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The food at Nyala Ethiopian Restaurant is as exotic as the African continent itself, featuring a rich blend of spices. The décor is warm and bright, with festive Northeast African accents. Large groups can order the house specialty roasted-while-you-watch coffee.
I know I know when I think back to the evening it's hard to believe it all happened!
We took advantage of some coupons and were also greeted by the owner with a sour face. Not a good sign.
We ordered pakora which basically was individual pieces of tasteless deep fried battered veg. Not the usual flavourful combination of shredded veg.
My entre was the evening special of lamb tagine which was presented beautifully in a traditional tagine baking dish. However the lamb shank was tough with lots of fat and I could barely cut it with my knife. For $24.95 I expected better.
Service was lacking with having to ask the waitresses for numerous items they kept forgetting to bring to the table. Both looked like they'd much rather be somewhere else and it soon became evident why.
Our bill included a 15% gratuity of the amount before deducting the coupon which normally I'm quite ok with, however if you're automatically going to tack the gratuity on you better be prepared to deliver. So when service & food is sub par I prefer to be able to determine my own gratuity or at least be told it was included. Good thing we noticed it added to the bill or we would have tipped yet again.
Regardless we paid what was asked without saying anything which turns out to be a good thing as another couple were standing at the bar with the owner quietly voicing their concerns about this very practice of adding the gratuity to the owner who commenced yelling at them about a 15% tip being added to the bill in most restaurants nowadays. NOT! The customers remained speaking quietly while the owner kept on and on in a very loud voice. They finally left the restaurant at which point the owner yelled throughout the whole place that the customer a "cheap son of a B" to the absolute amazement of the remaining guests.
It was all quite unbelievable and such an inappropriate display of downright boorishness on the part of the owner that there is no way we will ever return.
I was reluctant to use a gifted Groupon for Nyala due to previous comments however we were delighted with this restaurant. The service was friendly and timely. The meals were wonderful, the lamb tagine was extremely tasty and the spicy prawns were in a delicious sauce with peppers and tomatoes. Accompanied by freshly cooked rice and a specialty bread, don't know the name but it was perfect for dipping in the amazing sauces.
We were given (on the house) some light and refreshing tabouleh salad with brown lentils also very nice.
Perhaps the prices seems a little high but there is no extra charge for accompaniments. I would definitely like to return as we were pleasantly surprised. Sorry no room for dessert as the portions were good. Thank you Nyala Restaurant for a very memorable meal.
Extremely slow service. We were there for a total of 115 minutes, and we had no appetizers or desserts.
The food tasted okay, but the prices were ridiculous, considering the portion sizes.
There was only one scatter-brained server who seemed to be the owner. He had no idea how to scan a barcode for the Groupon, and then yanked my phone away to mark it as used, and told me it was no good anymore. Water was never refilled.
I won't be going back there, because I don't want to spend 2+ hours waiting to eat half-decent food for way too much money.
Located along the trendy/hipster main strip, Nyala Restaurant serves the most delicious and varied African fare around town. It's owners are originally from Ethiopia but isn't afraid to cook up some tasty Tagines (Morocco), Borewor Kebabs (South Africa) and even some Calamari, Pakoras and Hummus (all part of the appetizer platter special). For first timers it is a chance to eat with your hands and not be worried that it's not appropriate. It's a fun place to bring a date or get together with the family (kids menu is available). Now the joint features many local and some international artists playing music most nights. Food was tasty, owners extremely friendly and I loved the background African music.
Have a good time and report back what you thought!
Used a groupon - maybe that was my first mistake. They obviously couldn't handle the wave of new business. I bought the coupon because I had a good experience before... but not this time.
Right from the start the service was slow and confusing. We stood at the door waiting to be seated but could see the servers delivering orders instead of acknowledging us. I finally asked, "Do we sit down wherever we want?" because I saw an empty table and she said "...No..." so we continued to stand there.
