Arrastre de pub

Tolosa Caliente (also known as "Toro")

I've been put off eating here for some time now after an encounter with the owner. But since there isn't much in the way of Spanish cooking in town (Alkimia has closed down, due to bad management rather than bad cooking I suspect) I thought I'd put my head in and try a few tapas prior to a pub crawl. How bad can it be?

Not bad actually. We're not talking La Cuchara de Santelmo here, but they seem to make do pretty well with what is available in Dakar. Steering away from the hams - they're only going to disappoint - The Juicer and I share 5 plates between us as we wait for the rest of our cuadrilla to arrive. Our tortilla is dense and studded with proper bacon, but a touch overcooked considering it was fresh out of the kitchen. Mini-beef brochettes are respectably rare, while classic brochettes of monkfish and chorizo are almost perfect (Let down by the quality of local chorizo). Pinchos of bread and anchovies "Marseille" are a bit puzzling, with the anchovies not really packing much of a punch, while squid is just a touch overcooked, but heavily over heated with chillies. On-the-house aceitunas are marinated in parsley and garlic, and are some of the best in town.

A mixed bag then, but that's the fun with tapas. Anchovies not up to scratch? Doesn't matter - try some of the brochettes. The bar itself is pretty inviting as well, with smart service, wines by the half bottle, and a good selection of single malts, Tolosa Caliente makes a great prelude to a nine hour drinking session (for example).

Tolosa Caliente
Route de l'aeroport
Tel: 77 435 65 16
Open 12pm to 3pm and 7.30pm until midnight.

Old Favourite

I've always been fond of La Terrasse de Ouakam. There seems to be a bit of commitment in the kitchen - to strong French cooking and quality ingredients. Unfortunately it had often been let down by odd imperfections. Prawn shells buried in your prawn and avocado cocktail and that sort of thing.

It's been a while since I last went, and I've had a few good reports since the start of the year, so decided to gather together a couple of willing sybarites for a proper dinner. A proper grown-ups dinner where you expect to roll, sated and drunk from the table having dined leisurely and long.

Service is from an old pal from La Fiesta, who keeps things nicely paced, and even manages not to annoy me when topping up the wine. The man clearly has a gift. Our sharpeners come swiftly accompanied by soft cheesy feuillette reminiscent of Greek bourekaki.

Outside on the terrace (inside is a little gloomy, despite the boutique stylings) the extensive menu is displayed on a huge whiteboard, with odd specials hiding on smaller blackboards among the foliage. Normally I'd worry about such a long menu, but since it changes according to what is in (pork, duck and rabbit at the moment), the usual rules don't apply.

Snails come swimming in a creamy, buttery sauce which might otherwise be overwhelmlngly rich were it not for the hint of tarragon lending a licorice lightness to it. Deep fried goats cheese with poached pears is also lighter than expected, with the fluffy chevre melting deliciously on the tongue. My carpaccio of smoked magret comes in a bright and generous portion with a dollop of fig jam. On the plate, the carpaccio is odourless, but then when each slice hits your palette there is a gentle Double-Gloucester style whiff of the farmyard, followed quickly by a mild smokiness which doesn't overpower the duck.

Compared with the fist-sized lumps of succulent suckling pig on my companions' plates, my coq au vin looks like a meagre portion. The sauce is a rich reduction though, and the chicken tender and full of flavour - as fine an example of the dish as I've ever hard. The suckling pig is something else though, stuffed with mushrooms and positively radiating piggy goodness. Sides of mashed potato have a few disappointing lumps and bumps, which only goes to prove the chef's French cooking credentials. Why is it that the French can't do mashed potatoes properly?

Stuffed to the gills, we pass on pudding. Our bill, including two bottles of a very appley Muscadet, a couple of Gazelles, gin and tonic, coffees, a tip, and a snifter of Cognac comes to about 20,000FCfa a head. Not bad at all for such a grown up feast.

La Terrasse de Ouakam
31, route de Ouakam
Tel: 33 820 74 07
Open 7 days, 9.30am to 12.30am

I haven't been idling, honest.

A happy 2010 then, where I promise to post a little more frequently than I have been in the last few months. There is a backblog of restaurants to clear of course, but I'm going to introduce a few new features this year. Wait and see.

