Kemi's African Kitchen — Restaurant in Grand Prairie

So I'm going to be very honest! I hope the restaurant makes the right changes with their seasonings and assist the chef with how Nigerian sauces are cooked.

I live 25 -30 mins away from the restaurant. No form of delivery service was available to my area, so I was forced to drive there. I ordered 3 types of meals; Fufu and egusi platter with goat meat, Whole Tilapia & Fried Plantains, Ogbono sauce & Goat meat.

The Egusi was terrible! (ZERO STARS) It only took one bite, and i almost stood up, but i was famished. The more i ate, the more it was obvious how terrible it was. It tasted bitter & sour. It did not seem to have any form of crayfish & seasonings typical with egusi. It tasted like an excess amount of canned tomato sauce(usually sour in taste), dry pepper, egusi, salt & vegetable oil were the only present ingredients in it. It was awful! The stew from the goat meat was not any better. It also tasted like they only used canned tomato sauce, salt, oil, and some weird spice. It was sour and very lacking in flavor. The meat did not taste like goatmeat and was very overcooked. The sauce entirely lacked all things Nigerian about it. It tasted like an experiment without a West African cooking background! I will revamp what i just could not continue to eat when I get home!! Basically, the Egusi sauce needs just a little blend fresh tomatoes with lots of bell peppers and other peppers of choice and onions, dry whole& ground crayfish, shredded dry/smoked fish, shredded Norwegian stock fish, fermented locust beans, fresh palmoil, good bouillon cubes, beef stock and dawa-dawa to start with.

The Ogono smells legit, but I have not tasted it or the extra goatmeat i bought in it. I will taste it tomorrow and give an update.

The tilapia itself was very nice and well baked or grilled. The sauce on it, however, tasted sour but with a little more flavor than the previous sauces. The plantains were mostly fried alright but could use less heat and more cooking, so it cooks all the way through in the oil. (2 STARS)

Both the customer service I received over the phone and in person were impeccable!! The lady who attended to me was attentive, kind, professional, and respectful, and service was fast! (5 STARS)

The area the restaurant is located in is very nice, and the atmosphere in the restaurant was good. (4 STARS)

Would I go back there? Not for the stew or Egusi. But for the excellent customer service I received, I'm willing to give other...

If there were 0 rating options that's what I would have given this restaurant, first they need to work on their customer service which is worse than poor, it's so bad I had to bite my tongue to not say anything for the sake of my husband. In the middle of taking our order a lady from the kitchen (one of the cook came out and gave a cell phone to our waiter and told her the person on the phone wants to place an order) to my greatest suprice the waiter did not even tell us to excuse her, she stopped taking our order while still standing in front of us, she spent about 6mins taking the order over the phone (right in front of us) then when she was done she said ''oh sorry where was i'' i then asked her the same question which I had asked her previously before she got on the phone about whether or not they put butter in their jollof rice as some people make jollof with butter and that my daughter is allergic to dairy product so I can order something else for her, she said no they don't put butter, but about an hour later after consuming the jollof rice my daughter started having diarrhea. Also my husband ordered the fufu platter in which they brought the soup but not the fufu, we waited about 5min then called her and she went and picked it up on the window where it has being sitting for a while.... her excuse was ''sorry we have been really busy'' (i thought wow with only 2 customers in the restaurant and some orders over the phone, wouldn't common sence tell you to pay full attention to the customers in front of u). If it was only me, I wouldn't have spent 10mins, from when the waiter decided to stop taking my order with no courtesy I would have walked out before she got off the phone, and the worse part was my husband even gave them a tip. How do you expect your business to grow when you treat your customers with no courtesy or respect, just because you are an African restaurant does not mean you need to behave as if you are still back home (your customers are from different backgrounds) try to have some degree of professionalism, these little things does not cost money but a change of attitude, this is pure common sence no...

I don't live in Grand Prairie but I go there often to have some Nigerian food (I am American) from Kemi's when I don't feel like cooking it at home or after church on some Sundays. It's about 30 minutes from where I live. Anyway, I had bad experiences there in the past but I try to give people another chance. Had better experiences when the order man is there. Today was the worst experience I had at that place that will never make me come back there again let alone bring my family or friends there. The people that work there today were far from courteous to us. They didn't even pay attention to me or my husband. He had to call them and we didn't get menus like others nor were we greeted. The experience was very uncomfortable and they didn't have what my husband wanted yet we stayed and still spent our money there. The food was skimpy and I had to ask for more rice. We were given dirty utensils and when my husband asked for clean one's; one of te servers sitting down at the table next to us with his legs crossed and playing with his cell said, "I'm listening" in a rude manner before my husband could get the rest of his words out. The woman there was so rude talking on her earpiece to the point that I wanted to tell her about herself but I kept calm although they made me angry. I don't know what was their problem with us in particular but people like that will cause someone to loose customers and run their business unto the ground. You don't know who you could be serving and you should treat people how you want...