We ordered and started the waiting process. We could see other tables that were without food and the people looking bored, implying they'd been waiting a while. It took more than half an hour to get our main entrees (we didn't order any appies, but we did get a starter lentil salad) and my boyfriend's eyes bulged at how small the portions were, especially for that price. Meat was very very overcooked. My boyfriend wanted to dig in but I told him to wait for the wraps/bread... we waited and waited and watched our plate of wraps go to another table.
The bill was the real kicker. I was only planning on tipping MINIMAL for their slow and clueless service but they had already INCLUDED 15% tip, for TWO people - is that even allowed?? I was peeved but didn't want to waste my breath arguing - their english isn't very good. How can you charge so much tip when your service was terrible and the food only mediocre??
We used to really enjoy Nyala, especially when it was on 4th Ave. We went to the Main St location a couple of years ago and chatted with the owner since we were the only customers that night and he mentioned that his kids thought he was getting old and should close the restaurant. Well, after going last night and seeing how much the place has gone downhill, I definitely agree.
The place was packed but probably because everyone had to use their groupons that expire in 10 days. They couldn't keep up with the crowd and it took over an hour to get our food. The portions are a lot smaller than they used to be, and much more expensive, and they brought very little bread to eat with the dishes. They used to serve all the food on the big platter of bread, now apparently they'll still do it if you ask for it, but since everything took so long anyway we weren't going to wait yet again. We never did get extra bread or another pitcher of water. The sauce on the lamb tibs was nice, but all the other dishes were quite bland.
I just read some of the recent reviews and people are saying that they automatically include a 15% tip on the bill... the people in our group who read the bill didn't notice that, so we added a tip, which means we grossly over-tipped for a meal that was not very enjoyable. Well, that's definitely the last time I visit Nyala.
Was there for the world cup. Forced to choose from their "game menu" (i.e. limited late night menu). After waiting nearly forever for our food to show up, we ordered the hummus, lamb kebab appetizers and chicken stirfry meal.
Hummus was probably the best I've had in Vancouver (that doesn't say a whole lot but I've tried many many places). Full of garlic and chunky and quite tasty. So is the accompaniment of pita which seems freshly made .
However, the lamb kebab was unexpected. Tasted like day old hot dogs cooked with some kind of beet potato salad. Barely any kebab with too much of the salad in comparison to the rest of the plate. Amount of food for the appetizer was enough for a meal but couldn't finish it. It came with a fried rice roll which was nice as well but only one.
The Chicken stirfry meal was awful. Found a piece of beef in the chicken dish and complained to the owner, we showed him the piece of meat we found. However, instead of being apologetic, he proceeded to lecture us that we should have complained earlier. We had tried to flag the waitress down earlier but was ignored pretty much the entire time until she finally came to collect the plates which was when we complained.
The owner offered another plate but as we were on our way out the door, we declined. He was unremorseful and irritated. There was no concession on the final bill.
And ladies, don't even think of going to the toilet... the door lock is nonexistent and in the small cramped space there's an extra door for the single stall but no working lock on that either.
Will never return here again. Sad because the hummus was good.
It's been about a month since I went to Nyala for dinner, but I clearly remember the food and how delicious everything was. I was with a group of people for our monthly Dine Out but I arrived a bit later than everyone else. A few people had ordered appetizers already and from the general chatter around the table, everyone was enjoying the food.
The server was very friendly and helpful in recommending something to my liking. I ended up choosing the prawn dish, which had about 9 prawns served with saffron rice, onions and peppers in a piri piri sauce in a clay pot. It was piping hot and smelled fantastic when the lid was removed. The dish was about $23 but it was more than enough to fill me up, and probably would have been enough for two less-hungry people. You also get a serving of tabouleh and lentil salad with African style bread (can't remember what it's called) to go with your meal.
