Lunch, Good African Coffee Company Cafe, Lugogo Mall, Kampala

It was my first weekend in my new flat and amongst other things I needed to top up my dongle so I could get some internet access, necessary at home before it gets switched on at the flat and at work, where there is no internet access to speak of. As I was about to set off I was asked if I could hang around for a while as the plumber, who was trying to fix a general water problem, could and have a look at my hot water problem. I duly obliged, and when I asked if he had any idea how much longer he’d need after 3 hours received a shrug. My replay was that I was going out and would be about an hour.

I was planning to head down to Lugogo Mall as well as all the mobile phone shops there is also the Shoprite and Game stores as well as the wonderful Mr Tasty from my first weekend here. This time around the journey is much closer, it was only about 5 minutes away by boda on the bypass. After sorting t’Internet out, I was fairly ravenous and so went into the Good African Coffee Company Café also at the mall. It’s fairly popular with an even split of expats to locals.

After a brief look at the menu, it was obvious that I’d settle for the cheese and bacon burger and a Coke. A reasonably short wait for my food allowed me to do plenty of people watching the impressive footfall on the strip mall, I must have counted about a 60/40 split of locals to muzungus walking past. I had a brief moment of confusion as the waitress brought me a warm towel and I mistakenly thought that I was on a plane. Suitably warmed and moistened my food arrived momentarily.

The chips were, pretty much as they always are, nothing to set off the fireworks for. The burger was initially promising. It was a decent size, well-constructed and the patty was thick and was the size of an ice hockey puck with convex instead of flat ends. After cutting the burger in half it was reasonably cooked to a medium, but with a fair amount of juice oozing out.

After an initial bite it was obviously a mistake to have raised my expectations as the patty was particularly uninspiring, of uniform texture and too peppery. The bacon and cheese made up for things, but the bun quickly began to lose all structural integrity. I ended up leaving most of the bun on the plate (to accompany the chips). Overall not the greatest, but far better than the horrors of Mr Tasty next door. 2 out of 5.

I’m still off the coffee, but apparently the coffee here is supposed to be pretty good and you can find the brand in Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose in the UK as well as the Shoprite that I did my shopping in. Got some great apples.

Naturally the plumber had gone by the time I returned less than an hour after leaving, cold water isn’t too bad. At least it’s water.