Review: Hoza African Restaurant

    As many of you know, my family loves eating different cuisines, so we wanted to try Hoza, an African restaurant, in Easton, PA. They make Nigerian, Kenyan, South African, Senegalese, Ghanaian, Jamaican, and Zimbabwean dishes. My mom and I went with some very close family friends, so we got a bunch of food to share. We ordered beef and vegetable samosas, peri-peri chicken, braised oxtail, lamb dibi, and jerk lentils as entrees. Each entree came with 2 sides; we ordered jollof rice, fried plantains, peanut butter spinach, and chakalaka beans. That was just the right amount of food for all 7 of us.

    The entrees were all pretty spectacular and interesting. The samosas had a nice crunchiness and they came with a great spicy sauce. The peri-peri chicken was flavorful and not dry like some chicken can be. To be honest, I can't say much about the lamb because I only had one bite, so if you are curious about the lamb, you will have to taste it for yourself. The jerk lentils were very flavorful, but we decided that we thought they were on their way out since it was the end of the week. We decided if we ordered them right after their shipment of food came in, they would be fresher and taste much better. 

    Surprisingly, our favorite entree was the braised oxtail. It was still on the tailbone with looked super interesting without the meat. It reminded me of short rib in the consistency and flavor, but it was slightly sweeter to me than short rib. I don't know if that was because of the meat or the way it was prepared. One reason we chose these dishes was that since it was Sunday, the end of the restaurant's week, many of the entrees we wanted to order were unavailable. 

    The sides we ordered might have been even better than some of the entrees we ordered. The jollof rice had great spices and I personally enjoyed using a little bit of my extra sauce from the samosas in the rice to add a nice kick. The fried plantains were super fresh and sweet, while not being mushy. We had another surprising food we enjoyed immensely: the peanut butter spinach. I think it was sauteed spinach mixed with the restaurant's special peanut sauce. Almost everyone was surprised by how much we were pleased with the combination. A side along with being a super fun name to say, the chakalaka beans tasted remarkable. They were similar to baked beans with an African twist. 

    We will definitely dine at Hoza again in the future on a day when they aren't missing so many things from their menu.   

This is Hoza's Website and their address is 349 Northampton St, Easton PA 18052