Kendejah Restaurant — Restaurant in San Leandro

First time here or eating at any African restaurant. I've had Jollof rice and know that I love it so I looked for a place in the area. There is currently no dining in so it's either take out or if you're lucky you might get a seat at the table outside. We were about to leave when a lady sitting at the table told us she was just waiting for her order and we could eat there.

Thankfully we stayed. We have two orders of the jollof rice and chicken plate. The rice was very mild (could be their variation) and the chicken was tomatoey and tender, just delicious. Kinda reminds me of flavors I've had with Cuban stews which would make sense with the plantation workers (slaves) that were brought to S. America and the Caribbean. Came with fried plantains as well. Ask for hot sauce which is made with Habaneros, he warned us it was hot but I could spread it all over my food, loved it.

One person had the potato leaves with chicken and turkey. It doesn't photograph well, most leafy stews don't regardless of ethnicity but it was also delicious, especially if you like that kind of dish. You can find similar textures in dishes made with taro leaves, malungay, and others like it.

Lastly one ordered the fried Snapper and it was expertly prepared. Crisp skin and moist tender meat. You get a whole fish. Sorry for the photo, it was covered with some veggies and I couldn't move them as it wasn't my dish but it is definitely also worth ordering.

Would definitely come here again if in the area. We all live across the bay but we will all remember...

Atmosphere: is outdoors only couple tables. Service: is quick & fast. The food.... The oxtail is good not much flavor no spices. One single dish will run you $25 that comes with 4 pieces of oxtail and 75% of the dish is rice. You're practically buying a dish of rice at this point. Rice has no flavor every mouthful you have, it tastes like a cardboard box, it's unappetizing eating it at this point. They have a bigger size with 8 pieces of oxtail, I can only imagine the price.

I would rather drive to San Jose and check out the "Back-a-yard Caribbean grill" The oxtail has flavor the rice has flavor, they have different levels of spices, it comes with 2 pieces of jerk chicken, it has 4 or more pieces of oxtail, it has a decent amount of rice, it comes with plantains I could get all of that plus a drink for the exact amount I spent without a drink & it's the same size as the bowl that holds 8 pieces of oxtail at Kendejah restaurant.

I had high expectations because of the reviews and it didnt wow me at all. The oxtail was good but just no flavor the rice wasn't good at all.

Not saying I won't be back at Kendejah restaurant. maybe today was just one of those days that they didn't put too much work in or was missing stuff.

But for now I'm fine with driving 47min to get some delicious oxtail with jerk chicken combination at that...

Four of us went to Kendejah a week ago on Sunday. None of us had ever had Liberian food before, but we ate and cook all sorts of ethnic food at home and with friends. We ordered okra with smoke chicken & turkey, collard greens with smoke chicken, Jallof rice with chicken stew, and plantains. OMG, all these dishes were VERY different from any food we had before. The tenderness of meat and subtlety of flavor in the stew /soup reminded me a little bit of Persian food. Tasty and not overly spiced. Smoke chicken and turkey had smoky flavor but too strong. Just perfect! Jallof rice has black beans and other vegetable mixed in and it's very flavorful. The owner gave us 'the sauce' that we can mix with any dish in case we like to add extreme spiciness to the dishes. He warned us to be careful with 'the sauce'. He was right :-) You won't be disappointed with Kendejah and you will definitely have plenty to eat. We plan to go back there again in a month....