First Dakar dining of the year was at Restaurant La Calebasse in Mamelles, who have recently opened a top floor restaurant above the African Art shop. The shop itself is impressive, hosting several floors of quality antiquities. A cut above the usual tat, with everything the discerning foreigner needs to kit out the villa. My dining companions rate it better than the IFAN museum, which is kind of a shame really. I'm reminded of the Museum of African and Oceanian Art in Paris, and the displays of colonial loot. At least somebody is profiting from it this time I guess, but a shame that much of it is going to end up in the front rooms of non-Africans.

The decor stretches upstairs into the restaurant, which has been kitted out with real attention to detail. In some respects it almost enters 'African theme restaurant' territory, only with proper antiques rather than plaster casts. The terrace is breezy and the dining room is spacious, with a Griot tinkling away unobtrusively on his kora. Staff are helpful to the point of being embarrassingly obsequious - a somewhat inauthentic touch, but welcome anyway. Flatware and cutlery is Laguiole; the cheaper Verdier range I think, otherwise I would have pocketed some (I am a sucker for Laguiole).

I have to admit, I'm not a massive fan of Senegalese food. I'll eat it of course, and am fairly fond of well made daxine, but most restaurant food, and indeed home cooking, is too reliant on large doses of jumbo. At one stage, after eating fully jumbo'd lunches every day for a couple of weeks my wee even started to smell of jumbo. Not good.

Anyhow, Calebasse adopts a cute fine dining theme by presenting us with assorted liqueurs to wet our whistles with, including a bissap concoction that tasted rather like Ribena (the English national drink). Amuse geule in the form of miniature meat pasties are a bit mixed - with one batch being somewhat stodgy and one batch fluffy and soft.

Salady starters are all 6,000 FCfa and mains 8,000 FCfa. All are West African, and each option gives you a breakdown of the ingredients as well as details of the Nationality of the dish. We opt choose from the main courses only.

First off are decent walnut and olive breads. Strips of grilled squid are nicely al dente, and come with a zinging fresh salsa. Chicken is definitely not of the bicyclette variety, and I even enjoy my yassa poulet - largely because it becomes sans jumbo, but also because it hasn't been boiled for 15 hours.

Wine list is perfectly passable, very decently priced with a few South African reds on there for a bit of variety. A minor complaint about water for mint tea being tepid is swiftly corrected, with all of the teas and coffees coming off our bill.

I can see Calebasse being a big hit with the tourists as it is something of a one stop shop. As a gentle introduction into West African cooking it sets a very good example of how things should be - I'd definitely take visitors there. The service is superb as well, but I might not make it one of my regulars.

Restaurant La Calebasse
The following contacts are for the art gallery. The restaurant is very new and doesn't list a number for bookings.
Address: Route des Almadies, sur le goudron au pied du phare des Mamelles
Tel: +221 33 860 69 47
Web: http://www.art-afrik.com/

A Sausage to India

Sure you can get curry in Dakar, but it usually an insipid Frenchified version, mildly spiced and served with - Cyril Fielding-esque - pasta.

There are two Indian restaurants proper in Dakar, the recently re-opened Zaika, and Indiana:

Indiana
There isn't much interest in the lunchtime buffet, probably due to Ramadan, so our table of five has the run of the restaurant. 5,000 FCfa gets you half a dozen average curries, cooked on the bone, and an assortment of slightly spongy deep-fried pakora. Roti are pretty good though, and service is friendly. You should see the state of their napkins though - you wound't use them to wipe the floor.

Not bad, for a cheapish buffet lunch, but not somewhere I'd rush to make a booking.

Adjoining the restaurant is a small shop selling spices and a few indian products. It's slightly cheaper than Haldiram's, and sells some of the harder to find items like mustard seeds.

Zaika
After a long wait - it must be over 18 months - Zaika has finally re-opened. I'm sure what took so long to be honest, as the refurbishments are barely noticable, and the place looks like it could do with, er, a bit of a refit. The toilets are somewhat nearer to the restaurant than before, so no need to take your hiking boots anymore.

Never mind. Mango lassi is inconsistent - a little better the second time round, while curries are about the average UK bottom end of the high street standard. I've had better biriyani elsewhere, although the tandoori chicken and fish come up to scratch. Samosas come shaped like cornish pasties, and are a bit heavy, but otherwise OK.

Of the two, Zaika is the better in terms of quality of food, and cleanliness of table linen. Don't expect too much from Zaika, but when you've been without a proper curry for a while, it might just satisfy the craving.

Radisson Blu

How do we pronounce this exactly? Is it blu as in bleu, or blur, or bleurgh?

