Madiba Restaurant Makes Brooklyn Look Smart

Madiba Restaurant

195 Dekalb Avenue

Brooklyn, New York 11205

718 855 9190

www.madibarestaurant.com

Number of Diners in Party: 4

Size of Coupon: $50

Entrée cost: $16.50-$24

Highly Recommended

For a quick safari to a fantasy South Africa that is friendly, welcoming, hip, funky, earnest and sophisticated, dine at Madiba South African restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. This restaurant shows off the smart, urbane yet utterly non-Manhattan scene that thrives in the Brooklyn Academy of Music area and acts as a perfect complement to that institution’s highbrow but offbeat fare.

In warm weather, the patio scene is lively. Inside, the bar has a handful of seats and a few low tables attracting its own crowd of friendly regulars for knockout mojitos. It doubles as a purveyor of South African staples such as Crosse and Blackwell Custard Powder as well as Brooklyn’s own Crop to Cup coffee. The two-story-high dining room is painted in vivid primary colors. A large portrait of Nelson Mandela gazes approvingly at the multicultural crowd of diners feasting on elegant, delicious and responsible cooking. Appetizers include Durban Samosas, flaky triangles filled with vegetables. Soup of the day is charmingly called Soup of the Moment. All seafood is sea-harvested and the restaurant offers a daily line-caught fish special. The Lorenzo Marcos Prawns Peri-peri ($22), described as pan-fried Mozambique-style prawns, were spicy and succulent whole split prawns served atop flavorful yellow rice and with excellent greens. Meat at the restaurant is cooked on the “Backyard Braai,” Braai being the South African version of BBQ and a popular South African pastime. T-bone steak ($24) arrives moist and tender with a good, flavorful char and a choice of sauces: mushroom, garlic butter and Monkey Gland. Thankfully, Monkey Gland sauce is not made from monkeys at all but is the traditional South African BBQ sauce made with red wine, apricots, tomato, onion and chutney. For vegetarians there is a daily vegetable platter special that changes according to the season and market availability. The restaurant also servs several curries which include Durban Bunny Chow, hollowed-out bread served with a choice of vegetable, lamb, organic chicken or seafood curry.

Madiba offers a $25 and a $50 coupon. Entrees are priced at $16.50-$24, making the $25 coupon is best for two diners and the $50 coupon is best for parties of four or more.