Horn of Africa

Horn of Africa has reached the top 3 of Tripadvisor’s restaurants list for Bergen, and we were quite excited to try it and to have a new dining experience in our own city.
Together with four of my girlfriends, we had reservations on a Tuesday evening. The restaurant was not crowded but there were people on two other tables as we arrived. The waiter greated us immediately and showed us to our table. After having found our seats, he introduced the concept, since all of us were new to the restaurant. The waiter was very nice, always assisting with a smile. He recommended one of the mixed sharing platters, and we ordered some read wine to go with it. Whilst there was a menu for the food, from which I assume we could order also platters for one, it appeared they did not have a wide selection of wines. However, the one we got was quite ok.
The food came, and we even got an introduction from the waiter (who had his own demo plate) on how to enjoy the meal. Before starting we got washcloths to clean our hands, as all meals at Horn of Africa are to be eaten without cutlery.
The food was tasteful, especially the chicken dish with eggs. To me it was however nothing very special, it was exciting to try, but few of the flavours «stood out». It was also slightly troublesome to share the big plate without having our own plates to transfer the food to, since none of us got a very good grip on forming suitable «wraps» of food to fit in the mouth in one piece. The experience of sharing the platter and eating with hands is fun and probably social, but maybe it just feels a bit awkward eating this way on a regular night out in Bergen.
I suspect all the good ratings on Tripadvisor has something to do with the limited selection of African restaurants in Bergen. That being said, I do recommend people to try Horn of Africa to experience something different. The prices are reasonable and maybe the concept fits you better than it did me?