Blu looks nice enough, all slaty coloured tiles and impressive thingies. The atrium is an eyecatching surprise as you enter the hotel from the top down, all hanging bits of fibre-optic (clearly inspired by the power lines outside my house) and fancy ikea lamps. Poolside is impressive too, with a dark blue (blu?) infinity pool that is already proving popular with Lebanese teenagers as a high profile heavy petting spot.

It has three sort of restaurants. Perhaps three menus is a more appropriate description. The flagship is the Filini Italian restaurant, the kind of blanded out upmarket restaurant you can find in five-star joints anywhere in the world. There is a more generic international menu served poolside, or you can sit indoors in some sort of weird corridor arrangement and tuck into club sandwiches and chicken wings.

The menu at Fillini's actually looks promising. There is none of the tedious pasta-pizza-steaknchips stuff one might normally expect, instead fillini's goes gently off piste with some interesting seafood options. The option is there for those who want the fully orchestrated multi-course Italian style blowout, but that would require both a thick waist and a thicker wallet.

Breads - onion foccacia, brown sliced, and grissini - are very good indeed, and I hope the in-house bakery will open to the public sometime soon. Mixed meat and vegetable antipasti are reasonable, with green beans in mint proving to be the star player. Pizzas are pretty good, but double the price of equally fine pizzas elsewhere in town.

Mrs Jiffler's risotto comes stacked with juicy prawns and a decent saffron punch, but tell tale white spots on the rice give away hasty cooking - surprising given the 40 minute wait in an almost empty restaurant.

Over at the poolside bar they knock out a very fine hamburger indeed. Cooked rare as requested and served with a robust, no-nonsense, toasted sesame bun. The burgers come with those little jarred condiments that they serve at every upmarket hotel in the tropics. The sort that visiting mothers of the Road to Wigan Pier generation like to slip into their handbags for later. Barracuda steak is tasty too, despite being hidden under a fizzy green salad toupe studded with the occasional shock anchovy nugget.

If I were to judge the Radisson on the quality of its food alone then things would be reasonably positive. You get decent food at a five-star price, what else should one expect? Well, one would expect decent coffee for 3,000FCfa, not insipid frothless cappuccino. At 7,000FCfa a pop I'd expect properly mixed cocktails made from quality spirits and fresh fruits. Most of all I'd expect a decent. Even after a couple of months to settle down the staff are not co-ordinated, customers have to play musical chairs, drinks don't arrive, bills don't arrive, change doesn't arrive... Little jars of mustard and piment and starched napkins don't make a five star hotel restaurant.

You can enjoy the pool for 10,000 FCfa/day
Weekend poolside + buffet is 28,000 FCfa

Radisson Blu Hotel, Dakar
Route de la Corniche ouest

Tel: +221 33 869 33 33

Restaurant News:
Indian restaurant Zaika has reopened on the Corniche. Check for a review soon.

The Ecole Superieure Gastronomique Hoteliere Arnaud has reopened on Allees Seydou Nourou Tall. Hopefully they'll still be turning out bargain lunches (Tel:+ 221 33 869 92 92).

Anyone tried the new 'J'Go' restaurant up in Almadies (Route de Ngor)? I had a look in on the opening night, but the place was filled with mediocre celebrities, and various poorly dressed members of the Dakar nightclub "set". Mrs Jiffler and I were given short shrift, possibly because we didn't have enough gold writing on our clothes.

In search of a breeze

It's getting to that sticky time of year again when you sometimes just feel like lying down on a cool tiled floor wearing only your underpants. I find this particular posture both uncomfortable and undignified when taking lunch. You'll find me at the air-conditioned Les Ambassades with a battered paperback, squeaking on the leather seats and supping my Orangina.

Roof terraces are an ideal place to catch the breeze at this time of year, and there are a couple of venues worth checking out for a cheeky after work snifter.

Vounda-Bar
See what they did there? Vounda-Bar? I bet whoever came up with that is still chuckling. Who says the Germans don't have a sense of humour? Vounda-bar's roost atop the Goethe Institute in Point E affords a different view of Point E. You can spy on people at the nearby piscine while enjoying the, ahem, wonderful breeze. You need to hang on to your quotidien though, otherwise the aforementioned breeze will carry it off all the way to Zone B.

