Afrikana Restaurant Cardiff — Restaurant in Wales

A no-go, utter disappointment. Resisted this place long enough until I gave into the hype. First of all, the ambience is unbearable, think Nandos with music twice as loud and awful that you'd struggle to even read the menu in your head. The seating arrangements are very squashed so it's not an ideal location for families with young children/prams or large gatherings. What appeared to be the supervisor/senior was not very welcoming as we were stood like lemons waiting to be seated, it seems we were only asked 'are you okay there' as an afterthought (and by then we'd been walked past a few times. Granted it was busy but it's not hard to acknowledge someone). The interior design is painfully, almost begging to come across as ethnic but with the finesse and style a GCSE student would have on an art project they did over night - tacky to say the least.

The food is... Well, considering this place is called 'Afrikana', it was some the most bland and unflavoured chicken I've ever had in my life. The cheese and butterfly chicken had no substance, portion size and price was fair/okay but the most flavour I had were the two small bits of red chilli. I even asked for the hot Afrikana sauce, but couldn't feel a thing on my tongue. I've had more kick out of a KFC Zinger fillet. Rice didn't have much flavour at all, my mother had the 3 stack fillet burger and it got worse from thereon.

Each fillet was so overcooked that it was almost impossible to actually bite into any chicken, and, when you did, surprise, it was as bland as a mid-day Television (think bargain hunters). It was so bad we had to take it back to the kitchen, thankfully the staff agreed it wasn't up to standard and swapped it with a goat curry. That was made relatively quick and was actually much better than our first two dishes, however as much as it was tastier, it was nothing special - I wouldn't go back or recommend going for the goat curry, you're better off with an Indian takeaway.

Cannot deny that the waitress serving us was a gem, very polite and helped us out with our meal, couldn't get her name but was a young lady with blonde hair. Top marks for her service.

All in all, avoid this place. Unless you need a pretentious settings to satisfy your pretentious...

Gotta say, was a complete coincidence I ended up here with my friend last night. We were looking for something specific, and we found it at Afrikana. First off just looking in from outside was beautiful, it was later at night around 9pm, the entrance, lights dimmed, light but clear music, great songs, with the badass romantic fire spread around, spacious area with tables and tastefully spread out, honestly it immediately won me and my friends favour for the evening. We just looked at each other and were like "this is the one". We were in dressed up vibes and we wanted a place that reflected that, not one of our regular hang outs.

We had a lovely table by the fire, it was private, intimate and beautiful without being too much, definitely giving a salute to whoever is in charge of layout.l, well done.

The food was absolutely delicious. Honestly everything on the menu sounded like something I wanted a piece of, but money talks 🤣 and I don't have much of it so had to be selective. For starters we had Nachos and Lady fingers, with complimentary olives 😋 absolutely yum, at first I thought it would be too much with the mains but honestly went down really nicely, while keeping my appetite gearing up for the next round ❤️‍🔥 For mains we had Jamming Jambalaya and the Salmon Cure, another salute this one to the chefs 👌 we enjoyed it immensely, great atmosphere great food, always a tasteful combination.

I have to give a special thanks for the drinks, I loved that they had alternatives to the usual. As a firm believer in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, I always love to see it in action. We enjoyed a tasty salam cola and a couple chaps freshers, if I hadn't already drank so much I would've definitely had a karma cola. Service was brilliant have to say, yet another salute this time to service staff ❤️ they made sure we had everything we needed. Very charming, very helpful, would for sure recommend this restaurant and will be visiting again.

Thanks for a...

We booked a table for 4 people over the phone and were told to mention a staff members name when coming in. Came to the restaurant and was told we had to wait another 30 mins for a table?? Apparently there was no record of the booking?

When ordering, the waiter asked what sided we wanted with our mains. We were offered things like Mac and Cheese, Fries and Cheese on our burger, not to mention the 'fries onions' more like Burnt to a crips onions

After getting the bill, we were charged for our 'sides' although they should have been included in the mains or at least informed us it was extra. My gf asked or the spices sauce they offered with her burger and it was just sweet and not even spicy. The platter was sweet, as well as my wrap. All foods were too sweet just enhanced bbq sauce flavour. £90 for that food. Joke.Overprices as hell.

Not to mention, 3 teenage staff workers were wearing long nails which is against health regulation, as it can cause cross contamination. Also the waiting kept trying to force us to leave by taking our plates away even thought we were still eating. They kept coming back and forth 4-5 time in the span if 10 mins. They shouldn't even be taking plates away whilst eating without asking. Lack of training, hire monkeys, you get monkeys. Finally, when we got the bill from one of staff, another staff not even within 20 secs asked ready to pay? I hadn't even checked the bill yet.

I also noticed some of the staff were not wearing masks as well as the kitchen people. Not like there is deadly virus going around or anything? Not even a sanitising station around.

People who go to this place, better check their bill as this company are charging for things that not even being mentioned by staff. With the army of staff they have, they won't last. Disgrace.

Too dark to even read the menu and the deco is so cheap and all from...