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Clay Oven Indian Restaurant (Fajara)

Contact Address:
Clay Oven Restaurant
Satang Jow Road, Banjul area
Fajara M Section
Booster Station (North Atlantic)
PO Box 4337, Bakau
The Gambia, West Africa

Tel no: +220 449 6600 Reservations
Mobile:          7973535 Home Delivery
                     9950705

Email: info@theclayoven.gm

Review:
The Clay Oven Restaurant has now been serving in The Gambia genuine Indian food to eat in or take-away for many years now and is one of the best Indian restaurants in Gambia. The main restaurant is exquisitely furnished and has a seating capacity for 70 diners. There are also private rooms for up to 20 people as well as wheelchair access from the side entrance.

In 1992 "The Sunday People" described "The Clay Oven" as "...the best Indian restaurant in Africa...."

For over 25 years your host, Vimal, has welcomed discerning gourmands to this quiet and efficient eating house to enjoy genuine Indian cuisine, and also, in no small way, has re-educated people who expect the menu to describe food as "Madras" "Vindaloo" or "Korma".

There is more to the spectacular variety of Indian food than could ever be summed up in a few trite words.

And there is much more to The Clay Oven than can be conveyed by the word "restaurant".

Lunch in the Tamarind Garden is from Monday to Saturday between 12.00 p.m. to 3.00 p.m. and for dinner from 6pm onwards.

The wonderful a la carte menu offered also from noon each day, but until late, late in the evening.

The "Sizzlers Night" every Tuesday evening. Not a buffet, but a continuous service to your table of a myriad of tandoori delicacies until you say " Stop! I cannot eat any more"

Sunday afternoon drinks cocktails, conversation and company, and Indian tapas, (snacks) made to order, created to suit your taste.

There is a Buffet dinner service for parties in your own home.

At lunchtime, share a roti with chicken tikka. The vegetables and the oven-cooked meat marinated in one of Vimal’s secret mixtures. Like the iron fist in the velvet glove, it hits you, but it does not hurt.

Vimal, while zealously guarding his recipes, discusses your meal with you and ensures that every dish is to your preferred taste.

Try the Tamarind Fish, a morning-fresh steak of ladyfish topped with chilli ragout consisting of a crunchy, stir-fried mixture of vegetables. Try the speciality baguettes, or the omelettes, filled baked potatoes, pepper-steak, lamb chops...

• Dinner
Arrival for an evening meal at The Clay Oven is a wise choice. Vimal’s promise of "anticipation, consumption and remembrance" is well kept.

For a starter try Amba Chingri, sauted with mango, green pepper and tomatoes with plump prawns.

Then enjoy the Tandoori mixed grill from the tandoor (from the clay oven). Or Murg Masala, chicken cooked in spices and a thick sauce. Accompany this with Naan bread instead of rice.

Enjoy the pickles, the mango chutney, and there is a tamand and date sauce which I swear is addictive

Vimal accompanies all dishes personally to your table. Take particular note when he identifies the hot chilli sauce for you. This man has a serious regard for your health and happiness!

• Best!
This calm and mature, delightfully, casually formal restaurant is probably still the best Indian restaurant in Africa...and for a long time to come.

Food writer: Harmattan


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Tandoori Chicken



Directions:
It is just off the Atlantic Road just after the British High Commission and you take your second turning on the right just before the Booster Station Extension and behind the VSO office.

Opening Hours:
LUNCH:
12:00 noon to 3:00pm

DINNER:
7:00pm-11:30pm
Seven days a week


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Menu Overview:
• Shuruaat
Hors D'Oeuvers

• Jeera Alu
Sliced potatoes spiced with
cumin and mixed spices

• Mixed Pakoras
Selection of mixed vegetables deep fried with gram flour batter

• Jeera Murg
Chicken wings cooked with cumin and mixed spices

• Samosa
Triangles of crispy pastry filled with vegetable or meat

• Tari Machchi
Pieces of fish marinated
and deep fried

• Chingri Shashlick
Prawns marinated in spices
and sautŽed in butter

• Onion Bhajis
Sliced onions well spiced mixed
with gram flour and deep fried

• Alu Wada
Spicy mashed potatoes deep fried
in gram flour batter

• Chingri Pakora
Queen prawns marinated and
deep fried in spicy gram flour batter

• Kaleji
Fresh lamb's liver sautιed with onions and spices

• Pilau Rice is available with the main sauces.


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Desserts:
• Badam Pista Kulfi
Oriental ice-cream with almonds, ground cardamom seeds  and pistachio nuts

• Mango Kulfi
Oriental ice cream made with mango pulp

• Chocolate Kula
bitter chocolate on ice-cream

• Gulab Jabun
Miniature semolina cakes puffed and deep-fried served with syrup

• Kheer
An in-house special rice pudding with nuts and saffron

• Gajjer Halwa
Freshly grated carrots with almonds, pistachios and  raisins

• Fresh Fruit Salad
Diced and served with ice-cream

• Chocolate and Pecan Pie

• Chokito
Chocolate served with shaped rice vanilla ice-cream


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Tandoori Chicken:
Their curry can be made either very hot and spicy, or medium hot to very mild. If in doubt over your selection the staff are very helpful and are all too happy to help you in your through the available menu of their dishes to go with your preferred.

In Tandoori ovens charcoal is used for the fire which gives a fairly consistent temperature. It is the smoke from the charcoal gives the chicken or beef its unique taste and aroma.

The Dum Phukt method of cooking uses dough to seal the container with the ingredients which is then placed into a Tandoor oven enabling all flavours being released from the herbs and spices to be kept.
 
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