Calabash

Blink and you’ll miss it. I’ve no real knowledge of when this place popped up in Glasgow but I heard rumours circulating that there was an authentic African restaurant now open. Having no idea what African food could possibly consist of I thought it would be a fine idea to give this place a shot with some fellow Unilocaler.
Nestled away in the basement of one of Glasgow’s less grandiose streets, this place was fairly buzzing for a Thursday night. The staff made us feel really welcome which was great, as from the outside its seems rather intimidating.
The menu was very simple and rustic. Lots of grilled meats, hearty stews and curried type dishes served with pulses and roots like casava, rice, sadza (like a polenta cornmeal mash) and plantain.
Having never tried the cassava I had to give is a shot. Think potato but somehow even more carby, yup its a carb lovers delight and I scoffed them all up because they were delicious.
Next up was the «The Mama Special» which had a crazy name that I will never be able to remember unfortunately. It was a nice stew with tonnes of spinach and lamb served with the Sadza (described above). Unfortunately for a ‘special’ I was rather disappointed. The meat was not really succulent as described, but incredibly tough and chewy and the spinach had a slight crunch to it, yup, something tells me it was not washed properly (major sad face). The sadza also was very stodgy and bland, but mixed with the food it was acceptable.
Now, the reason I am not giving this place lower marks was that I was able to sample some of my friends food, which was all delicious, giving me instant FOOD RAGE! The jerk chicken was heavenly succulent and served with the most delicious rice. Strangely this seem to have more of a Caribbean flavour, but I imagine their food was heavily inspired by African migrants. Also great were the samosa and fried plantain chips. I think everyone had a pretty enjoyable meal except me.
I will certainly give this place another shot, but its clear there are some real ‘hit or miss’ dishes to be had. just make sure you make the right choice!
Oh and this place seems to turn into some kinda night club after hours. The music was fairly pumping when we were in, so expect to shake your booty once it starts to get dark.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you walk down Union Street every day and had no idea that there is a African restaurant located there. It is basically just a door with a small sign above it. Once through the door you descend down the zebra wallpaper lined staircase into the fairly large restaurant. Décor wise there are simple tables and chairs, with it being in the basement there is no natural light and the ceilings are pretty low. They also have the crackliest sound system in the world and the music was pretty loud which was annoying, bizarrely there was also TV’s showing a music channels on silent mode? I would describe it as basic but comfortable enough.
To start with I chose the Lamb Samosas these were fantastic deep-​fried thin pastry parcels which were filled with seasoned lamb and came served with lemon wedges. It was a generous serving of 3 samosa of which I only managed to eat 2. The pastry was light, buttery and melted in the mouth and the meat was succulent and tasty — an excellent first dish.
For my main I wanted to try the Samaki which is a grilled fresh water tilapia fish. However as soon as the lovely waiter told me it came as a whole fish eyeballs and all that was immediately changed to my second choice which was the jerk chicken. Yeah I am a chicken but eyeballs on a plate are a serious no-​no to me.
The Jerk Chicken was described on the menu as a ¼ Chicken portion lovingly marinated in jerk spices & grilled to perfection served with Caribbean rice & peas. What arrived was 2 pieces of gorgeously flavoured chicken which had a bit of a lemon taste. The rice portion can only be described as mammoth and was peppered full of beans, onions and peppers — it was so good and a meal in its self. A really fantastic dish which I didn’t even come close to finishing.
For sides we choice Cassava chips, this is a root vegetable which was slightly bitter but really delicious when you dipped it in the accompanying sauce. I was desperate to try the Plantain which is deep-​fried African semi-​ripe bananas, this was probably my favourite part of the meal cause it had this seriously lovely savoury/​sweet thing going on which I adore. We also got a side of chips which impressively were hand-​cut fresh chips when in all honesty I half expected frozen.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from African cuisine but all in all I was pretty happy with my choices and definitely think I choose wisely. If you are feeling adventurous I think a jaunt to Africa might be just the thing for you.

