Afrique d'Lounge — Restaurant in Providence

After a long day at the beach the family was starving and we originally made plans for Capri seafood but my daughter saw Afrique and threw us a curve ball to stop here instead. I grew up as a kid in Africa, lived in London, England and now in New England US, and I guess I forgot about “African time”. It comes when it comes with no sense of urgency. The traffic and finding parking was horrendous but the wait time and overall experience was just as bad if not worse. We ordered the beef skewers after seeing all the images on Google reviews, the okra stew with fufu and peanut butter soup with fufu. 10 mins Later we get told there isn’t any okra stew, So we settle for the goat stew and asked if they can add some extra okra. Another 10 mins go by and We get told there isn’t any goat stew. At this point we’re scared to order in case it’s another long wait before being told no!! They assure us they have palm butter soup so we agree to it. People are coming in after us and being served which means they have food that is being re-heated, slapped on a plate and being served. We waited and then some more, and oh.. some more. We can see the waitresses getting mad at the kitchen for the abysmal service. At this point it’s been over an hour with literally nothing on the table. I would have served some complimentary yucca fries at this point if it was my customers especially if they had children like I did. Finally the beef kebab came out. Meat was chewy and 3 of the 5 pieces were just tendon and all my kids could do was chew and spit them out. The two soups came out and a small side of okra which was cold and looked like it was scraped from the bottom of some pot. It was absolutely disgusting. The flavor of the soups were okay but as thick as a 3 day old dish. I should know… I cook these dishes and they thicken over time. In the meantime the music has progressively gotten louder and louder and we’re desperate to get out. There was no chicken in the stews, just smoked turkey and absolutely no vegetables like the menu suggested. The fufu was the only thing palatable and you’ve got to be pretty damm bad to mess up something as simple as that. It was the worst, most disappointing decision we made coming here. I was just so grateful that my 5 year old slept through the whole visit and didn’t wake up or else she would have thrown the food across the room, which honestly is what it deserved. I love African food and cook it at home. My Indian family have grown to absolutely love it and to have this happen to them was an absolute shame and disappointment. I could only apologize to my family because we barely got an apology from the service. Never never coming back. Bad service, and bad old, over priced food that’s just...

On Feb. 2nd I placed an order over the phone for Jollof & Chicken. They told me they didn’t have chicken at the time so I settled for fish. I called at 9PM & when asking when it would be ready I was told 15-20mins. I arrived at 9:35 only to be told the food isn’t ready. I explained that I was in a rush & needed to be somewhere, but that I would return back. He seemed hesitant to let me leave so he went back to check on the food & he told me they were packing it up. Upon receiving the food & getting ready to pay I noticed that the Jollof Rice was cold. After telling the owner that it was cold he told me it was fresh & that he could go and heat it up. I told him no because I was in a rush and had to leave. I paid & left in disappointment.

I get home, heat up the Jollof, & began eating the food only to notice that the fish tasted a bit rubbery. After a few bites I knew something wasn’t right so I opened up the fish only to discover that it was undercooked. By this time it was around 11PM. That same night I had gotten in touch with the owner’s business partner to explain my poor experience & he told me the owner wanted to address the situation.

Because of work & other things I showed up 48 hours later explaining my experience & requested a refund. His response was that I should have returned that same night to return the food to get my refund. So basically come back before midnight. (Who in their right mind is coming back close to midnight to return food?) But then he went onto tell me that once the food leaves the restaurant there are no refunds??? He only apologized & said he will rectify the issue with his cook, but as far as a refund it won’t happen because as he put it if everyone else requested a refund he’d be out of business. So not only was my food late, half of it cold, but the fish was undercooked jeopardizing my health & he refused to do right by refunding my money. His only attempt at making things right was to offer me a discount on a future meal LOL. But would you return after such an experience? No.

I could go on with other things that were said but this review is already long enough. This was my 2nd experience with this restaurant. The first time I dined in & they were a good 30-40 mins late with my food & now this. I’ll never step foot back inside of this establishment & I don’t recommend anybody else either. I’ve attached a photo of the fish that was served...

Food is authentic and prices are a bit over priced. I order goat soup with fufu. The soup tasted good but the gave me 3 goat bones which I was not picking up with my hands at a restaurant. My fufu was lukewarm and my beef skewers that I ordered for an appetizer that came at the same time as my meal. So I was bombarded with many plates. I ended up putting my beef skewers in the goat soup to warm it up. My friends both picked jollof one with chicken one with snapper and they loved it! One order the shrimp with chips that presentation wasn't the best. I didn't get the combination of Fiesta chips and 3 pieces of shrimp... I believe that was $15... she had one and was all set she said it would be better serve over rice (sauce was thick). I wish they would slice the plant regularly to get even frying. The atmosphere, I would say you can go in jeans and sneakers. I wouldn't say classy or say date night spot. I would say you can go as you are. Restaurant not really upgraded like I thought it would be. Service was slowwwwww..... Servers really didn't understand their layout of tables. One lady in a blazer came to our table twice with 2 different plates asking if we order. The table that ordered waved her down. I will say the man in the burgundy suit jacket was making sure guest were seated, had water and was being served promptly. Drinks were good I had the gossip and switched out the orange juice for mango puree. That was the drink for everyone 2nd round. Hookah was $50... I think it was worth $40 and they are the 2nd expensive hookah spot on federal hill. Sage is first coming in at $60 and Bae also $50. All hookah spots using the same product. I purchased one to try it was fine. But one and done. I loved that they were able to split our bill on one receipt. They add gratuity for three people which more locations do it after 4 people.

Over all is the food good? Yes. Is the Entrée a good portion? Yes Appetizers a good portion? No Drinks good? Yes Hookah good? Yes but not for the price Parking good? No Service? Needs work Atmosphere: needs work

Would I go back? Only for take out or...