Another New(ish) Opening

Time's Cafe
That apostrophe is annoying isn't it. A shame as they've got pretty much everything else right. Time's Cafe (how annoying....) is decked out in a retro American diner style and serves up a smart selection of flavoured coffees, hot and cold chocolates, pizzas, omelettes, sandwiches, burgers, snacks and ice cream.

Mrs Jiffler tries the 'Midnight Fever' chilled coffee - a decadent mix of espresso, milk, toffee, banana and chocolate. Foodwise we both opt for manakish (I'm slowly developing an addiction to these) as a mid-Saturday-morning snack, but I wish I'd had room to try one of the burgers. Is there anywhere in Dakar where you can get a really decent burger? The ones I buy from Le Palace on Thursday nights/Friday mornings when I'm three sheets to the wind are truly vile.

I'd recommend popping into Time's cafe for a coffee next time you're in Plateau and the hustle and bustle is getting you down.

Time's Cafe
27 Avenue Roume, Plateau.
tel: 33 821 21 68
Open 7 days a week, 7am to 11pm
Delivery service starting mid-February.

P.S
I'm back from Central Asia now, if you're interested, you can read about what I ate there on Experimental Jifflings.

Transcendental Tuna Salad

Fuji
19 Rue Victor Hugo (next to Ozio), Plateau.
Tel: 33 821600, or 775 072270

Who in their right mind would go into a sushi restaurant and order something as boring as 'Spicy tuna salad'? It sounds like something you'd make on a Wednesday evening, using a tin of tuna and the bits of vegetable detritus from the bottom of the salad tray. In a sushi restaurant we want maki and miso, unagi and a touch of umami, not boring old Wednesday tuna salad. Right?

Not so at Fuji, Dakar's latest sushi offering. Here the Tuna Salad is one of those dishes that makes your hair stand on end from the very first bite. Halfway through the plate and you're off your face on happy-hormones, thinking about ordering another, or maybe two more. Trust me, this is no mere salad, this is tuna spun into silk, sweet seaweed seduction.

At long last, sushi, sashimi, and maki dishes to really get excited about. The next time some pseud cracks on about how wonderful the second-rate sushi is at La Fourchette or Cozy you can send them to Fuji for an education.

Service here is a delight as well - unhurried and without the usual French pretentions. The atmosphere is slick and modern, a bit quiet early doors, but warming as the restaurant fills up with a good mix of customers and the music of human voices.

Two can eat here for 50,000Fcfa as long as you don't go mad with the winelist. The spicy tuna salad costs 8,000Fcfa and is worth every franc.