breast, prawns, or lamb
  • Despite the word "curry", there's no spicy heat here at all.
  • Server described it as "melt-in-your-mouth" lamb, so I chose the lamb option.
  • I found the chunks of lamb fairly big and though tender, not THAT tender.
  • Overall tasted sort of boring. I used some of the coconut sauce and pili pili sauce that came with the cassava to jazz it up a bit.
  • Price for portion is high compared to a curry in an Indian restaurant. Apparently comes with NO SIDE and rice is $4!
2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill - Machicha Masala (with lamb)

Paka ($15) chicken breast, tilapia fillet, or prawns; cooked in coconut curry
  • Very watery curry with no spicy heat. Because of the watery-ness, best with rice. Would have been nice to be warned.
  • Exactly 5 prawns with the prawn option.
  • Strong coconut flavour makes it fairly tasty, but price for portion is too weak when alternative coconutty curries are available. Apparently comes with NO SIDE and rice is $4!
2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill

Lamu Cheesecake ($7) original cheesecake served with mango, pistachio, and almonds
  • Tasted like cheesecake. Nothing special here.
  • Lots of mango puree (?) that flattened the flavour of the nuts.
  • Nothing special here, and at $7 makes it closer to Yaletown price for the portion you get. You do get a lot of mango puree, though.
2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill - Lamu Cheese Cake

Free after-dinner chocolate that is like an After Eight (chocolate plus mint).

2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill - after-dinner chocolate mint

The chef personally goes round to the tables to take your order. Seemed like a very stiff, almost sour, fellow with very short answers. Servers much friendlier and more personable.

TIP: Window seats are in range of free #TELUS wifi somewhere in the neighbourhood.

TIP: Look for the upside down table!

2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill

2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill

2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill

2016-Apr-19 - Simba's Grill
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.
Post a Comment
Read more

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 9

More assorted couples on my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. An American couple who joked about being from "the land of the giants" -- and with good reason, because both of them were really tall! A cute Jewish mother-daughter pair who ducked out part-way to divert to Israel. I vaguely remember the issue of the daughter being an orthodox Jew was highlighted in France when, to make things easy, she just declared herself vegetarian for the wait staff. I also remember there was some logistics error in France because our party size was way underestimated or simply relayed incorrectly, and there was a shortage of food at dinner. Dessert came as an unopened can of yogurt. It did not seem like they tried to make it up to us later, either. Plus there was smoking every which way in France, and I had a helluva time with that. We were also in a hotel that seemed tucked away in the burbs, and not walking distance from anythin...
Post a Comment
Read more