Review: Tatale, Southwark

I fondly remember having a meal in the Africa Centre maybe twenty years ago, when it was in a completely different location. It was the first time I tried chicken gizzards (and decided they weren’t very interesting) and there were mice running around on the floor, which deeply concerned some of the diners.

The little Tatale restaurant in the new Africa Centre near Southwark couldn’t be more different. It’s an informal dining room in the atrium of the centre, stone and clay colours and textures. The staff are friendly and helpful. The menu is five fixed courses with an option on dessert and two choices of main.

First up is a really excellent black bean hummus, warmed with chilli and red palm oil, served with beautifully crisp little plantain chips that are insanely moreish. This is followed by little ackee croquettes. Ackee is a really hard fruit to describe, having a texture when cooked a bit like very firm scrambled egg and a slightly sour-fruity flavour that doesn’t really equate to anything else. Anyway, the croquette is beautifully soft and delicious, sharpened up with scotch bonnet mayo and lemon.

Next is a peanut soup called “Nkatekwnan” with a dumpling of sticky mashed rice coated in sesame seeds in the middle. The soup is warm, earthy, nutty and works very well with a little rice added to the spoon. What I’m really enjoying here is lots of flavours I’m unfamiliar with, but all cooked with skill and balance.

We try both mains: the black-eyed bean stew with fermented locust bean and various other good things in it, and the buttermilk fried chicken wings. The stew is full of flavour but, again, I’m really struggling to describe it with familiar equivalents. Hearty, but also tangy and full-flavoured. The whole plantain in the middle is sturdy and barely sweet, a really good eat. The chicken wings are in gorgeously crisp and crunchy batter, not oily at all, and pepped-up with some African chilli peppers in the mix. Nothing refined here, just very tasty. The same is true of the yellow rice that accompanies, a bit buttery and mixed up with sticky little sultanas and lots of crispy fried shallots, it’s just heavenly rice.

We try sharing a cheesecake for pud, a soft and creamy bowl with diced fresh apple and dill creating a really nifty flavour in there. But we’re struggling… hummus, plantain, ackee, panko, rice, peanut, beans, plantain, batter, rice… this is a feast of starches and you will waddle out of here.

For £35 this is a splendid meal and I’m keen to go back. The drink list is small, but they do a good burnt orange negroni and there’s Supermalt on the menu so you can’t go wrong.