Kilimanjaro Snack House & Catering — Restaurant in Vancouver

One of the rare places to try a unique and rare cuisine - East African flavours influenced by Indian basics. The community is called Ismaili and they trace lineage to Aga Khan.

If you have been to Jambo Grill on Kingsway/Joyce, James, Simba, or Safari Snack House in Burnaby, you'll recognize some of the dishes. Although this is the simplest and no frills compared to those. No alcohol served here and the menu is heavier on snacks. Not as extensive on the grilled meats or kebabs as the other ones either. Staff is just friendly, but don't expect a detailed explanation of menu or ingredients or recommendations.

There is a constant stream of customers walk-in and phone orders, quite popular amongst the local East African population some of whom come from as far as Abbotsford or White Rock. Both snacks and mains have a rotation menu, so you'll have to ask the server for the same. All dishes are made daily and if its sold out, then no more. Recommended to come before noon.

Some of the rare dishes like khichdi kadi, karela, baingan bharta, daal rice, bhindi which are home comfort food (made in Indian homes on a daily basis). Plenty of traditional African recipes like kukupaka, mandazi, mishkaki, sambaro, and other lamb, beef, and chicken dishes also available. Desserts like gulab jamun and kulfi also served.

The chai was fantastic, just like back home. Mildly flavoured with cardamom. The bateta chop was hot and filled with meat. Served with coconut, tamarind, and hot chutneys.

3-4 tables with seating for 10-12 people. Cash and cards accepted. Washrooms available but it could be good if they keep the temperature cooler, it was quite hot because of the open kitchen. Also, this is probably not going to happen as it's an old school business, but tie-in with delivery apps will make their food more accessible to people around Vancouver, simply because not everyone can come to the restaurant every...

I asked my partner to pick up some food from here. based off the menu on their website I told him to order the spicy mogo (cassava fries) and daal with roti.

When my partner came home the order was totally not what I was expecting. The mogo was a large container of beef with mashed cassava and the daal was not yellow daal but rather split chana. When my partner asked for the spicy mogo the woman told him that they had chicken mogo and beef mogo, but were out of chicken, and she said they had one daal that came with roti and one daal that came with rice. This is completely inconsistent with when you order online, as it's very obviously the yellow daal and you are given the choice of rice or roti (it doesn't really make any sense why you can't just have your choice of any dish with your choice of rice/roti, they are all prepared separately), and the chicken/beef mogo dish isn't even listed. As well everything was ice cold, as it hadnt been made fresh but was instead made and refrigerated in the morning.

I walked all the way back to the restaurant with the unopened food to try to get my order corrected. The woman there refused to offer me any replacements, claiming that she was "not allowed" to accept returned food (obviously you can't re-use it, but restaurants take back incorrect orders all the time) but that if I wanted I could buy more food. When I then requested she just refund the order, she claimed the till was closed (how would I have ordered more food then?). She kept saying she explained everything to my partner but clearly the menu is poorly organized and inconsistent with what is shown on their own website, and she did not take the time to properly understand what my partner was asking for or explain anything to them.

Completely awful customer service, total lack of accountability, and lying/gaslighting. Total shame as I am a big fan of their menu but totally turned off by...

I didn't think this place would be good, because they do catering. My goodness was I wrong. First of all, they don't re-use any food from the previous day. So all the food is fresh. When dishes run out, if they cannot make them in time, they are simply unavailable. They also seem to be so popular that they are constantly busy, especially with take-away and catering orders. They obviously have a good reputation.

The indoor seating is okay, I think there were about three or four tables. The decor is simple, and it's not fancy inside, although that is my preference for restaurants.

The owner (?) lady was really nice and gave us a bunch of suggestions, as regards to which foods go together, and things we should try. She also told us the story of her family, and how they came to Canada and all that. I think they were Parsis who fled from Africa after the persecutions started. It was really cool to get such personal service.

The food, the food was incredible. All of the above stuff is good. But the food was amazing. I had a stew that was a little bit spicy and meaty, it had some mixed vegetables in it as well. I tried a bit of my cousin's soup, it was a coconut/meat broth, with some meat and other stuff in it, and it was even better than mine. They were both fantastic. We had many little side orders too, little cakes, and other stuff. It was all excellent.

This is one of my favourite restaurants in Vancouver, I can't wait to come back and...