Bar prices are reasonable, and proper panino come in at the 1500 FCfa mark. A small selection of larger meals are available from a weekly menu for around 4000Fcfa. Alternate Sundays host an impressive buffet brunch at 10,000FCfa a head (booking advised).

Café Vounda-Bar sur la terasse du Goethe-Institut
Piscine Olympique angle Rue Diourbel
Point E - Dakar - Senegal /
Tel.: +221 77 560 21 60
Email: movingafrica@yahoo.fr
11am to 7pm.
http://vounda-bar.com/

Hotel Le Djoloff
This smart boutique hotel (rates from 50,000FCfa/night) has an attractive rooftop terrace overlooking Soumbedioune and the Iles de la Madeleine. The bar is comfy with tinkling salsa music while a blackboard advertises today's menu choices. The fish is reportedly good, which it should be given that you can see the fish market from the terrace, but veal escalopes were somewhat leathery. Smoked salmon came blistered with lemon juice, rather like a Dakar fish carpaccio.

Despite slightly mediocre food This place is hard to beat for a cheeky apres work beer on a Friday evening. Even Soumbedioune looks nice from up on high.

Hotel Le Djoloff
7 Rue Nani
Fann-Hock
Tel: 33 889 3630
info@hoteldjoloff.com
www.hoteldjoloff.com

Restaurant Rumblings:
For a look at the Collines de Niassam Lodge in Palmarin, click here.

The third place?

Fratelli's
A friend had just been lamenting the lack of a Starbucks-like place in Dakar (OK, there is Time's Cafe, but that is so smoky these days, and the pizza isn't much to sing about) when another friend bought me a Gazelle and filled me in on Fratelli's cafe in Almadies. This was the second recommendation I'd had in a week, so I scheduled in a lunch with Mrs Jiffler the following Saturday.

Fratelli's should do well from the staff at Ericsson nextdoor, as well as passing trade. There is a relatively hassle-free outdoor terrace and a vaguely Starbucksy indoor area that looks a bit unfinished. I've never gone in for the whole Starbucks 'the third place' ideal. It seems a bit contrived to me. Besides, I prefer my 'third place' to serve beer and peanuts.

Coffee is decent enough to linger over, far better than the usual salon du the fare. You'll find decent helpings of reasonably priced salads and sandwiches on the menu, making it a good option for a light Saturday lunch.

Fratelli's
Route des Almadies (next to Ericsson).

Carre Vert
A less good option for a Saturday lunch is Carre Vert at the Dakar City shopping complex. If Fratelli's opened up here they would probably be the talk of the town, as in the right hands this location could be a little goldmine.

The offerings are similar to Fratelli's - coffee, salads, sandwiches. Unfortunately the coffee is unremarkable and suffers from the dreaded squirty cream treatment. Sandwiches are a little boring and salads would be fine if they didn't come presented in a weird parabola-shaped bowl which prohibits a sensible eating posture. The kitchen is open, so you can see that it is clean enough, but totally disorganised, with nothing prepped.

At the end of the day, you're eating in a slightly naff shopping centre. How depressing.

Carre Vert
Dakar City Shopping Centre
Airport Road
N'gor

Restaurant News:
It's quite hard to get excited about new openings these days, since they tend to be a bit underwhelming. Dakar Sushi, on the airport road is the latest. Initial reports from a reliable foodie source are that it isn't up to much, but I'd like to give it a couple of weeks to get going. Meanwhile I hear that Mezzo in plateau has shut down. A shame, if only for their salty chocolate cake.

Slightly rambling

Le Loft

The weekend starts at 1.30pm on a Friday Chez Jiffler, and usually involves a long and leisurely lunch.

I'd recommend Le Loft for a long and leisurely lunch. A newish opening in Plateau, Le Loft is a sophisticated indoor bar/salon du the/restaurant which is trying to please everyone, and may very well end up succeeding.

Inside is all dark furnishings and sleek seating, something in between the average Malmaison lobby and a Soho restaurant circa 1998. I can imagine it going down well with certain Dakar cliques once the sun sets. Daytime though, it's pretty calm. I felt a bit underdressed on Friday afternoon though, wearing a free t-shirt advertising the Badger brewery in Dorset and trousers with a ten-pence sized hole just below the right buttock.

After being greeted and shown to our table by charming and efficient staff, I braced myself for some sort of fine dining monstrosity and started to sharpen my pencils for a bruising rant on Dakar Restaurant Reviews. But what is this? Club Sandwiches? Croque Madames? Galettes? All at the kind of prices that wouldn't look out of place at Les Ambassades... well well.

