A taste of Africa

From the outside, D'Den doesn't look particularly inviting, but note the sign offering 'Exotic African Cuisine' and don't be put off. This is not the kind of establishment that relies on bright lights and special offers to lure passers-by across the pavement. D'Den is more of a destination restaurant, and it's full of people who have made the pilgrimage for trad Nigerian and West African dishes.

The dining room is long and dark with music television whichever way you look - on a large screen at one end and a small screen at the other. Service is friendly, which is fortunate, as many of the dishes need explaining. The appetisers are the most straightforward part of the meal. Suya is grilled meat - small pieces or chunks on the bone, rubbed with herbs and plenty of pepper, then grilled until crisp. You can pick from beef, goat, chicken gizzards, lamb, kidney or chicken. Lots of small bones and a rich, smeary sort of dish.

The enigmatically named 'snail' is a dish of Giant African Land Snail - it comes sliced into ribbons that are tough and chewy, as well as being mercilessly chilli-hot. The chicken wings are very good. Moin moin is a flat cake made with bean flour and livened up with chunks of dried cod - it may well be an acquired taste. There is a sauce called 'pepperlina', which is a fresh chilli salsa and is outstandingly hot.

One dish bridges the gap between starters and mains and is very good indeed. Order a whole chargrilled fish - the croaker is exceptionally good. Someone in the kitchen knows just what they are doing and the whole fish arrives perfectly cooked and with an inspired spice mix rubbed into the skin.

This fish is large and meaty and has a few large bones that are easily avoided. The menu also offers 'Live catfish' ('D'Den special - please book in advance for your live catfish as it takes a while to prepare') and you can have it as pepper soup, or with pepper and onion.

The style of ordering is different here - there is a range of staple sources of stodge and you decide what you want to accompany them. But then you can have the meaty bit turned into pepper soup, an exotic dish, or a stew.

The best staples are 'iyan' (pounded yam), egusi, which is made from ground melon seed, and jollof rice, which is a kind of dry, red risotto - very buttery and rich. With these you could have goat meat, and then you could choose to have your goat in pepper soup or as a stew. Other options include chicken, cow-leg (more accurately cow's foot - the joint Europeans use to make calf's-foot jelly), oxtail, beef, dried cod and tripe.

Get one of your party to order the blisteringly hot pepper soup - a very rich flavour, which works well with oxtail. Someone else should try the jollof rice with chicken - delicious. Or a dish of efo egusi, which is spinach cooked with water melon and herbs - perhaps try that one with beef? Have some fried plantain as it is superb - rich, sweet and chewy. Vegetarians are well served here, there is a wonderful bean dish that comes with rice and plantains. To drink, it is hard to oppose the special Guinness brewed in Nigeria - very dark, very cold and very strong.

D'Den is a great place to go and experiment, and don't forget to order the grilled croaker.

D' Den
Cricklewood Broadway, London, NW2 3JX