Originally Posted by
Sweet Willie
EAST AFRICAN
A fusion of smells, sounds, and flavors of East Africa is what you can expect from Masala Yangu (43 E. Jefferson Ave., Naperville; 630-922-9999). The husband-wife team of Calvin and Rahila Young opened their restaurant in April '07 with dishes nostalgic of Rahila’s childhood in Kenya. “These are the things I grew up eating,” she says, and literally so—she and her mother head up the kitchen, turning out entrées like biringanya (pictured here; eggplant with potatoes in creamy tomato sauce, $13) and Rahila’s personal favorite, samaki ya kupaka (baked sole in coconut curry base). This must be the only place in Naperville where you can sip fresh passion-fruit juice while enjoying live ambient music.
Anyone been ?
My parents have. They must have gone on a really bad night as they had to wait hours to receive the food they ordered. Once they did receive it they were quite underwhelmed, both by the taste and the portion sizes, given how hungry they were by that point (normally they are light eaters but they did actually want to eat something that night). Even now, months later, I still hear stories about how horrible the experience was.
Hopefully things have improved since then. I suspect that the husband-and-wife team simply did not know how to run a restaurant at that time. If it still exists by now they must have fixed things to some extent as there is plenty of competition in the restaurant business in Naperville. (Such as the aforementioned Catch 35 and Hugo's, both of which my parents and I enjoy eating at.)