CHAIMA'S AFRICAN CUISINE

Hoppen Hierarchy:★★⭑

Authentic African Cuisine

Standout Dishes: Meat Pies, Fried Plantains; Attieke Poisson Braise

A quick glance at Chaima’s African Cuisine‘s menu is the first sign that you’re in for some new experiences. While there are a few familiar items, most will be completely foreign.

In fact, very little about a visit to Chaima’s is common. It’s located on the backside of a business park—I dare you to try and find it without your phone’s GPS—and is a very humble location, with simple tables, brown walls, and minimal decor.

None of these eccentricities keep it from serving delicious meals.

In fact, I’d argue Chaima’s differences give it charm and make it absolutely worth a visit. The restaurant is owned and operated by Chaima Dan-merogo Maradi, who left Africa for the U.S. in the early 2000s and brought the flavors of her homeland with her. She’s back in the kitchen six days a week cooking everything herself, while some of her children run the front end of the restaurant.

Chaima also operates a food truck at certain events.

The love she puts into the restaurant was clearly evident on my initial visit. My fellow diners and I were very excited to try the Meat Pies, ground meat and veggies encased in a flaky dough and deep-fried. We were initially informed that Chaima’s was out of the item, and because the dough is made from scratch and takes several hours to craft, the Meat Pies were currently unavailable.

But Chaima then offered to cook us fresh ones, if we were willing to wait. Though the process took quite some time, the payoff was worth it. The dough is flavorful and crumbly, and the deep fry adds a nice texture. Each pocket is packed with ingredients, and the provided tangy dipping sauce gives each bite some extra zip. Not to be blasphemous to Nebraskans, but this dish is what a Runza wants to be when it grows up.

The entrees are all inventive and likely new to Omaha diners, but everything we tried was tremendous. The Riz Creole is Chaima’s most popular dish for a reason. Though the strips of beef are a bit chewy and tough, it has a nice earthy flavor, and the curry rice—though a bit oily—is absolutely delicious. It’s basically an African version of a rice bowl, the perfect introductory dish for less-adventurous diners who just want to dip their toes into the waters of African cuisine.

Those more daring should go for the Attieke Poisson Braise, a tilapia dish served with the head on, that delivered what a fellow diner called the best fish he’d had at a restaurant. Similarly interesting are dishes with Fufu, a starchy product made from yams that appears and has similar texture to a dough ball and is intended to be dipped into a provided sauce (we were warned not to eat it on its own, as its essentially flavorless).

I first experienced how great Fried Plantains could be on a visit to Miami in my early 20s and have been searching, unsuccessfully, for something that resembled that dish. Chaima’s comes through. The sweetness of the original product is muted a bit by the deep fry, which injects some fat into the dish. The texture is spot on, and the provided hot sauces only make the experience that much better.

The other appetizers are a bit of a mixed bag. The Beef Kabob has good flavor with a hint of spice, but it’s tough and chewy, closer to the texture of jerky. And while I appreciate the size of the Chicken Wings and the grilling treatment, they’re missing the crunch of the deep fry, and the dry rub isn’t quite enough flavor without additional sauce.

These are minor complaints on what is otherwise a very different and pleasurable experience. Though Chaima’s isn’t winning many points with its ambience, it offers dishes you won’t find anywhere else in Omaha, introducing your palate to new, delicious flavors. If you want to try African cuisine but are wary of going too far outside your box, there are dishes that mix the familiar with what Chaima had in West Africa. And if you want to dive into a new cuisine headfirst, Chaima’s can supply that too.

Whatever you order, I can assure you two things: it’ll be different than anything you’ve tasted before, and it’ll be made with love. Those two factors at the very least make Chaima’s worth a visit.