Yesterday a friend and I had the pleasure of checking out a new restaurant in town called the Traveler's Kitchen. It is a restaurant that specializes in authentic Gambian cuisine from West Africa. They offer a range of dishes from the region. They use high quality ingredients and traditional cooking techniques to bring unique flavors and aromas to your meal. Their menu's feature meat, fish, and vegetarian options and they also offer some gluten free and dairy free dishes as well.
The meal was amazing and so full of flavor! I love spices and having flavorful food to enjoy, and this restaurant definitely exceeded my expectations. My friend and I both had the Benachin with chicken, jollof rice, and vegetables. She ordered a side of plantains and I order a couple samosas. The chicken was cooked perfectly and just fell off the bone. The rice was delicious and full of flavor with a little bit of spice to it. I have always wanted to taste authentic jollof rice and now I have! The vegetables were the biggest surprise for me. I tend to be really picky about vegetables so was pleasantly surprised with how good they were. There were a mix of vegetables like onion, corn, beans, lima beans, peppers, and carrots. The veggies had a sweetness to them that was a great contrast with the spiciness of the rice. The samosas were delicious but were huge! Next time I will just order one. The samosas are a flaky crust triangle filled with ground beef and vegetables. The ground beef had some spice to it and the vegetables gave it some substance. It is definitely one of my favorite types of samosas. The plantains were very good and were cooked to a soft texture. If you prefer your plantains a little crisper you could probably crisp them up in an air fryer easy enough (if you have leftovers).
The meal itself was plentiful and the portion size was enough to take some home for leftovers. As I mentioned before the samosas were much bigger than I thought so keep that in mind if you decide to try them. Speaking of the leftovers, the rice and veggies heated up the next day still tasted amazing and were so good. I wish I had more of the chicken left to go with it.
The restaurant staff was very friendly and even took time to talk to us about what was in the food we were eating. I asked what meat was used in the samosas and my friend talked to them about her experiences with West African cuisine (Ghanian).
I highly recommend you check out this new restaurant in Springfield, IL. If you are local to the area it is located in the old La Bamba restaurant. If you are not sure where that is, you can locate the restaurant at 1731 S MacArthur Blvd. Springfield IL 62704. They are open Monday through Saturday 11am-10pm. There are some dishes that they only offer on the weekends. The price point is not bad. you can expect to spend around $15-20 but as I mentioned you get quite a bit of food so you really could get 2 meals out of this. For the authenticity of the cooking, the flavor, and the portion size I think the price point is well worth it.
Support a local new business and check out the Traveler's Kitchen if you would like to try something new and very good, in my opinion.
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