The last time I visited Nyala was at least 2 years ago, and since then a few things have changed. More tables, they now have waiting staff, and the decor has become a bit more commercial. (You can buy the stuff hanging on the walls, if you so desire)

As soon as we entered I was amazed at the amount of tables/seats they’d packed in. (More than in the picture above). I was also worried we’d be crammed in the corner somewhere, but luckily the only available table was near the front door, and as such had a bit more clearance room.

Despite the general earthy feel of the place, everything is quite clean. Wine glasses are sparkling, cutlery and plates are spotless.

Sadly, that’s the best part - here’s the food.

Combination Dips - The Tahini, Deberja and Lentil dips tasted ok, but there wasn’t anything exceptional about them. I’m sure I could find something very similar in the dip section at Coles. More insultingly was the portion size. $9.00 for maybe 2 tablespoons of each - not impressed. Also serving them with Mountain Bread, which in itself is tasteless, was not a good choice.

Sambusa - Nothing exciting here. Exactly like an Indian Meat Samosa, only.. less flavour.

Abeba Goman - As cauliflour has barely any taste of its own, it relies on the egg and batter, and the timatim sauce to bring out the flavour. Last time I ordered one of these, it was delicious. This time, it was half the size and tasteless. If you tried hard, you could taste traces of omelette. Another reason it was bland was that we weren’t given any timatim sauce for this, nor the Sambusa. Sure we could have asked for it, except that we only realised there was supposed to be a sauce once we’d eaten them.

Baboutie - More Mountain Bread, but if you scooped the mincemeat onto it you could make a kind of wrap parcel. It didn’t taste too bad, wasn’t dry and you had the surprising taste of the occasional pine-nut as you chewed.

Doro Tibs - This dish was quite tasty, but the portion size was meagre. (For $17, I expect a decent plate full) so splitting it between the four of us meant we each got a piece.

Nyala Special - The last time I had this one, the whole dish, although small, was the stew. Now, half the dish is filled with Futari, so you get even less stew. As for the flavour itself - it was okay, but the meat itself was a bit dry and took some chewing.

Futari - “Mixed seasonal vegetables”.. consisted mainly of cabbage. There were also two beans, and a couple of carrot sticks mixed in. All in all, it didn’t really taste like anything. I think the colour probably came from a pinch of tumeric.

The main courses over, we were looking forward to the scrumptious-sounding desserts..

Sweet Couscous - I expected something similar to sago custard, but this turned out to be a dish of cous-cous, a layer of custard on top and a scoop of ice cream. Somewhere in the middle were the almonds and sultanas. And it was cold. It had some flavour, but that mainly came from the custard and ice cream - which you can get anywhere.

Tafach Mooz - After reading that description, I thought ‘yummy baked banana’. Again, I was disappointed. It was also served cold, and the decorative (plain-label?) chocolate topping all over it destroyed whatever taste they were going for. And you don’t use green bananas in something like this. Another miss.

Besides the taste of our dishes, my main gripe was the portion size - or lack thereof. And there wasn’t even a mountain of rice to offset the minute dishes we were served.

I’m also unsure as to how authentically African the dishes were, considering their similarity to some non-African dishes in other places i’ve eaten, not to mention their overly descriptive explanations on the menu.

I’ll give it at least another couple of years, and maybe Nyala will be back to its former quality.

Review Coming Soon.

Combination Dips -

Sambusa -

Baboutie -

Abeba Goman -

Doro Tibs -

Nyala Special -

Futari -

Sweet Couscous -

Tafach Mooz -

Ambience:
Food:
Service:
Value: