Order grapa here to get your night started properly. Chase it with expresso and you are off! The food is great - you can tell that locals love it because they are picking up take out the entire night. This place has character - definitely worth a try.
(5)
John A.
So my former coworkers (and still friends) and I were looking for a new place to go out to eat and we wanted to try something closer to where one of our crew lives (about 15-20 miles south of Boston). I had previously heard of this place in my travels on the internet, saw some good reviews, liked the look of the menu and the friendly service when I called for info (it helps to speak Portuguese or Cape Verdean Creole, but it's not absolutely necessary and the wait staff was all fluent in English), so we decided to give it a try. Don't be intimidated by the distance if you live in or closer to Boston, as you can get there by car in about 25 minutes and Brockton is also accessible by commuter rail and bus from Boston. If you want to try Angolan food--and I don't know of any other place in or closer to Boston that serves it--go to Luanda (named after the capital city of that southwest African country). Because of the Portuguese colonial influence, the flavors of southern Europe/Portugal are evident, but don't be fooled by the big sign on the front entrance that advertises "Portuguese Food", as the flavors of Angola itself dominate the menu. There are some items on the menu that you can find in Cape Verdean, Portuguese or Brazilian restaurants in the Greater Boston area and in Southeastern Mass./RI, but there are "Pratos Tipicos" of Angola that you can't find anywhere else in the area. I had the Muamba de Galinha, which according to my research, is one of the national dishes of Angola. There were plenty of other interesting items on the menu, but if I'm in the only Angolan restaurant around, I want to try something specific to that country and I was not disappointed. When I ordered it, the waitress almost seemed like she was trying to steer me away from it when she asked me if I had ever tried it before and after I told her that I hadn't, she asked me if I would like it :-) . I said, "I don't know; let me try it and find out." The dish was a very tasty combination of stewed chicken and okra in a palm oil sauce with beans and a bowl of mashed/pureed yuca (also called mandioca, manioc or cassava, depending on where you're eating it; for the uninitiated, it's a tuberous vegetable like a potato or yam, but with more flavor [slightly sweet]) on the side. I asked how they eat it in Angola and she told me that they use their hands, so having traveled to several countries where that is still the preferred method, I dug into that dish the proper way (using the yuca to pick up the chicken and okra, kind of like you use fufu in some West African countries or ugali in some East African countries) and asked for extra napkins. The hot sauce on the side was good if you like that, but the dish itself had plenty of flavor and covered all the basic food groups :-) . My friends were also really happy with their choices as well: Churrasco a Luanda (grilled Cornish game hen with special house sauce; she had never tried that bird before and was a little skeptical at first, but she was very satisfied), Mufete (grilled tilapia in a palm oil sauce with sweet potatoes, yuca and beans) and I can't remember what friend #3 had, but she really liked her dish too (I usually try other folks' dishes, but I was so absorbed in my own that I didn't bother this time). We washed our dishes down with Sumol (fruit flavored sodas from Portugal) and also had appetizers (Mandioca con Torresmo [fried yuca and pork] and Camarão al Alhinho [shrimp with garlic sauce]) and dessert (two orders of the Sobremesa da Casa, enough for four, a delicious combination of pudding, cookies and coconut flakes). Prices aren't super cheap, but the food is really high quality and tastes like it's made to order. There is live music on Friday and Saturday evenings, so we'll have to go back and check them out on one of those nights (we were there on an early Sunday afternoon and the place was pretty quiet and service was fast and friendly, but I imagine they might be busier on those other nights). So if you live in or close to Brockton or you don't mind traveling a little for some very good, hard to find food, check out Restaurante Luanda (the online menu spells it "Restaurante", the sign on the building says "Restaurant" and for some reason, Yelp spells it "Restaurants").
Michael S.
Order grapa here to get your night started properly. Chase it with expresso and you are off! The food is great - you can tell that locals love it because they are picking up take out the entire night. This place has character - definitely worth a try.
(5)John A.
So my former coworkers (and still friends) and I were looking for a new place to go out to eat and we wanted to try something closer to where one of our crew lives (about 15-20 miles south of Boston). I had previously heard of this place in my travels on the internet, saw some good reviews, liked the look of the menu and the friendly service when I called for info (it helps to speak Portuguese or Cape Verdean Creole, but it's not absolutely necessary and the wait staff was all fluent in English), so we decided to give it a try. Don't be intimidated by the distance if you live in or closer to Boston, as you can get there by car in about 25 minutes and Brockton is also accessible by commuter rail and bus from Boston. If you want to try Angolan food--and I don't know of any other place in or closer to Boston that serves it--go to Luanda (named after the capital city of that southwest African country). Because of the Portuguese colonial influence, the flavors of southern Europe/Portugal are evident, but don't be fooled by the big sign on the front entrance that advertises "Portuguese Food", as the flavors of Angola itself dominate the menu. There are some items on the menu that you can find in Cape Verdean, Portuguese or Brazilian restaurants in the Greater Boston area and in Southeastern Mass./RI, but there are "Pratos Tipicos" of Angola that you can't find anywhere else in the area. I had the Muamba de Galinha, which according to my research, is one of the national dishes of Angola. There were plenty of other interesting items on the menu, but if I'm in the only Angolan restaurant around, I want to try something specific to that country and I was not disappointed. When I ordered it, the waitress almost seemed like she was trying to steer me away from it when she asked me if I had ever tried it before and after I told her that I hadn't, she asked me if I would like it :-) . I said, "I don't know; let me try it and find out." The dish was a very tasty combination of stewed chicken and okra in a palm oil sauce with beans and a bowl of mashed/pureed yuca (also called mandioca, manioc or cassava, depending on where you're eating it; for the uninitiated, it's a tuberous vegetable like a potato or yam, but with more flavor [slightly sweet]) on the side. I asked how they eat it in Angola and she told me that they use their hands, so having traveled to several countries where that is still the preferred method, I dug into that dish the proper way (using the yuca to pick up the chicken and okra, kind of like you use fufu in some West African countries or ugali in some East African countries) and asked for extra napkins. The hot sauce on the side was good if you like that, but the dish itself had plenty of flavor and covered all the basic food groups :-) . My friends were also really happy with their choices as well: Churrasco a Luanda (grilled Cornish game hen with special house sauce; she had never tried that bird before and was a little skeptical at first, but she was very satisfied), Mufete (grilled tilapia in a palm oil sauce with sweet potatoes, yuca and beans) and I can't remember what friend #3 had, but she really liked her dish too (I usually try other folks' dishes, but I was so absorbed in my own that I didn't bother this time). We washed our dishes down with Sumol (fruit flavored sodas from Portugal) and also had appetizers (Mandioca con Torresmo [fried yuca and pork] and Camarão al Alhinho [shrimp with garlic sauce]) and dessert (two orders of the Sobremesa da Casa, enough for four, a delicious combination of pudding, cookies and coconut flakes). Prices aren't super cheap, but the food is really high quality and tastes like it's made to order. There is live music on Friday and Saturday evenings, so we'll have to go back and check them out on one of those nights (we were there on an early Sunday afternoon and the place was pretty quiet and service was fast and friendly, but I imagine they might be busier on those other nights). So if you live in or close to Brockton or you don't mind traveling a little for some very good, hard to find food, check out Restaurante Luanda (the online menu spells it "Restaurante", the sign on the building says "Restaurant" and for some reason, Yelp spells it "Restaurants").
(5)