Joe & Nya African Restaurant — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Ordered a large takeout order from Joe & Nya last weekend to feed a reunion of folks that had once traveled in Ghana together (so have experienced excellent West African cooking!). The owner was incredibly helpful on the phone, recommending lots of different dishes that I would not have necessarily picked out, and those ended up being some of our group's favorites!

The jollof rice was a standout, with a pretty decent amount of kick to it (made the Minnesotans in our group sweat!). Chicken wings were simple but moist and well cooked. The sambusas were phenomenal, and our group especially loved the palm butter and fufu (we got it with chicken) -- it wasn't something we were familiar with but was the #1 dish everyone kept going back for more.

We had to wait a bit for our order, but it was a large one and the in store staff was super attentive the whole time, and we weren't in a rush. The guests I chatted with while waiting also very clearly love the restaurant and the way the owner is building community (one patron, originally from Guinea, told me while I waited that it was the first restaurant he'd been to in Minnesota that truly reminded him of home -- both in terms of food and community).

There's a very limited amount of West African food in the south metro, but its such a delicious cuisine and Joe and Nya's is an excellent addition. I can't wait to share it with...

I ordered here through uber. I ordered the kettle Torborgee, Palava sauce, and goat meat pepper soup with pepper Kala. When the driver got there they food wasn’t ready, he waited for 20 minutes. They told him they didn’t have the pepper Kala. Substituted for the fried plantains instead. When the driver arrived, they didn’t give him my full order. To be precise, my palava sauce was missing. I called the driver and her said whatever they gave him is what he delivered. So I called the restaurant and reported the incident and the lady was sounding as if the uber driver stole my food and I told her no, that he didn’t do such. She apologized and told me that when her driver gets back, she will have him drop off my food. That never happened and she never called back to say she was unable or anything like that. Besides not getting my full order, the food was terrible. The goat pepper soup was like someone just took tomatoes paste, added meat and water then they actually have a slice of raw tomato in the soup. No peppers or seasoning whatsoever. The kettle Torborgee didn’t have any soda or any seasoning at all. The only thing that tasted good was...

So there I was at work looking on DoorDash trying to figure out what am I going to eat! I came across this delicious delightful restaurant.

I’m really skeptical about eating African food due to my allergies, but I LOVE IT and said hey it looks really good so Im give it a try. AND BOYYYY DO I TELL YOU I AM GLAD I DID!!!

I ordered the Spinach soup with rice and it was so good and spicy. Have you ever taste something so spicy and flavorful that it took your breath away and you end up coughing, yep that was this, it was soooooo good and it was a good flavorful spice. Although I had ate half the food already 🤣I did called to ask what kind of oil was used in the dish due to my allergies. It did say on DoorDash that it’s made in red oil but I had to make sure cause my allergic ain’t no joke.

Anywho, the lady was EXTREMELY SWEET AND HELPFUL. She told me what kind of oil it was and its original name. Ensuring me it was ok to eating. Bless her heart, she was SOOOOO SWEET and VERY APPRECIATIVE ! 😇

I’m about to be greedy just cause and order something else. 🤣🤣

Go check them out it’s definitely worth it....