Dining in Luanda, Angola: Cais de Qu4tro and Tendinha

Despite my devotion to good food, I consider myself quite able to survive when the conditions are less than ideal.  I have fond memories of tuna and ramen noodles while rained into a little shelter somewhere in the White Mountains.  And a night in Sudan with only weird scrambled eggs (weird because the yolks had no yellow), salt and pepper from an airline packet I’d saved, and some watermelons we’d found on the side of the road.  So I was nonplussed by the prospect of spending a week in Angola where I’d been warned by several coworkers that there is ‘no food’ (to avoid too much dramatic license, I will admit that I’d also heard that there is food but it’s not very good and the prices are so exorbitant that you’d never want to pay for it.)  Not wanting to take any chances, I packed half of my suitcase with granola bars and ramen, just in case.

It is with great happiness then that I report to you, dear reader, that there is indeed food in Angola. Good food!  And pricey food, but not as frighteningly so as I’d been warned.  With two evenings of dining under my belt, I figured it was time to report on some of my discoveries. 

Last night we ate at Cais de Qu4tro, located on the Ilha (Av Murtala Muhammad).  Apparently, this restaurant is owned by a Brazilian chef from Rio, and the food is heavily Brazilian influenced.  I had the picanha Minas Gerais, essentially flank steak, served with black beans and rice (of course…Brazilian food), some cabbage/greens, and a fried banana.  All was quite delicious, and I’m not sure I’ve ever before wanted to keep eating and eating and eating beans and rice in the manner in which I shoveled them in last night.  They were delicious.  I was also completely enamored with the fried banana.  This is a huge admission, as I don’t generally deign to like bananas in any form.  Four of the six of us at dinner had the picanha, and all of us thoroughly enjoyed it.  My only possible complaint was that it was a tad salty, but then my fellow diner added shake after shake of salt to his plate, so I guess it really is all in the taste buds.

Food aside, Cais de Qu4tro also has a wonderful ambiance.  Located right along the water, the patio offers what is perhaps the best view of the city of Luanda.  At night, it is breathtakingly beautiful, and you can get a sense of the many new buildings taking shape over the city.  There’s certainly a lot of building going on here.  I also liked the simple yet modern atmosphere and décor; it would be a nice place to sit and take a drink and spend a relaxing evening watching the city.

As for the pricing, it wasn’t cheap, but hardly the break-the-bank pricing I was expecting. The picanya was around 2700 kwanza ($27), add a couple of shared bottles of nice Chilean wine, and my total was around $50.  A nice meal out, but not so expensive I felt completely violated.

This evening we tried a place only a block walk from our hotel called Tendinha (Rua da Missao).  One of the people I have met here is on a several month interim position so has been living in the hotel and learning all of the area restaurants.  He’s Catalan and was raised in Chile, which somehow means that I trust his opinion on restaurants.  Unlike the more sophisticated Cais de Qu4tro, Tendinha felt more like your neighborhood restaurant and bar.  A nice patio outside along the street, and a homey restaurant inside, the walls lined with African art and masks.  The menu was only in Portuguese, which meant that our Catalan friend almost had several of us ordering stomach rather than fish, but after figuring out which word was which, I settled on what amounted to small pieces of fried chicken served with chips and rice (carbs galore here) and a fried banana (which was again the highlight of my meal). My only possible complaint was that it was a tad salty, but then my fellow diner added shake after shake of salt to his plate, so I guess it really is all in the taste buds (you may recognize this sentence; so far all of the food has been a bit on the salty side for me).  I definitely liked this place for its all around solid Portuguese food and the down-home atmosphere, and will add it to my list of good places to go for a good meal and several rounds of local beer (the name of which is escaping me).  The bill?  2700 kwanza for the chicken, 150 kwanza each for two beers, so around $35 total.  Beer is cheap!

Two nights in, and I’m nothing but happy with the meal choices and I still have money to spare.  Those granola bars are going to have to wait!