A basket of decent bread came with decent butter, and the usual ketchup-piment-moutarde trio augmented by olive oil and balsamic vinegar. There must be a catch here right? The drinks were a bit on the pricey side, maybe that's it.

Mrs Jiffler went for a chicken quesadilla and I tested out the club sandwich (boring, yes, but I was on duty), but before all that, we were swiftly presented with a plate of little round deep fried fish things and home made tartare sauce.

"They get extra points for tartare sauce" reckoned Mrs Jiffler.

"Shut up and eat your little fish things"

Well I can't have her doing these reviews for me.

Meals arrived, on massive plates, with an explosion of salad. Blimey. Are you sure the prices on the menu are right? I even had to leave some chips, not because they were bad chips, but because the portion was so large and I'd stuffed my chops on bread and the little fish things beforehand. The quesadilla seemed to disappear quickly though, and I only got a chance to sample the guacamole (very good), and run my finger around the bottom of the sour cream bowl (also good).

I'm told there is also a more expensive a la carte menu "under development" as well, which currently features the usual meaty suspects, with a brief, and possibly pointless meander into Mexican territory. It might be worth a punt though. Let me know.

So let's get this straight; efficient service, smart decor, massive portions, good freebies, very reasonable price.

See you there next Friday.

Le Loft
Sorry, I forgot to pick up a card, but it's on Rue Amadou Assane Ndoye, number 62 or 63 I think. You can't miss it, it's west off the Place de L'Independance.

Cherry Mania

Le N'gor Tapas.
We've been here before on Dakar Restaurant Reviews. Something about terrible service, but a lovely place for sundowners. Locals refer to it as "Pied dans l'eau", or should that be "Les pieds dans l'eau'? Whatever.

Anyhow, it's got a nice upstairs bit now, doing tapas. It's an inventive Senegal-ised version of tapas, so don't expect elvers on toast, but do expect tasty bites. Each selection of tapas is named after one of the tribes of Senegal (Peul, Serere and so on) and is enough to amuse a group of, say, four people over cold beers. Service is perky.

The upstairs terrace is bright and breezy too, and just far enough from l'eau to be out of earshot of horrid French children tormenting pelicans.

Le N'gor Tapas
Route de la Corniche des Almadies
Tel: 775 04 30 06

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N'ice Cream
Mentioned in my last post, N'Ice Cream (whoever came up with that name is probably still recovering) is an excellent spot for a massive portion of ice cream. N'ice Cream is on my mind right now as I've just eaten some of their product at the Ecole Gastronomique. According to the flyer, pressed into my hand while I was weak from three courses and wine, they have more than 40 flavours every day (e.g. Cherry Mania!) and do deliveries.

N'ice Cream
97, Avenue A. Peytavin
Tel: 33 823 35 45
www.nicecream.sn (currently not working)

Bread and Chips

Aux Fins Palais

Aux Fins Palais is a smart little lunchtime haven serving up quality pastries alongside more substantial rations of salads and snacks. Service is swift, staff are friendly, and there is aircon throughout.

Salade Nicoise comes in ample portions with punchy anchovies. Better still - on a good day - Aux Fins Palais might possibly take the crown for the best chips in Dakar. Oh, and you can pop nextdoor for a monster N'ice cream.

Aux Fins Palais
97, Avenue Andre Peytavin
Tel: 33 842 96 46
Open 6.45am until 10.30pm. Closed Sundays.

La Provencale

Currently my favourite place to stop for bread in the middle of the peninsula. While it lacks the sophisitication of Grain d'or and the downtown temples of pastry, La Provence can be relied upon for no-nonsense staples and the odd macaroon thrown in.

Steer clear from such fancies as "Cheese and ham bread" and the somewhat disappointing gateaux. Instead try the wholemeal breads, pre-prepared quiches and the formidable biscuit selection and you can't go wrong.

La Provencale
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop
Point E
Tel: 338 251425. Open 6.15am until 11pm

Another branch in Sacre Coeur III, off the VDN.
Tel: 338 605828
7am to 1am

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News:

According to the TV guide, La Fourchette has re-opened after undergoing extensive renovations. Did anyone notice it had closed? Me neither. No reports yet, but hopefully they've renovated the menu as well.

Another New Opening in Point E

Global credit crisis? Nonsense! They're opening up restaurants all over Dakar. Times must be good. Hmm... does anybody see a pattern emerging?