Wow. What an adventure this place was! Thanks to Rocco G for suggesting an outing here! It wasn’t quite where I thought it was but if you walk along Union Street enough times you’re sure to stumble across it (or look for Japanese Bull Leader, this place is next door).
Head down the zebra striped stairs and you’ll find yourself in a brightly light, casual basement restaurant which is well decorated and has a large TV on one of the walls.
I’d had a brief look at the menu online but it was good to check it out properly and the staff were really helpful with any questions we had. I opted for veggie samosa followed by jerk chicken for main, and shared the mukimo (traditional Kenyan mash of potatoes, green peas, corn & greens sautéed with onions) with Graeme.
There wasn’t much of a wait for the food. Three samosas to a portion (reasonable for £3) which were jam packed with lovely vegetables and quite a bit of a spicy kick. There’s mayo on the table as a condiment which might be useful for the more spicy dishes!
For me, the real highlight was the jerk chicken. It was SO flavoursome and delicious with a lovely smoky charred flavour. I really enjoyed this dish and the rice that accompanied it (Caribbean rice and beans) was really tasted, packed full of veg as well as a lot of nice flavours. The mukimo was also really lovely and tasted better than it looked (green mash potato could be a little off putting) — I’m going to try to recreate this at home as I could happily scoff a whole bowl on it’s own.
I also tried the African Fanta — a less fizzy version of the Fanta we know, and I actually preferred it like that. It also comes in a pretty cool bottle which I forgot to take home with me — next time!
Service was good, efficient and attentive and we never had to wait long for anything. It was a really fun place to dine in a large group and I’d definitely head back for another meal in the future. The prices are pretty reasonable as well so you don’t need to spend much to eat here — starters around £3-£5 and mains around £10.
As it is a basement restaurant they don’t have any mobile reception (and seemingly no wifi). The other downside was that the music was really loud while we were there which made chat a little difficult!

So it’s been a while since I last visited and I really missed this place.
A mass visit of Unilocalers was just what I needed. We all had different dishes and on the whole the food was very good.
I had the mixed grill which was an awesome flavour. The meat was a little bit gristly but very tasty.
All the other meals looked amazing and very filling. We tried most of the sides between us and were generally very good.
Their chilli sauce has a lovely kick to it.
Prices are very reasonable for the food being served. A nice selection of imported African beers.
There is a nice atmosphere with lots of people who seem to be regulars visiting.
Give this place a go and don’t be afraid to try something different.

This is a much delayed review — almost a year late. But as far as African food goes, it was an amazing experience. One of the flags of quality that I attach to places which serve a particular cuisine is whether the majority of people who eat there are from the same cuisine. By that token, Calabash is an authentic a it gets.
We had a huge fish fry which was very close to the fish fry we eat in South India surprisingly. Quite affordable too.

This place has been open for a while, in the basement previously occupied by «City Kitchen», much lamented by me at least, as it had the combo of fairly cheap indian food made by little old indian ladies in the back room. This is the second time i’ve been here, the first was pretty nice too. the food is totally unfamiliar to me, so i went in blind. i had the katago stew, a meat stew with green bananas, and a side of mukimo (mashed potatoes, corn, peas and butter) coming to just over a tenner, so not cheap for a lunch, but they have cheaper items on the menu. the food took a while to arrive, and the place wasn’t busy, but it was worth it when it did. the meat, lamb i guess, was a bit on the tough side, at least 60% of it was chewy, but the taste of the sauce was good enough and spicy enough that i didn’t feel the need to reach for my virtual chilli bottle, but there was a green chilli bottle by the side just in case (disturbingly it had the warning for allergy sufferers that it contained sulphur dioxide. The mashed side was a nice accompaniment. This place deserves more attention, but probably needs to look at their meat supply or how they are cooking their meat. the green bananas, which, for someone that isn’t a big fan, were very nice, having the consistency of mashed potato; i’d love to know how they do this.
addendum: having a checked about, it looks as if i am being culturally thick, and the meat is meant to be that chewy. so bear that in mind…