Naperville Boomtown: The fastest growing dining scene in the Suburban West has recently sprouted 10 West, Tango and an outpost of Heaven on Seven, with branches of Catch 35 and Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House on the way.

from Zagat.com

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 entr�es 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 ?

I don't make it out to Naperthrill that much these days, but this restaurant sounds like it may be worth a field trip...

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.)

You won't like the traffic on Route 59 and the parking lots are teeming with door dinging zombies.

Traffic on Rt 59 is irrelevant since you wouldn't use that to get to downtown Naperville. Probably the best option, whether you are coming from the east or the west, is the Winfield Road exit on I-88 and follow the signs to downtown. Parking *can* be hard to come by but I've never had to park more than a couple of blocks from my intended destination, and usually for free.

I'm not sure that you are more likely to get door dinged in Naperville than anywhere else.

Another easy way to get to downtown Naperville is to take Metra. The Naperville station is just a few blocks from the downtown restaurant district. However, service on weekends is infrequent.

No thanks, I'm all set on whitebread suburbs and strip malls for the time being. Will advise if needs change.

Thanks for the feedback, need some color in the burbs. Oh well, I still have plans to eat @ Masala Yangu early next month with some folks. Hopefully we will find a couple dishes worthwhile.

Naperville is a city of 150,000 with a downtown urban core not unlike many mid-size American cities. Your condescending attitude is pretty funny, considering how inaccurate it is in this case.

While Naperville continues to grow and has a lot to offer, it is largely strip malls and yuppified shopping. And I'm not sure I agree with calling it an "urban core."

Nothing against Naperthrill, but it is what it is...

I've spent a lot of time in Naperville and I have to agree - strip malls and yuppified shopping pretty much define it. fairviewroad, the urban core is much like many other midsize American cities, but those places probably are full of strip malls and yuppified shopping too.

This is not necessarily a bad thing! For example, Naperville is a nice place to raise children because the schools are good and the crime rate is negligible. It's close enough to Chicago that you can go there at will to enjoy it, and far enough away that you can ignore the hustle and bustle of the city if you want.

I will certainly be back to Masala Yangu an east African restaurant, there were some very good dishes.

Calvin Young owns the place with his wife, Rahila (a native Kenyan). we had a group that had some menu based items as well as some that were not on the menu.

For our particular dinner we did not have the sambusas (kind of samosa) but some of our fellow diners really liked these so I would suggest getting them.

The fish in ground cassava leaves with peanuts was a great dish as was the lamb with okra, the latter being stir fried so that there was no slimy texture to the okra.

The grilled lamb chops marinated in lemon juice and spices were terrific.

curried green bananas were good but most of us would have preferred the bananas to be slightly more ripe.

Here’s an off-menu item: cow hoof soup. The broth was fine, and the hoof gelatinous. Even though very gelatinous, the cow’s hooves were good, nice spice.

A number of condiments/sauces were served. The citrus-based hot sauce which was pili pili, peppers, lemons was a hit, heat wise and taste. there was also a yogurt based sauce as well as a pure pepper/chili paste that was hot but not too hot to enjoy the taste of the food.

It was a very enjoyable meal.

BYOB with wine, they do serve a number of beers including Tusker a Kenyan beer which I was more than happy to drink.