I noticed that other dishes were extremely small compared to the dish I had, so I would probably check with a server to see how the portions are before ordering. I was quite hungry and would have been disappointed to have had one of the smaller dishes, which were all between $16-$23 for meat or seafood dishes and about $12-$14 for vegetarian.
I really enjoyed my experience at Nyala and will definitely go back.
The portion size was surprisingly small for the price. I felt horrible spending 19 dollars for a small skillet of beef with some onions and peppers strewn about. While the food was maybe not my kind of thing (and that's not why I'm leaving a negative review), I know I would have definitely enjoyed it more had it been cheaper and had I left full.
My boyfriend and I split an appetizer platter with another couple and ordered ONE beef dish; We spent $37.00. Had it not been for the sour crepe (injera) to dip into the chutney sauce, I would've left completely famished.
The service was quite poor, which surprised me. The waiter was wearing a baseball cap, baggy jeans, and an untucked oversized dress shirt. He wouldn't split our bill (there was about 15 of us) and forgot to bring back the debit machine a number of times, making things really confusing. However, the other staff was pretty nice.
If I HAD to come back, I'd order the appetizer platter ($20) to share - and that's it, though I'll probably avoid coming back. I don't know how they can charge what they do.
I was pretty disappointed by this place, considering it's more expensive than most ethiopian restaurants around.
I ordered the spicy chickpea flour nuggets dish from the vegetarian part of the menu.
The nuggets themselves and sauce were OK, and would have been fine as a side dish, but they were served in too large a quantity with really incompatible side dishes--tabbouleh (cracked wheat salad), a mountain of basmati rice, and an acidic, crunchy raw onion lentil salad.
I've eaten veggie platters at lots of ethiopian restaurants here and in ontario and I've never had such a lacklustre, starchy combination of dishes.
I'm sad to say that the chickpea nuggets reminded me of a spicier version of the dish you might get on an airline if you ask for "Indian Vegetarian".
We dined here on Saturday night for Dine out. Arrived at 7 and was seated almost immediately. Our server was great! He was very pleasent, smiley and helpful. I really wanted to like the food but it was hard to. The pakoras were served cold. Not sure if they were supposed to be like that but it would have better hot (or at least warm). The chutney was good. I had the chicken for my main and my dinner date had the lamb. The chicken was acceptable, the rice was not. The rice tasted like it was sitting around uncovered for a while. There were hard chunks of it. The lamb was said to be tender and flavourful. For dessert, I had the pecan tart and my dinner date had the cheesecake. The tart isn't a tart. It's more like a tort and was mushy. The cheesecake was smothered in mango sauce that overpowered the flavour of the cake itself. The dine out menu needs some work. Their regular menu looks good though. May return when dine out ends (no regular menu during dine out).
The sweetheart and I have come here twice.
On our first visit, we had a mild chicken dish and a spicy beef dish. Both were flavourful and true to their menu descriptions. The presentation was excellent. We liked the injera bread, and got a kick out of having to eat it with our hands. The warm washclothes provided beforehand was an excellent detail. Our server was very laissez faire, but we didn't feel neglected. In short, it made us want to come back for a second go-round.
However, on the second visit, our server seated us and didn't come back for a full 30 minutes, even though we put out all the clear signs of being ready to order (menus closed, looking up). The food, once ordered, came promptly. This time, the food was still nicely presented, but very oily, so much so that it rendered the injera bread underneath into an oily mess that we didn't want to eat. It was even darker in the restaurant this time, which made it a somewhat less enjoyable experience--vision is one of the senses that enhances food. Our water glasses were only filled once, and that was when we flagged down the server, having had no luck prominently displaying our empty water glasses at the edge of the table for 20 minutes.
There probably won't be a third visit. We liked the food itself, but we need a restaurant that will delivery ambience and service as well.
I was taken here by a friend who wanted me to try something different. We went on a quiet night, there were only about a few other people in there so service was prompt. Our server explained the items in the menu quite thoroughly. The food did take longer than expected but was quite good. Everything was quite tasty and it was really neat and different to be eating everything with your hands.