The latest brand new opening is the originally named "La Marocaine", on Rue A (Rue de Louga) in Point A.

Owned by a friendly Senegalese chap, and staffed by Moroccans, "La Marocaine" serves up decent portions of basic Moroccan classics. Open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday, the restaurant has indoor seating, a bar, and what looks like scope for an outdoor terrace once things start to warm up. Live Moroccan music is promised for the evenings, which could be a blessing or a curse.

Hearty tagines, priced around 5,000 Fcfa, remind me of my mother's winter stews - warming and savoury, served in the kind of quantities that would satisfy a growing bear. Accompanying bread is fresh and airy, perfect for mopping up the thick juices at the bottom of the tagine.

Service is still a little shaky, as they are just getting started, so give it a week or so. A digestif of mint tea comes on the house, and is poured with aplomb by the owner, giving me just enough energy to make it back home for a post lunch snooze.

La Marocaine, 14 Rue de Louga (Rue A), Point E, Dakar.
Tel: 338255352

Random factor, like a tractor...

No regional theme this time, just a few odd ones I've missed out.

New Africa, 9794, Sacre Coeur III
A bar / restaurant with a pool table and a creative menu. Popular with moneyed Senegalese and French ex-pats. Get crunching on crab claws and all manner of sea critters by ordering the spaghetti a l'oceane, or try one of the thoughtfully assembled tagines. Check the ridiculous map of the World on the wall in the porch for whole continents you never new existed.

Recommended:

• The Spaghetti a l'Ocean is a thing of wonder.
• Good casual vibes for a game of pool and a beer with friends

Avoid:

• Service can be slow
• Parking is tricky in the sandy backstreets

La Noix D'or, Rue Aime cesaire x Rue E, Fann.
Since this is only a step away from the Chinese Embassy one would have thought that it must be the best place for Chinese food in town. A shame then that it's ghost-town empty. Perhaps there is a bit more trade early in the evening. Pricey, but reasonable take-away.

Recommended:

• Take away is reasonable quality, with a few more unusual dishes than the standard efforts

Avoid:

• The spooky emptiness of the restaurant itself

Le Celtic, Rue 6, Point E
Back to Point E again, this place is a cracking bar on Rue 6. Staff are friendly and the vibes are good. A shame more people don't drink there are its a great neighbourhood bar. Food is fresh and comes in healthy portions - the staff even came around with leftover pommes sautes from the kitchen.

Recommended:

• Good steaks and grills
• Cocktails (watch out for the daily cocktail special offer)

Avoid:

• A little bit too much Sting on the stereo if you ask me.

Zaika, 14 Fann-Hock
This Indian restaurant has an indoor water feature. Frankly, if a restaurant has an indoor water feature, I expect the waiters to wear bow ties and moustaches, and to have my food brought to me by trained monkeys dressed in gold lame. Its OK. Bit pricey. (note - Zaika is currently closed for rennovation)

Recommended:

• The deep fried starter selection.

Avoid:

• You may meet David Bowie throwing a baby into the air on the way to the toilet and end up never returning from the labyrinth. To hell with it, just go in the water feature.

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In the news:
A new chef at Ethiopian restaurant Lalibela (Rue A, Point E) has improved both the quantity and the quality of the food. The cooking now complements the delightful rooftop setting.

Culture and Cuisine in Plateau

Fancy a spot of culture with your food? Here are a few spots in Plateau for when getting drunk is not necessarily the main aim of the evening.

Le Bidew Bi at L'Institute Francais Leopold Sedar Senghor (aka the CCF), 89 rue Joseph T. Gomis, Plateau.
A nice semi-outdoor space that hosts plays and concerts (sometimes attracting big stars from West Africa), has a decent menu, laidback social atmosphere, and quality artists workshops to browse. http://www.institutfr-dakar.org/

Recommended:

• Great fruit juices
• Decent salads

Avoid:

• Sometimes it's randomly booked for private functions, so call ahead.
• The kitchen has often run out of your first choice, and your second choice.

Kadjinol station Avenue Albert Sarrault X Salva, Plateau.
A cinema / bar / restaurant all in one. Pull up a sofa and watch arthouse flicks with a beer in hand. Movies are often shown in their original English or Spanish verision, with French subtitles. They'll even take requests if there is a particular film that you've missed. http://www.kadjinol-edu.com/

Recommended:

• The food isn't bad, some Thai bits and bobs and the odd brochette.
• Films come free

Avoid:

• You pay a premium on food and beer, which pays for the film
• You may be the only party in the place.

