We arrived here in Kigali last night shortly after midnight and a 24 hour trip from home, so tonight was our first dinner out in Rwanda and Repub Lounge just across the valley in a neighborhood that seems to have all the top dining spots next to each other was a great choice. The weather has turned rainy, but we sat on the covered terrace with a view of the city center all lit up and settled in with a couple of Vodka(Absolut) & tonics, running about 6000 Rwandan francs each(under $6!).
Will & I decided to share two starters and two mains and we chose fairly well with a brilliant plate of local fried fish called SAMBAZA which was battered with a nice spice and served with a tartar-style sauce based largely on onion.; the dish was so good the sauce was not even necessary. The other dish was Pilipili Sausage & Rwanda cheese which had a quite spicy sausage with mustard and the simple but tasty local cheese which worked well to cut the spice from the sausage. We were both happy that Rwandans seem to like nice spice.
We ordered a bottle of white wine, but there was no wine list, so more on that later, Donath, our server, brought a yummy bottle of a white blend from Pay's d'Oc in France called Roche Mazet. It also cut the spice in the sausage and was great with the fried fish, which it turned out is a small (no bones at all) sardine from nearby Lake Kivu.
Main courses were Nyama Chana or roasted goat which was nice, but a bit on the dry side. A side(all mains come with one side dish) of Kachumbari was a perfect chimichurri or pico de gallo style salsa of tomatoes, chiies, garlic, onions and lemon juice. The Coconut Curry Fish was superb made with the local Tilapia also from Lake Kivu and a nice sauce, not sweet or too rich. Donoth suggest we take a rice dish, and he was spot on with the side of Ginger Rice. The winning side dish, however, was Isombe, a mix of cassava leaves and ground nuts the consistency of creamed spinach, that we both fell in love with. A nice plate of Crepes Flambees was set aflame tableside with orange liqueur, but we have now noticed (also at breakfast) that the local crepes are also called pancakes and sit somewhere between the two, not as thin as they are at home or in France, the thickness of a tortilla.
When the bill arrived I was quite thrilled to see the total was 50,000 francs, under $50, but attached below was a bill for the wine only at an additional 60,000 (yes, $60 and more than ALL the food). It seems there is no wine list so they can offer up a quality wine for a very high price! Next time I will ask for the price, as most folks don't drink wine here!
Off to Volcanoes National Park tomorrow and home to the famous gorillas of Rwanda.
