Appioo African Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Washington

We came here today looking forward to authentic Ghanian food as the reviews were 4 stars we ordered Fufu with Goat soup and Yam and Spinach Stew.

The first impression was good the waitress was nice and the location was inviting but there was no food menu you had to look it up online ,food arrived after 65min but no one informed us about the delay we were told 10 min more after 30 min.

Food was good I would give it 4 from 5 stars but once it got to the table we did not get a bowl of water to wash our hands we had to wait 10 min more before we got one and the waitress took the bowl from a different table replaced the water without properly cleaning the bowl.

I felt the waitress was overwhelmed and did the best she could but the gentleman who I assume was the owner was not really hands on.

We asked him for the bowl and he referred to the one Waitress that was busy we asked for the bill he did the same by referring to the busy waitress I think it’s important as a small business owner to be more hands on and make sure service is up to par and help out when it’s needed.

During our visit we saw many frustrated guests who kept asking for their orders and DoorDash employees who left without taking the orders. Tables where left uncleared and a group of 4 was standing for 15min before anyone attended to them.

As I was getting frustrated with the service and mentioned that the service was poor the gentlemen possibly the owner approached me angrily and annoyingly told me why I am insulting them and being rude by saying the service is poor, as they are we’re doing the best they can and that they are overwhelmed.

I was expecting him to apologize for the wait or explain the delay of the food but he rather was being combative and he didn’t seem to think there was any improvements to be done but this is what I think:

I can see from the reviews that the service is generally slow not just today so why not improve efficiency?

on Weekends why not have more then 1 waitress and if one falls trough as the manager or owner why not be more hands on and help on the floor ?

have more water bowls available or already keep them on the table with a water flask that way waiters don’t have to additionally bring them to the table

not a must but offer a physical menu

inform guests about long waiting times of food let them know it will take 30 to 60 min or more

it’s important to remember that paying guests should be treated well you do not have to tolerate disrespect but a customer telling you that the service is poor should not be considered as an insult but rather a feedback to be taken seriously.

Fazit: Food is good , service could be much improved don’t go there if you have an...

So for graduation I decided to celebrate with family and friends at this quaint ASo for graduation I decided to celebrate with family and friends at this quaint AFRICAN restaurant in Washington DC. I knew the service was not optimal but the food and ambiance were great; not stuffy and great African music. In addition, I decided if I’m spending money I might as well support a local African business.

Man!!!! Let me first start with the good; the food, music and ambiance were great. The service was a complete disaster. First, when we got there the tables were not ready despite the fact that I gave them an hour heads up. The waiter failed to order drinks for my guest. I had to “encourage” them to make haste on the order. In addition to the initial drinks debacle, the waiter got the drinks orders wrong for many of my guest. Second debacle, I ordered appetizers for my guest which were great but there was no one to clear the food from the table so my guest and I were sitting with plates of bones and things.

Back to the drinks. After 2 hours of conversation, laughter and a somewhat good time, the waiter proceeds to go around the table to ask my guest about their drink order; “Excuse me, I can’t remember your drink order? what is your name and what did you order to drink?”

Back to the food. The menu was never presented to my guest. I had to retrieve it, myself. Half of my guest ordered food from the menu which never came. In addition the ones that came were incomplete. For example, one of my guest ordered snapper which comes grilled or fried with jollof. My guest was served one dry fried fish with nothing else.

To top in off, when I question the owner about my bill and indicated this was not what we agreed to, he had the audacity to tell me he was doing me a favor. Now, on average this place does only 8 people at one time and I had about 24 guests. How I did him a favor is beyond me. Long story short I show him the communication where we agreed on a certain price and he shamefully complied.

The owner really did himself a disservice because he lost so much money by not having an adequate and efficient staff. It’s really unfortunate because the spot is...

I was extremely disappointed in this establishment...not even sure where to start. My fiance is Ghanaian and had been craving kenkey and bitters since he arrived in the US so I thought we'd try this place. We got there a little after 6pm and sat at the bar. I ordered the kelewele to start....which came out slightly burnt and the plaintains werent very sweet but they somewhat tasted like the real thing so we obliged. I then asked about the happy hour menu. The bartender told us that all the drinks were $5. So my fiance ordered the bitters (2) and I ordered the rum punch and the black margarita. I watched the owner make the black margarita with Jack Daniels instead of Makers Mark as described on the menu and quickly asked him about it. He gave us some BS answer about Jack tasting better than Makers but any real drinker knows that's not true...we also know the price difference between the two so seemed like he was just being cheap... not wanting to argue we obliged once again. When the food came out...we were disapointed once again. The kenkey came out with 3 little pieces of fish instead of a whole fish and only one kenkey ball for $18. complete rip off. I ordered the spinach and fish, which was pretty good, but the jollof rice had to have been the plainest jollof rice Ive ever tasted... they probably shouldnt even call it that. The worst part was when the bill came and the owner didnt want to honor the happy hour prices that his waitress told us about. He pushed his waitress on us to discuss the matter while he sat across the bar and watched. He then has his waitress show us some happy hour list that we had never seen and the waitress said she had never seen. At the end he only honored the happy hour for 2 of the 4 drinks despite HIS employees mistake. I would love to support black/african businesses but until they start to understand that a good reputation is better than money they will never see their full potential.... I will never step foot in or support this business again. Very...