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Since my previous post about Point E, I've been enjoying a few drinks at a cosy car called 'Le Celtic' in Point E. You can find it on an un-named (to the best of my knowledge) avenue, one street east of Rue 5/Birago Diop. I guess it would by Rue 6, or 5-and-a-half.

The owner is part Irish, hence the Celtic, but its not an Irish pub by any means. I haven't eaten there yet, but it seems popular. A bit of live music here and there, and pleasant outdoor seating (bring the insect repellent) makes it a decent place to go to wind down after work.

Apparently Lalibela has a new chef and is back on form, so a visit there in the next couple of weeks is on cards.

You can't ignore Ngor

Back in Dakar, so time for some more posting. Ngor isn't a bad little neighbourhood for eating out. Its something of a favourite spot with older French ex-pats, laid back Senegalese of all ages, and the odd tourist. There are a couple of reasonable supermarkets in the area too. Haldiram's supermarket has a good range of exotic foods (mainly indian ingredients), beer and wine, and the owners speak English and French. The Grain D'or Bakery is a top spot for your pain quotidien as well as spectacular cakes and posh ice cream.

Katia (opposite Shell station)
A pizza caff and take-away popular for casual dining with the locals of Ngor. A favourite of mine, and a fantastic place to get trolleyed.

Recommended:

• Food is cheap and cheerful.
• Service is brisk and efficient

Avoid:

• Drinking 10 large bottles of Gazelle on a Thursday night.

Sao Brazil (behind Shell station)
This could be my favourite place in town. I don't know why, I just feel relaxed here. There are comedy little and large waiters for a start, its outdoors, good music, a laidback menu, beers and strong cocktails.

Recommended:

• Pizzas and simple steaks are good.
• Tuna nicoise is well put together.
• Treat yourself to a cocktail.

Avoid:

• There are sometimes mosquitoes, so take the usual precautions.
• Occasional hustlers outside.
• Sometimes the service is slow, but just enjoy your drinks and forget about it.

Cabin du Pecheur, Ngor Plage
A little scruffy, although I've heard they've just had a refit. Zinging fresh seafood, simply prepared, with the sound of waves crashing nearby.

Recommended;

• Massive oysters.
• The seafood mixed grill, with a side of garlicky french beans.

Avoid:

• A little pricey, but worth it for a treat.

For all the reviews so far, click here.

Have you tried the thiof in Yoff?

My old neighbourhood, Yoff, has little to recommend it in Restaurant terms. Being a dry quarter, stuck on the north of the Peninsula it's hardly going to draw in the punters. Despite this, if you fancy pitching up with a couple of bowls and buying some Mafe and Rice for 400 CFA, then Yoff is definitely the place to do it.

Hong Kong II (Airport Road)
Slightly dishevelled, with a miserable old lady at the helm. Hong Kong II (where is Hong Kong 1?) serves, somewhat incongruously, Vietnamese cuisine with added jumbo.

Recommended:

• Prawns with ginger.
• If you live in Yoff. This is the nearest decent place for a beer.

Avoid:

• The food isn't great, if I'm honest.

Keur Mouna
Just cross the road into Parcelles at the edge of non-alcoholic Yoff and you'll find all the fun you need at Keur Mouna. A hotel and restaurant apparently, although when we visited all they had was steak (which wasn't bad) and rooms by the hour.

Recommended:

• The steak was OK
• Watching the floorshow of furtive punters selecting a prostitute. The madam is a tough lady, and will issue a sound beating to any customers who get lippy.

Avoid:

• In case you hadn't realised yet: this place is a brothel.

Via Via
Hmm. The usual mix of thieb, thiof and yassa, but done up for the backpacker brigade. It's in Yoff, but discreetly serves beer.

Recommended:

• A cheap clean hostel, and a great place to base yourself as a backpacker and grab some cheap meals.

• There is a little library of old travel books in many languages.

Avoid:

• Young French trustafarians with braided hair and multi-coloured vaguely ethnic clothing who have come to Africa to perfect their djembe playing skills. Annoying idiots.

Don't be tempted by the beachside shacks offering pizzas and burgers - just pop your head into the kitchen and you'll immediately pick up the e.coli vibe.

More soon.

For all the reviews so far, click here.