Bala's Bistro — Restaurant in Memphis

Before I came to Bala’s Bistro, I used to think that African food consisted mainly of injera and a variety of vegetarian dishes with the occasional meat dish paired with the whole ensemble. However, after tasting some of the food in the buffet area, I must say that West African cuisine is a LOT more diverse and flavorful contrary to what I originally thought of it as.

For one, the seafood dish with mussels and shrimp, which is my favorite of the ones that I’ve tried so far, reminded me of a similar one that I ate in Paris, France with my family while enjoying a high school graduation summer trip.

Two, the mashed plantain dish reminded me of Japanese mochi because of its smooth, starchy, bland texture (I’d honestly would either add more salt or pepper to it or mix it with other dishes to enjoy the most out of the dish).

Three, the baobab drink had the appearance of Mexican horchata, but the taste of starchy lychee mixed with coconut, which I liked once I gave it a chance to make it a part of my pallet, ha ha!

So yeah, while West African cuisine is about as healthy as Ethiopian and Middle Eastern cuisines, it is also just about as flavorful and exciting as Indian and French cuisines.

While I wouldn’t pay $20 or more to eat food from a buffet ($9 a pound is honestly a LOT for buffet food), overall, I had a great time trying the different dishes and drinks. I love seeing how everyone at the restaurant wants you to open up your tastebuds to new flavors. I’m especially grateful to Eryn Rodgers for introducing this restaurant on her “Eryn Eats” show.

I would love to come back and try more foods and drinks if ever I am back exploring the Whitehaven area during...

Let me start off by saying the food is good here. We've been here 4 times an normally order from the buffet. Let me tell you why we won't come again(we come from Arkansas) We ordered from the end today 2 lamb an beef okra stew. Extra stew. Which was supposed to be $16 each an maybe an extra $3 a piece for rhe extra. She charged us $49.00 for both stews. I explained that the price wasn't right an we didn't order from the buffet. She tells us it needs to be weighed if we want extra(never happened before) I tell her we didn't order an extra meal, we just ordered an extra scoop each an if she was gonna charge the buffet price, she should've told us that up front. Their attitudes were horrible today. The girl that fixes the food was huffing an puffing at all the customers that she serves before us. I asked for the manager. She said "he's at home an I can call him if you want me too" I said, please do. I explained the situations ro him. At first he was like "you paid how much". He was shocked. The He goes to say oh, the buffet charges by the pound. I explained again that we didn't order from the buffet. Anywho long story short, he didn't try ti fix it either. We went ahead an paid because we drove 40 minutes to get there. We will find another African restaurant because we won't be coming here anymore‼️ Everyone loves my Google reviews an when I find another restaurant I will update an let...

The food was amazing! So, I came here in August of 2023 and specifically hunted down a place that served African cuisine because there's nothing like it where I'm from . I live about 1000 miles away in Albuquerque, NM where we baaaaarely got out first Ethiopian place in the last 5 years, so I knew that if I was traveling out of state, I had to find African food to try somehow. I couldn't be happier. I don't know what other African restaurants taste like, but I do know that the food at Bala's was a whole experience of flavor! The staff was also super friendly! Like, clearly, just wonderful kind people keeping their culture alive with food and bringing a bit of their home all the way to Memphis. The hardest thing was convincing myself not to order the whole menu. And the coconut baobab juice was to die for! Like I tried it and then immediately called my mom to tell her about how good it was (and to make her jealous). Like I said, this is the only African food I've ever tasted (that wasn't Ethiopian) but I, at least, now know what good African food tastes like so that if a restaurant ever does open up in Albuquerque, I'll know what flavors to look for. Thank you Bala's for an unforgettable experience and for making delicious food. If I'm ever back in Memphis, you can bet I'll be coming back to...