My colleague Caroline Nganga wrote to me in early March about a new restaurant that had just opened in Marietta, noting that she has been in Atlanta for close to 20 years and “we have never had a Kenyan restaurant. We have had ‘African’ (West/East African), Ethiopia, etc., but never a Kenyan restaurant.”
She was excited finally to have a restaurant where she and the 20,000 other Kenyans living in the metro area could get a taste of their native land. But, Jambo Grill is an exciting addition to the dining scene in general.
Located in a small strip mall on Delk Road, just east of I-75, the restaurant is the brainchild of Kenyan natives Tina Wanja and Lucy Karinge. Wanja, who arrived in the U.S. in 2002, attended culinary school in Florida and worked for 18 years as pastry chef for the DoubleTree off Windy Hill Road. Prior to opening Jambo Grill in late February, both women cooked Kenyan food as part of their respective catering businesses.
At Jambo Grill, the women combine forces in the kitchen to plate up hearty, homestyle Kenyan dishes.
As you place your order at the counter, say “jambo” — the Swahili greeting for “hello” — before you tick off an order that ought to include a snack of bhajias, fried potatoes served with sweet chile sauce and fresh tomato salsa for dipping. These next-level french fries are sliced on the bias, then dredged in gram flour seasoned with cilantro and salt. The coating turns them extra-crispy when they go for a dip in the fryer.
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
You can compose a traditional — and highly nutritional — meal with an order of githeri, skuma wiki and ugali.
Githeri is a stew of beans and large, white-kernel maize. Skuma wiki is the Kenyan preparation for cooked collards or kale, with the leafy greens finely chopped and seasoned with cumin and coriander. Ugali is a staple made of cornmeal boiled to a stiff, dough-like consistency. It doubles as an edible utensil. Pull a bit of ugali off the round white mass, roll it into a ball with your fingers, make an indentation with your thumb, then use it to scoop a bit of skuma wiki.
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Among the meat options, you can try mildly spiced pork or beef sausages (Kenyan brand Farmers Choice) or dig into nyama choma (which means “roasted meat” in Swahili), with your choice of beef or chicken. However, my pick would be the goat stew. Gnaw the meat off the bones and enjoy the soupy goodness seasoned with tomatoes, pepper and spices.
The restaurant’s whole fried tilapia offered a flaky interior, but more impressive was the warm sauce served with it. Made from tomatoes, coconut powder, curry powder, onions, cilantro and pepper, it had a lovely body, smooth texture and subtly nuanced flavor.
A handful of menu items reflect the Indian influences in Kenyan cuisine, which date to British colonial times, when people from the Indian state of Gujarat settled in East Africa. Samosas, chapati and aromatic basmati rice dishes are all mainstays at Jambo Grill.
The samosas feature beef and chicken fillings tightly packed in triangular pockets. The beef samosas are especially juicy and well-seasoned.
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Karinge said that chapati is the first thing that her late mother, who also was a chef, taught her how to make. These round flatbreads get fried in a skillet, which turns the edges crispy, while the interior stays moist and doughy.
You can’t go wrong with coconut rice or pilau. The former gives the grains a delicate coconut accent, while the latter is reminiscent of fragrant dirty rice, thanks to pilau masala spice seasoning — a blend of cumin seeds, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom and clove.
Two dishes I could dig into on a daily basis are irio (a starch-heavy delight of mashed green peas and potatoes) and kachumbari (a salad of tomatoes, onions, cilantro and lemon) — simple, and so satisfying.
Although the restaurant currently doesn’t offer desserts, Wanja said she will be putting her pastry talents to work, making cakes on weekends.
While Jambo Grill offers takeout, I suggest dining in, even though the six-table, 22-seat space is sparsely decorated (Kenyan décor is planned), and the food is served on disposable plates. The warm conversations that inevitably happen when Karinge or Wanja walk a dish to the table can be educational opportunities for folks who wish to familiarize themselves with traditional Kenyan cuisine.
For affordable, nourishing fare that you won’t find anywhere else, say hello to Jambo Grill.
JAMBO GRILL
2 of 4 stars (very good)
Food: traditional Kenyan cuisine
Service: personable, no-frills atmosphere, with ordering at counter
Recommended dishes: bhajias, beef samosas, githeri, irio, ugali, pilau, coconut rice, skuma wiki
Vegetarian dishes: bhajias, githeri (without beef), house salad, ugali, irio, kachumbari, french fries, chapati, pilau (vegetarian upon request), coconut rice, plantains, cabbage, skuma wiki
Alcohol: no
Price range: $$
Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays
Parking: free parking lot
MARTA station: no
Reservations: no
Outdoor dining: no
Takeout: yes (order in person or via phone), no delivery
Address, phone: 2555 Delk Road SE, Marietta. 470-919-6046
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