Edziban West African Bar & Bistro — Restaurant in Melbourne

An excellent place to go when you are after exotic flavours and do not want to compromise on sophistication, and it offers way more than just novelty. Each dish is bursting with flavour, but also executed with a fine attention to balance. I would want to order the same dish over and over again and do not grow tired of it.

Yam fufu in lamb soup is not a bowl of soup, it is more like seriously good "potato and gravy" with large chunks of lamb. The smoothness (and also chewy!) of the fufu is comparable to pommes puree from a top French restaurant; the flavour of the meaty soup is strong in colourful spices, and has also kept that unique "lambiness", which adds to the overall fragrance.

Jollof rice is nice but my favourite is the rice with fish chunks served in a dish called Empress Edziban, it's just a perfect blend of the right amount of everything, the fragrance of rendered fat and green leaves, the umami of fish (and possibly other proteins), the fluffiness of perfectly cooked rice etc.. It's a proper explosion of flavours in your mouth. (And honestly I have not had a Japanese takikomi gohan or Chinese caifan that can even come close to this level of balance and sophistication, or simply just the level of satisfaction.)

The fried chicken Maryland is deeply filled with flavour, the sort of flavour so complete that if any ingredient is missing one would notice straight away.. It does not feel at all oily (no flour coating, or at least I couldn't tell), just super crispy skin and juicy tender meat.

The restaurant's atmosphere is vibrant yet peaceful, it offers a very relaxed 'at home' feel while not loosing the excitement of dining out. Highly...

I went here today with my friends and gosh shocking service! I must admit the waiter was friendly and nice but the customer experience was so poor.

Firstly the wait time.. we waited over an hour for our food to come out, people who came AFTER us food arrived first (mind you, ordered similar meals). We wanted all the meals to come out together but my friends meal came first, then like 20-30 minutes the next meal by then my friends food was cold and the last meal the chef “forgot” about the ticket so my poor friend had to watch us eat because our meals were getting cold whilst waiting.

Secondly the service… AWFUL, not once did the owner even come to show concern, a simple greet/ acknowledgment of customers which I found was rude because how would you know we were unsatisfied, upon leaving the same thing no “thank you for coming” or nothing.

Thirdly the food… look I’m west African myself and I have Ghanaian friends and aunties but the food was just not what I expected, the so called “peanut and fufu” NOTHING like what I imagined, where was the peanut ? And the bofrot was NOTHINGGG like what I know it to be. Just shocking, only eating coz we’re paying our money not because we liked the food.

Atmosphere I gave 2 stars because it shows the culture but overall just awful service and experience, left so disgusted because waste of money. Definitely will NOT be returning. I had high hopes because I know and love my people food and culture but idk...

I have never given a bad review before but this was not a good experience. I am always trying new resteraunts in this area and have never had a bad experience. I ordered a half chicken in a peanut sauce at $19 , a whole chicken was $39. the young lady told me they had changed the dish and it was now peices. I said sure. It took more than an hour to come and I felt sorry for the lone cook.but no communication. my drink didnt come and as I was about to leave as I thought I would not see any food. Three chicken wings turned up, I am not sure if something was wrong? but paid for a dish with half a chicken..sounded great in the description...but I received a $8 average entree after more than an hour. I had had been fasting all day and was so hungry I had to but some shitty Macca' to fill up (which I never...