African Cuisine in 3 Countries

African cuisine as seen from three countries: two in Africa and one outside of Africa.

African cuisine has captured the world’s interest: What do Africans eat? Is it delicious? Is it healthy? Are there major differences between the south and the north? The answer is yes. We’re embarking on a mini culinary journey right here, so get ready to enjoy the best of African cuisine, which offers unique flavor experiences from across the continent. We have several articles about food from Africa and many more about the continent itself.

Safari—Back to the Roots

For the traveler who uses the dining table as a reason to get out and explore, an African gourmet journey is more than just a lesson from afar. It’s about sitting down. And the dining experiences worth flying for all have one thing in common: they’re about the continent as it actually tastes—not about the lines drawn by the European colonial powers across Africa at a table in Berlin in 1884. The cuisine has never followed those lines. It followed the rivers, the markets, and the people. Here are three places where you can taste the difference.
This isn’t just a journey; it’s a journey into the heart of African gastronomy, where every bite tells a story.

Addis Ababa—fine dining in a country without a colonial past, shaped by African gastronomy

Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never colonized. The Italian occupation in the 1930s lasted five years and left its mark on the espresso machines, not on the cuisine. That’s why Addis Ababa offers a taste of something most African capitals had to reinvent: a cuisine that has been allowed to develop in one continuous strand.

With a focus on African gastronomy, Ethiopia offers an experience that is both authentic and unique.

The cornerstone is injera—the large, tangy teff pancake that serves as a plate, utensil, and bread all at once—topped with wat, the slow-cooked stews where berbere and the spicy butter niter kibbeh do the work. At places like Yod Abyssinia and Kategna, it’s served with the matter-of-fact ease you only find where a dish has never been altered to please tourists.

But it’s the coffee that makes Addis a destination for food enthusiasts. Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica coffee, and the Ethiopian coffee ceremony—where the beans are roasted, ground, and brewed right in front of you over the course of about an hour—is one of the most beautiful dining experiences you can have. A full dinner with injera, wat, and the ceremony rarely costs more than 150–250 kr. per person. Ethiopia isn’t an expensive country to eat well in. The hard part is getting to the table—not paying for it.

Ethiopian food is a perfect example of how African gastronomy can bring cultures together.

Lisbon—Where Africa and Europe Meet on the Plate

In Lisbon, European and African gastronomy come together in a symphony of flavors and aromas that you won’t want to miss.

You don’t have to fly to Africa to get started. Lisbon is the city where the Portuguese Empire came home and made itself at home in the kitchens. Neighborhoods like Mouraria and Intendente are home to some of Europe’s most overlooked African restaurants—Mozambican, Angolan, and Cape Verdean spots, run by families who brought their cuisine with them.

Winetalk.dk, international cuisine and the wines to pair with it

At the Mozambican classic Cantinho do Aziz in Mouraria, piri-piri isn’t a sauce from the supermarket, but the backbone of the house: shrimp and chicken grilled with chili, garlic, and oil according to a recipe that traveled from Maputo to Lisbon. Angolan moamba de galinha—chicken in palm oil and okra—and Cape Verdean cachupa. This slow-cooked corn and bean stew can be found all over the city if you know where to look. A meal typically costs 150–300 DKK per person, and you’ll pair it with Portuguese wines: the Portuguese wines from Alentejo and Douro go surprisingly well with African chili.

Lisbon is also an easy gateway for a Nordic traveler—a three-and-a-half-hour direct flight from Copenhagen, and you can experience the meeting of three continents without leaving Europe.

Cape Town—where African cuisine and gastronomy flourish

If Addis Ababa is authenticity and Lisbon is heritage, Cape Town is ambition. Here, a generation of South African chefs has stopped imitating European gastronomy and started using their own landscape as a pantry—fynbos, seaweed, West Coast fish, and native plants that most Europeans have never even heard of.

Kobus van der Merwe has gone the farthest. At Wolfgat, a small stone cottage in the fishing village of Paternoster, an hour and a half north of Cape Town, he serves exclusively what can be gathered within a few kilometers—beach herbs, mussels, seaweed—in a cuisine he calls “strandveldkos.” In 2019, Wolfgat was named the world’s best restaurant at the first World Restaurant Awards in Paris, without a single imported ingredient. A tasting menu costs around 1,200–1,600 DKK—a fraction of what a comparable experience would cost in Copenhagen or Paris.

In Cape Town itself, chefs like Peter Tempelhoff at FYN are carrying this same philosophy forward, and at the classic La Colombe, top-level technique meets an African foundation rather than a French one. This is where the idea of African gastronomy ceases to be merely a topic and becomes a tool. And since a trip to South Africa is one you plan over several days anyway, it makes perfect sense to add a couple of days on safari in Kruger—predators in the morning, a tasting menu in the evening.

Cape Town is a testament to how African gastronomy can revolutionize the culinary scene.

How to Plan an African Gourmet Trip from the Nordics

African cuisine thrives in a number of European countries. Denmark as an example.  And the 3 below. AfricanThe three cities can be visited separately or combined, but each has its own rhythm:

• Cape Town—from Copenhagen, typically via Doha, Istanbul, or Amsterdam, taking 14–16 hours. The best time to visit is the southern summer, November through March, when the west coast is accessible and the wine region is in full bloom.
• Addis Ababa – Ethiopian Airlines flies directly from Stockholm; from Copenhagen, the route goes via Istanbul or Frankfurt. The dry season from October to March is the most pleasant time to travel.
• Lisbon – a three-and-a-half-hour direct flight from Copenhagen year-round. Spring and fall are the nicest; summer is hot and crowded.

Prices vary widely: Ethiopia is inexpensive for dining but more expensive to fly to; Lisbon is the affordable weekend getaway; Cape Town offers the most expensive flight ticket but the cheapest world-class cuisine. For a broader perspective on the trip, check out our section on food and wine and on Africa as a whole.

To get the full picture of African gastronomy, it’s important to visit these three destinations.

Addis Ababa, Lisbon, Cape Town—three destinations, each of which makes the cuisine of an entire continent a reason to travel.

No matter where you travel in Africa, the delightful and unique African cuisine will always be a central part of the experience.