I haven’t really spent the whole week at bars, but Tequila Joe’s and Avida were both on the agenda this week, as was the new Afrika on Cam­bridge Ter­race (formerly the Moroc­can Cas­ab­lanca).

Tequila JoesTequila Joe’s is in the former Shin­obi Sushi premises on Vivi­an Street near the corner of Tory; the res­ult of a Detroit lad with aspir­a­tions to own his own bar.  The drinks all come in jars, includ­ing a range of $10 ‘famed’ tequilas one could work one’s way through if of a mind.  The food is from Tequila Joe’s child­hood (southern/Hispanic), with chilli fea­tur­ing through­out.

The Yucatan burrito (pulled pork, lime rice, cow­boy beans) and kickin buf­falo bleu bur­ger with super secret fries (the secret’s safe with us cos we didn’t work it out…) were simple but pleas­ant, and the burrito was tangy as prom­ised.  If you wish for it drowned in cheese and sauce, you can order a ‘swamp­ing sauce’ for an addi­tion­al $5, so all bases covered.

Def­in­itely an inter­est­ing place for a cheap and cheer­ful drink and graze if up that end of town.

Avida was pol­ished as always, with it hard to go past their san­gria and Span­ish catalan breads.  Spin­ach, mush­room, car­a­mel­ized onion and gor­gonzola; Ser­rano ham, rock­et, manchego, wal­nuts and olive oil; shrimp whipped feta, chilli, con­fit gar­lic, oregano; and lamb saus­age, skordalia, picked fen­nel and mint.  Enough said.

Afrika menuAnd onto Afrika to check out the folks from the Cuba night mar­ket now estab­lished in their own premises.  Laid back and a bit funky, the aim is Afric­an vil­lage with simple down-home fare simmered through the day (mostly cur­ries and stews) and served at eco­nom­ic­al prices.  We enjoyed our spicy goat curry and joll (stew) of lamb, and noted that everything is halal com­pli­ant and glu­ten-free if that’s import­ant.

The point of dif­fer­ence for Afrika is the use of the res­taur­ant as a music and enter­tain­ment ven­ue through the week (drum­ming or Afrik­an DJ from 9.30pm) and vari­ous oth­er themes from time to time – Somali Sat­urday this week­end just gone (food, drink and enter­tain­ment), and Eth­opi­an New year cel­eb­ra­tions a couple of weeks ago.  So the food is just a part of the exper­i­ence.

I dis­covered ugali, which I’d def­in­itely choose again with a stew or curry, and noted Afric­an beers and wines on the drinks list. With a delight­ful Tan­zani­an wait­ress it def­in­itely felt the real deal, and provides anoth­er inter­est­ing addi­tion to the won­der­ful Wel­ling­ton land­scape.