Nzingha Lounge 48 Peel Street, Central Tel: 2522 0544 ( www.nzinghalounge.com ) Open: 6pm until late. Food served from 7pm-11pm (last orders 10.30pm) Cuisine: African. Ambience: This bar/restaurant is much more spacious than you might expect from its unassuming doorway. It features a bar along the length of one wall, a cosy raised seating area opposite and ample room for more seats, tables and impromptu dancing in between. Wooden floors and fixtures, draped animal skins, glowing red ceiling lamps in the shape of giant leaves and a smattering of tribal masks make this unlike any other bar in Hong Kong. Occasional live music and weekend DJs spinning African-influenced beats help create an infectiously euphoric vibe after dark. Price: A two-course meal without drinks costs about HK$180, plus 10 per cent service charge. Pros: Nzingha has a great atmosphere and a real buzz about it when busy. The service is friendly and the decor is the perfect antidote to Hong Kong's proliferation of largely indistinguishable 'style' bars. You'll be hard pushed to find most of the dishes - and wines - served here at any other eatery in town. Cons: The menu is limited - there are five starters and seven main courses (plus a sampler platter), and two options weren't available when we visited. Those with a sweet tooth may be disappointed to discover there are no desserts on the menu. Recommended dishes: To start, we chose from the NyamaNyama options - a sort of African tapas menu. The acras (deep-fried spicy shrimp dough balls, HK$45) were light and softly textured. The crispy African rolls (HK$45), a slight twist on regular spring rolls, weren't particularly different from their eastern cousins. Both came with a dipping sauce that can be spiced up to your specifications, but be warned - it's advisable to have a glass of something to quench the fire if you go for the spiciest one. For our mains, maffe (HK$125), a West African stew of groundnuts and beef, came with jollof rice and aloco (banana slices fried in palm oil) and was a hearty, subtly flavoured winter warmer, even if the meat was a little chewy. The doro wat (HK$140, above), an Ethiopian dish featuring chicken pieces on the bone and spices, had a satisfying kick and came with injera bread, a slightly sour Ethiopian pancake that made a welcome dipping accompaniment. What else? Nzingha hosts African storytelling on the first Sunday of every month, after brunch.
