Fusion Afro Caribbean Cafe & Restaurant(African & Caribbean Dishes) — Restaurant in Sydney

Feeling like some Jerk Chicken we looked up what was available in the Parramatta area and found Fusion Afro Caribbean Cafe & Restaurant. The reviews were very good and it encouraged hubby and I to try it.

It’s located near Clyde train station, an unusual location, kind of industrial, and honestly a bit out of the way and weird especially at night, but food here is worth it.

There’s funky music playing through the speakers and the owners, Abigail and Abubakarr are there in the open kitchen to greet everyone with a friendly smile.

We sat in the outdoor area with lots of large potted palms and ordered Jollof Rice and Fish, Jerk Chicken with Rice and Peas, Seasonal Mixed Vegetables plus fried Plantain and some home made Ginger Beer.

The whole fish was fried without any kind of breading and we loved it. Cooked to perfection, with the exterior nicely browned and inside the white flesh still juicy and tender. It matched well with the red, smokey, and well seasoned Jollof Rice which was deliciously spicey, but not hot. Jollof Rice is such comfort food and a treat when done well and this was exactly that. There was a type of tomato and onion based sambal on the side to have with it. Sweet, tasty and seasoned well. The mixed vegetables were sautéed and still had that nice firm bite which keeps the flavour.

The Jerk Chicken was delicious too! Cooked to retain juiciness and seemed like it was finished over charcoal, we weren’t sure, but man it was good. It had a mouthwatering smokiness that keeps you coming back for more and it comes with a generous serve of the famous, rich, sweet, salty, spicy sauce which provides a wonderful kick of flavor that takes your tastebuds on an adventure. Wow and Yum! Served with rice and peas, ( the peas being a type of kidney bean and full of flavour).

We also had fried plantains that were cooked to caramelized perfection. Fantastic.

And that homemade ginger beer. O M G sooooo good. I’ve never had ginger beer like this before. Sweet and power packed full of ginger punch. Refreshing and alive. Come onnn.

I want the recipe!! In fact I want the recipe for it all. But second thoughts, no, why cook when we can come back here where it’s done just right.

You know what’s gonna happen if Abigail and Abubakarr keep this up … they will have to hire more people and make even more food cause for sure they will sell out when it’s this good. And then they’ll probably move… so you better get in quick.

Total cost: $98 for two. Fish and rice-$35, Chicken and rice- $30, Veg x2 - $16, Ginger Beer - $5 and other drink - $5 Plantain - $7

Give them a visit and taste for yourself. They’re at 1/13...

Sometimes the best things get relegated to the most liminal of spaces. You’ll find Fusion Afro Caribbean Cafe & Restaurant at the end of a dead end street in an industrial estate that backs onto the railway line. Fringing palms and African music—like the popular Nigerian hit, ’Soweto’—make the dining area quite pleasant, well when trains aren’t thundering past. It’s a one-man affair, with owner/chef Abu Koroma also working the floor. With an empty restaurant, Koroma took the time to explain that he cooked for the BBC in London, before making his way to our shores.

His menu is a mash-up of African and Caribbean dishes. Some, like jerk chicken and joloff rice, will probably be familiar. Others, like mio mio ($8), I’d never seen on a Sydney menu before. It’s a Nigerian steamed pudding made from black eyed beans ground to a fine paste. They’re whizzed up with onions, dried crayfish, oil and other seasonings then steamed, taking on the shape of whatever mould the mixture was poured into. Topped with fresh tomato, mio mio is tasty and compelling, particularly against house-made chilli sauce that hits like a snakebite.

From Koroma’s country of birth, Sierra Leone, he presents rice akara ($10). These sweet plantain and rice flour dumplings are fried until darkly caramelised then served with a gentle, Sierra Leone onion gravy. Their banana and nutmeg notes go well with sharp and spicy glasses of icy, house-made ginger beer ($10/each). The same sweetish onion gravy sits over fluffy, fermented cassava in Attiéké ($35), a Côte d'Ivoire dish. Alongside the cassava, which functions a bit like cous cous, this plate includes a whole, deep-fried fish, fried ripe plantain, crisp salad, and a pot of mayonnaise for dipping. We contrast it with suya meat ($30)—Nigerian barbeque—a sizzling platter piled high with hunks of (sometimes bone-in) steak dusted in suya spice, washed onions and fresh tomato. The red-hued spice blend is nutty (from peanuts) and hot (from red chillies) with hints of garlic, onion, ginger and cloves. Be adventurous: there’s plenty...

ONE MAN SHOW cooking up an African & Caribbean feast!

Fusion Afro Caribbean Galeeran few and There's not much going on at Clyde. It's an outdated train station, but

One sign should catch your eye if you're traveling past on the train. It reads "Fusion Afro Caribbean Cafe & Restaurant". Now PLEASE if you come here, be mindful that it's a one-man show and it'll be a wait for food. That one man is Abu. He's from Sierra Leone in West Africa and spent some time working in corporate kitchens in London before moving to Sydney.

You can find Abu's restaurant at the front end of an industrial complex building, right next to the train station. "Why Clyde?" we asked. "That's all I could afford". "Why African and Caribbean?" "That's what I love to cook". It was just us eating there that night, a group of seven hungry hippos ready to have Abu rock our world so we ordered just about everything that sounded cool on the menu. The dishes are mainly West African (think Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast). There's a bit of Jamaican razzle-dazzle too.

We started with some strong-hit gingerbeer and mio mio, a steamed bean pudding that has a delightful crab/crustacean taste. Then we moved on to spiced suya meat served on a sizzling plate and a couple of mains. The jerk chicken came most recommended by Abu. The sauce is a bit sweeter than a version I once tried in NYC, but the chicken's nice. My favorite two dishes here were the egusi and the cassava leaves. Shout out to West Africa and their incredible stews. Lots of spices, lots of flavors, and golly they're good! Personally wasn't huge on the fufu here though, which tasted wholemeal-ish. I much preferred slopping the egusi over the jollof rice even though it might not be traditional. We ordered some fried fish too (thumbs up) and Attacker, a cassava couscous from Sierra Leone! The serving size of the mains is huge, and hence all are appropriately priced at $30+. All could feed 2 or more each. We didn't follow that suggestion when we ordered though

Expect to...