Africana bowl restaurant — Restaurant in Springfield

I happened to see a Facebook ad while I was in MA for Christmas so I stopped by to try it out.

The restaurant is in an easy to find place with street parking. I was pleasantly surprised to find the food was displayed cafeteria style (yay for no wait!) and everything was right there in front of me to help with my indecision. However, though displayed cafeteria style, they serve it based on a set menu (which was only available online when I visited). My suggestion is to have a way to charge for side items- I ended up paying for the whole efo riro dish even though I just got a fraction of it to go with my rice dish.

The food was incredible. Best Nigerian food I have had in recent times. I got a mix of the jollof and fried rice, with goat meat, fried plantain and efo riro. I took a bite of the efo riro first and knew instantly I had made a good decision to eat there that day. The food was so good that my spouse and I had dinner from there the next night.

The interior is not very assuming and there is little room for dining in- so plan on taking out especially if you have a big party. But don’t sleep on Africana Bowl and tell all your friends and family. The service was great and the food is amazing. I am sad I can’t eat there as often as I would like (every day) but I will be back as often as I am back in Agawam to...

Yea these reviews lying…. It smelled like cheese and I don’t remember cheese being an ingredient for ANY of these dishes. It was cold when they arrived because it was not cooked fresh. I got it door dashed, called 2 seconds after ordering and they were “already bagging it” when I just placed the order. Their doordash is all unorganized. For example: they have the same thing on there 3 times with 3 different prices so be careful. It doesn’t taste good at all. I felt like puking as I ate. The pounded yam didn’t even taste like pounded yam… ehhh? How is that possible? If you have ever had fufu in ct or Hadley just keep going there. Just all together not it.

Edit: I saw them say that they’re cheap compared to other restaurants 😭😭😭 this is the MOST I’ve spent on egusi and swallow and I didn’t even have the option to choose what I wanted. Like I said in ct or Hadley you can get an assorted amount of meats in it or your choice for the same price or less. I didn’t even know what meat I was...

i was really excited to try this restaurant, since i’ve never had west african food before.

i placed an online order for egusi soup and vegetable soup a couple weeks ago, around 1 hour and 15 minutes before close. once we arrived at 6:50, the person working (owner?) seemed surprised to see us, since they didn’t receive an online order. we waited another 15-20 minutes for the food. they didn’t have egusi, so we got the okra soup instead.

unfortunately, we found the food to be inedible. both soups had lots of bones, and kind of a weird, rancid flavor. i’m not sure if there’s supposed to be bones though, because i’ve never had this style of african food. the fufu was good and fresh, but the rest of the food was thrown in the trash after a couple bites :(

i’m leaving two stars because i think this could have been our fault for placing the order so late. i just think for these prices the food should have...