Ayeyo Restaurant

July 18, 2024

Ayeyo now has a dine-in restaurant! Love seeing a restaurant making big strides in such a short time😊 Located on the ground floor of Timau Plaza, Ayeyo takes up a nice little corner of the floor welcoming you with its stunning yet minimalist decor. Warm lighting, lush plants, comfy, cozy seats and a beautifully tiled backdrop in a stunning yet understated green… Everything here was outfitted in great detail and as a lover of great interior design, I was very pleased to see all the little bits and bobs that make up Ayeyo come to life.

The one pager menu was much appreciated, we don’t need to be reading novel menus please. It was simple and straightforward listing some of my faves (y’all know I live for their hilib😋) and some newbies I was excited to try.

We tried a variety of dishes: Chicken samosas (KSH400) Rice & Hilib (goat meat, KSH1700), Chicken Suqaar with Anjeero (KSH850), Bisteeki (KSH1700), Fish fillet (KSH1450), Chai Cake (KSH450), and Saffron Milk Cake (KSH750). That’s a lot of doggy bags because you know they don’t play with their portions!

The chicken samosas are a portion of 3. They are a tad small, but are so nice and crispy on the outside. The minced chicken filling was a bit bland, felt like it needed more salt, seasoning… something. The side sauce helped though as it was mildly spicy.

The Ayeyo rice and hilib is the GOAT dish here… All puns intended😅 It can do no wrong, because that super soft goat meat, rich in flavour, surrounded by that Somali style rice, some vermicelli and hot sauce… is a meal after my own heart, so good!

It was my first time trying the chicken suqaar with anjeero. It’s basically sautéed chicken cubes, that are also flavoured to the gods. Served with anjeero (Somali version of injera). The chicken was really good, flavoured perfectly, I’d have liked it to be a bit more spicy but that’s just me. The anjeero tastes very much like injera but had a more pancake texture and was heavier whereas injera feels light and fluffy. They’re both equally tart and the anjeero and that chicken paired well together.

The Fish. First of all - that was one big piece of fish, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth here. That fish was so good! It was juicy, I don’t know if it’s grilled or baked but it was quite well done and the sauce they basted it in was perfect. That sauce tasted like bbq sauce meets sweet & sour but better.

The Bisteeki was my least favourite of everything we tried. Once again, great portions and you can have it accompanied with fries, rice or pasta and steamed veggies or a salad. Felt like the beef strips were a bit thick compared to how they were described to us, not as flavourful and quite over cooked. I understand Somalis usually grill their meat to excellence levels, not even well done but for me it was over done and I think that made the meat quite tough.

Now onto dessert - that Chai cake you guys??😍 It was superb! So yummy, sweet and rich in those exact flavours you expect in a chai flavoured cake. I could taste the nutmeg, the cardamom, cinnamon, even a little bit of black pepper maybe? So much goodness that definitely needs to be had with actual chai. Love the size as well, you can eat it all at once or save some for later.

My friend got the saffron milk cake because she loves saffron. I had a taste and I was not ready for the amount of milk the cake is drowned in😮‍ It’s very strong in flavour, you can’t miss that saffron but the lactose intolerance in me could not handle the milk so that may not be a first choice for me. For y’all who are God’s favourites and have no dairy issues - you’ll for sure enjoy this cake.

Gotta add a little sound bite about the drinks we had: the tamarind juice is way too sweet, not your typical tamarind juice as it’s blended in with dates. They should probably have an option of tamarind juice with and without dates. The ice tea was great! I don’t usually drink ice tea but that one was really good, spiced perfectly and delicious. Perfect on a hot day for sure.

Service here was good. As they have just opened and I went on a day that had quite a number of people, service wavered a bit but not to the point of frustration for sure. Our waitress would check in from time to time to make sure we had everything we needed.

The ambience was more than ideal. It makes for a great lunch/dinner spot with friends or a chill date night with your significant other. Even with a full house, it didn’t feel cramped and no one was shouting over the other. As a cloud kitchen turned restaurant, I think Ayeyo have something great here and I hope this results in expansion to other areas soon.