The decor was different. Lots of giraffe statues everywhere. Would definately return again.
If you have lots of time on your hands and a tremendous amount of patience then Nyala African Cuisine is the restaurant for you.
A lot of care and attention must be put into the preparation of their food because appetizers were served 45 minutes after they were ordered and the main courses came another hour later.
At no time did anyone attempt to explain why there was such a delay or even apologize for it.
I spoke to the host/manager/owner about the service afterwards and found him very defensive. He asked how I found the food. I told him that it was "fine" and he said that he can only be responsible for the food and nothing else. Basically, he was blaming me and other patrons for eating there and creating this problem for him. His idea of making it up to me was to give me complimentary tea with my dessert.
The food was simple but nothing spectacular. I did see another table send back chicken because it was raw.
This was my worst dining experience ever and just so you understand how bad it was, it occured more than 6 months ago and I still can't get it out of my mind.
This was not a good experience. I ordered a beef dish and a lamb dish to say the least the cuts of meat were not the greatest.After a chunk of each I decided to instead jusy eat rice which I thought would be a safe choice. It too was not good the rice was hard. the service was slow granted it was kinda busy but still 30 minutes for a glass of mango juice is insane. the bread stuff you are given to eat your meal with is not tasty. All in all i wont go back nor will i recommend it to anyone i know.
I have only had Ethiopian food once before and this was definitely a much better expeience. The server was very helpful explaining the different dishes to everyone and suggesting ideas.
The food was tasty and the ambience was nice, mine was relatively inexpensive however my partner did think his meal was overpriced.
If you're first definitely ask about a sharing platter as it was really really tasty and had a good variety of food.
I would go there again but there would probably be other places I'd try first.
I went to Nyala for Dine out Vancouver event. It was a disappointing experience for me. The owner could have been more friendly. The chicken that I got had no taste. It was actually quite bad that if I had not been quite hungry, I wouldn't have eaten it. The dessert, a cheese cake slice was very small. The restaurant was so dark that I couldn't even see the food that I was eating. I don't think they want any repeat business after dine out.
Went to Nyala a few months ago, and to be honest didn't know what to expect, but was pleasently surprised.
Staff was great and friendly, and very helpful trying to explain what the dishes were. Family run restuarant, which adds to the charm. Was a packed house when we went, but must say service wasn't rushed or bad - great job!
Food was great! For a first time trying a different ethnic dish, this was great. Will hopefully be going back soon!
Go to Nyala's (on 20th and Main) with a group and have fun. This is a place that is all about your company and the pleasures of enjoying a meal together. Definitely have a good read of the menu as the owner has a wonderful sense of humour and the descriptions are highly entertaining.
It is a relaxed atomosphere with really good food and it has live music every second Tuesday. This is the kind of place that you make an outing of rather than grabbing a quick bite to eat. Don't go if you are in a rush. Talk with the owner when he circulates--he is the head chef and also makes all the pottery that your food is served in! When you consider the fact that you also eat with your hands there, it really has a "hands-on" sort of vibe.
I recommend all of the lentil dishes. I personally am not crazy about some of the red meat dishes which are traditionally served on the bone, but the chicken with the egg is exquisite and all of the vegetarian dishes were delightful.
I hope you have fun and bring good company. (Keep an eye out for their Ethiopian coffee ceremony which they will be starting soon).
I love Nyala's! The food is absolutely beautiful. Yes it is true... there may be a bit of a wait sometimes, but the rich flavors are worth it. The owner is always kind and personable, adding to the dining experience. If you want to go to a truly unique restaurant, you must check this restaurant out. The only thing I would change, or perhaps add to, would be the ambiance. While the candle light is nice and there are some beautiful drums and Ethiopian pieces in the room... it still needs a little something. Nonethless, the food outshines everything and makes you fall in love with the restaurant.
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