Ambiente Africa — Restaurant in Stuttgart

I was very excited to try this restaurant, and my initial impressions were positive - the creative decorations, the nice outdoor seating, the fun bathroom. However everything went downhill from there.

They would not provide tap water, which I had forgotten some European restaurants do. 1 L jar of (probably just tap) water was slightly more than €5. I also got guava juice for €3, which they somehow turned into diluted guava-wannabe-soda (1/10 guava and rest flat sparkling water). However, when I pointed out I had originally asked for plain guava juice, they did quickly exchange it out for the correct drink.

We ordered 4-5 vegetarian dishes, a chicken dish (51, which she said could only come with sweet potato), and 3 appetizers along with 3 injera sides. The waitress left with our order, only to come back 10 minutes later telling us they ran out of injera. I didn't even know it was possible for Eritrean restaurants to do that without just closing their doors for the day. It's like a Chinese restaurant running out of rice. If we had known, we would have just left and gone to one of the other many Eritrean restaurants in the area. However, having sat down, gotten drinks, and already ordered, we decided to just switch to different starch, ordering couscous and some potato pudding side.

The appetizers (barley pudding and couscous with yogurt) came out on banana leaves and were quite yummy. We were very excited for the rest of the meal despite the lack of injera.

However, when my meat dish came out, it was an absolute disappointment. I'd asked for spicy, and it was definitely not spicy enough. The fried sweet potatoes it came with were soggy, nothing special, and didn't particularly go well with the dish (I think I would have preferred couscous or even the mashed potatoes to better soak up the stew). The worst part was how over cooked the chicken was. Chicken is the easiest meat to cook tenderly, yet they managed to make it a chewy, stringy mess. When I ate down the stew, the bottom bit was also so salty I had to give it to my husband to eat with an extra order of couscous he had ordered.

The vegetarian dishes that had to be eaten with non-injera was a mess. They put everything on the starches we ordered, which just meant all the starches were hidden and one of the dishes had no easily accessible starch to eat it with. The lack of injera also meant there was really nothing to mop up all the liquid that sloshed off the couscous and potatoes. And I have no idea what was in the vegetarian tasting platter, but it was not enough for 6 people to share and try a bit of everything - everyone missed out on something (for example, my husband was the only one to be able to try the single piece of potato sampler on the platter).

We ended up spending €100+ for 6 people to get moderately full. Not a great deal for food that was partially great, partiality bad, and mostly just OK. Having had Ethiopian (similar to Eritrean) in DC, SF, and London, where they have never, ever run out of injera, and where they could cook decently tender meat, this was definitely a...

Worth the trip! I would eat here again. There are so many options and combinations of meals you cannot do them all in one sitting! They spent the time to get the decor and the food right. There are three sections of the restaurant 1) “normal” inside seating 2) outside seating 3) authentic seating. The authentic seating is when there is a dirt floor. It sounds bizarre but it is really cool, there is even a section where you sit on pillows on the floor. Bring your sense of adventure, an empty stomach, and cash (because they didn’t take cards) and enjoy yourself. They have North, East, and West African dishes. You can request Injera bread, couscous, and a few other options included with your meal. I had the Guava Beer and enjoyed it, my wife had the Mango beer but would not recommend it. Note: onions are a part of cooking, if you have an onion aversion, let them know so they can recommend something that will leave...

The service was so caothic that it reached the kitchen, undermaintaned restaurant and even thou the service was friendly had absolutely no idea what they were doing. The drinks came after the appetiser and that was just cause I remind the waiter we did not get them(when it should be something you will noticed when you get look at the table). Vorspeise that was injera was very good. Unluckily the waiter mixed the orders. I ordered a vegetarian non spicy and my boyfriend Lamm spicy. My vegetarian was extremely spicy and the Lamm not spicy at all, what left me without dinner. We both ordered same drinks and he got a huge cup and I got a tinier one. Same price thou. We will not come back or recommend it. Table next to us got the food cold and had to order twice the food and three times the drinks. Again please get better stuff is not fair for the kitchen for what I ate it was tasty and nice. This food deserves...