With a little bit of savvy, it’s not difficult to satisfy your inner foodie in Maputo. Aska Japanese Restaurant, Café Sol and Pinga are three “top spots,” linked by their owners’ quest for the very best ingredients and the fact that they offer novelty menu items in Maputo. Bring on the sushi, gourmet coffee, and French cuisine!
Aska Japanese Restaurant: a Refined Addiction
Walking into Aska is to be transported to another time and place: a refined restaurant with a tranquil ambience where soft Japanese instrumental music plays overheard and well-trained staff deliver ceramic pots of green tea, steaming earthenware bowls of soup, and large wooden boats teeming with high-grade sushi.
Owner and executive chef, Jun Seong Hyun, traded in his life as a high school History teacher in his native South Korea, for the less frantic pace of Maputo where he has more time to spend with his wife and two children. But after hearing him describe the transportation logistics required to bring the best quality fish to his restaurant, I started to wonder what kind of deal he had brokered for himself.
Because handling procedures in Mozambique don’t meet sushi-grade standards, Jun gets most of his fish from South Africa, and imports salmon from Scotland and Norway. Twice a month he drives to Joberg to do shopping for the
restaurant and load a special sub-zero freezer with salmon and tuna that he then drives back to Maputo. He explains that with this type of freezer, raw fish can be preserved at its peak freshness for six months. I always thought Aska’s sushi was a bit overpriced, but when I heard what Jun goes through to ensure his customers have the highest quality fish available, I gained a new appreciation for what I was paying for.Not only does his restaurant score five stars for quality control, Jun also receives high marks for his aesthetically beautiful presentations. This includes his delectable entrees, which should not be dismissed as menu-fillers for non-sushi eaters.
Sitting alone at the sushi-table counter watching Jun prepare his sushi, one customer looked at me and confessed, “I’m addicted.” Try Aska once, and despite the fact that your tab might be high for Maputo, you’ll understand this vice, and undoubtedly be back for more.
Café Sol: Good People, Great Coffee
It’s not difficult to get your espresso fix in Maputo, but if you want to get your daily cup brewed from locally roasted African beans, look no further than Café Sol.
Unsatisfied with the quality of coffee available in Maputo, Tim Hobgood and Kevin Kehus (American “Mr. Moms” living in Maputo) went into business together and opened Café Sol in May 2007.
While most coffee consumed in Mozambique is imported from Portugal via other far-off places in the world (like Brazil), Tim and Kevin seek to promote the “African bean.” And why not? Africa is the birthplace of coffee.
The entrepreneuring duo traveled to Malawi, where they tasted coffee in twelve different sub-regions of the Mzuzu highlands area, until they finally honed in on one fully farmer-owned coffee cooperative.
After bringing their beans back to Maputo, other parts of their niche business began to fall into place. Tim and Kevin brought over a Diedrich IR12, one of the most high-tech roasters on the market, from Sandpoint, Idaho, USA. They use it to do fresh roasts every other day.
With its motto, “good people, great coffee,” Café Sol has a decidedly American feel. Not only do you walk inside and feel like you could be in Southern California, Café Sol has a sincere desire to “get it right” – with its high quality coffee and gourmet food, and service with a smile.Pinga: French Bistro à la Maputo
When I phoned Maputo’s only French restaurant, Pinga, I became concerned when I was told that “Frenchy” (the iconic French guy with the unruly white beard) was no longer running the place. When I asked the new Mozambican owner about meeting for an interview, he quickly suggested that Frenchy join us.
Luckily, for Pinga’s new owner and its customers, Frenchy has agreed to help out during the restaurant’s transition. This means that Pinga’s menu will not change and that most days Frenchy will be in the kitchen before the restaurant opens, giving orders on how best to fillet a fish and demanding the same high standards of cleanliness and order in the kitchen.
Frenchy ran Pinga with an iron fist for six years. Each night, he could be found waiting tables and every plate that was served had to pass his inspection first. “I have all the bad side of a French chef. If an order came out the kitchen and the food was cold, the plate would go flying back,” he says.
After growing up in France, going to cooking school in Lausanne, and spending time in Northern Africa, he started to make his way South until he eventually gave up his vagabond ways and created just another unlikely existence in Maputo. To this day, he vows he doesn’t speak Portuguese (only French and English), and I have never heard him utter a word of it to staff or customers.When I asked Frenchy how he developed his menu, he began a lament on the subject of how Pinga’s food is based on “what they can get, not what they want to serve.” “One third of the Larousse cookbook is based on veal, and the last time I had local veal (from Swaziland) it was so tough I lost the few teeth I had left,” he says. Despite this, Pinga manages to do quite well in its recreation of French bistro fare such as escargot, French onion soup, cow tongue, fish and vegetable gratins, steak smothered in Roquefort cheese, and rabbit, when available.
It is only fitting that the quixotic Pinga is located in the Feira Popular (a Maputo-esque amusement park and outdoor/indoor restaurant food court of sorts). Be warned that on Friday and Saturday nights, thumping music coming from neighboring restaurants can sometimes drown out your dinner conversation at Pinga; but for some, this is just all part of the wild anomaly of eating fine French food smack in the middle of a by-gone Maputo fairground.
Aska Japanese Restaurant
JAT Building, 420 Avenida 25 de Setembro
Lunch: Monday – Saturday, 12 – 3
Dinner: Monday – Saturday, 5–11
+258 21 302 618 or +258 82 311 8690
Café Sol
Tuesday – Friday, 7 – 7
Saturday and Sunday, 8 – 7
+258 82 516 8527 or +258 82 316 3000
Pinga
Feira Popular, Avenida 25 de Setembro
Dinner: Monday – Saturday, 7:00 – 10:30
+258-82-325-5830
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