Little Kampala Bar and Grill

Came here for lunch. Their lunch deal includes a main course + 1 side for $8 which is a bargain. We ordered a beef choma, a pork choma and a chicken choma (grilled meats) and as sides we got katogo (banana with curry flavor), fried cassava and fried plantains. Everything was super delicious, but I think the pork had the best flavor! Watch out for the chili sauce in a bottle, it is the hottest I have ever tasted!

The place is pretty casual, but the TV was on maybe a bit too loud. Our waitress was very attentive and nice. The decor suited the theme and the place in general was tidy. I would totally recommend Little Kampala for anyone interested in trying something new!

I found this place due to my love for African food and the sad temporary closure of my favorite Swahili Village led me here.

This is a very nice location for a restaurant and bar business. The name is catchy and very welcoming. The decor is legit beautiful. They have the famous and tasty Kenyan beer Tusker. Yess!!!

Now probably you are ready to order and indulge in what they promise you will be mouth watering. Wrong!!! The food eg the greens and the meat stew are over cooked and overwhelmingly spiced using the pilau spice.

It's wrong for me to drive 1 hour from my place, invite several people to come join me for a perfectly done East African cuisine only to be thoroughly embarrassed with over done, over spiced food. The beans are over cooked too. The pilau is very dry and the over cooked collard greens an eyesore. The meat dissolves in your mouth and you are left wondering why they over used the Pilau spice on every goddamn meat. I asked for fish curry it came unfried and undercooked in a very tasty broth. Took a lot of effort not to throw up. Please go easy on the salt too. Jeez!!!

The foods you see on their website are not really what you get when you order... Issa fraud!!!

Most foods have a very unique taste and texture that comes out perfectly when just enough seasoning and heat is used. That buffet is a joke...yuck!!! very good recipe for diabetes and diarrhea at the same time.

Swahili Village please open up sooner. We are suffering.

So ..... I got the grilled goat and it was not what I expected ! The meat was burnt and tasteless ... the collard greens tasteless .My plate went back almost as it come out.
The worst part really was the flies and little bugs that were all over the place ... it was not a good experience. I will not be coming back !!

Ugandan Little Kampala made me wonder before I arrived...
Why are there no Yelp reviews in 2017?
How is Ugandan food unique?
Arrived at 12:25 with a friend and we literally turned on the lights in the restaurants for the owner, sweet Ugandan mother-like woman.
Another question came to me - how do they survive without many guests?
The food came - goat curry for both but we had the different sides. My side of peas was divine - it was almost like a stew (rich and colorful). The bread was Ok, on the dry side. My friend had Ugali, which is a dish made of (some kind) of flour. His Ugali was like a hospital food - no taste, no salt, just a mass of food. We both liked (American born) goats. Good taste, not much fat, great sauce.
With no African music and African beer we had to resort to a usual brand of beer. And that summarized it well. It was very good, it was not cheap and it was not adventurous (enough). I came with three questions and I left without answers while enjoying my Ugandan meal. I did some research and I wondered about size of the Ugandan American community after this sad information about low acceptance rate made me dumbfounded - "The number of Ugandan refugees granted permanent residence status in the United States between 1946 and 1996 was generally less than 50 per year. Only ten Ugandan refugees were admitted in 1996."
I was very happy to support Ugandan American small business and meet its welcoming and proud owner.

The food here is amazing. The flavors are bold and powerful.

Diners who come from non-African cultures should expect to have their expectations broken. Like every (non-Ethiopian) restaurant I've been to, it may even seem "inhospitable" to you. This place has adjusted to meet your needs more than most, but the waitstaff may seem awkward, the service slow, and the dishes expensive. Their best design element was the wall art, but the outside emphasized fire, and the bar sported blinking LEDs and a loud TV. It was a bit tacky, and that's normal. In fact, Little Kampala does better at counteracting those tendencies than most sub-Saharan African restaurants. For the African late crowd, this place is hopping.

The owners and managers are interested in seeing what they can do to bring in other customers, so if you have a constructive suggestion, feel free to share it. I went in for lunch, but I was handed a dinner menu. The dishes were bigger and more expensive than what I was looking for, and as someone only mildly familiar with east African cuisine, I didn't know most of the words on the menu.

RECOMMENDATION FOR MENU CHANGES
I encourage Little Kampala to redesign their menu to meet the following objectives:
(1) Reduce the number of decisions that newcomers need to make. Offer six signature plates that match complementary entrees and sides. Familiar patrons can always substitute out these defaults if they want something special.
(2) Hire a skilled graphic designer and include large, professional photos of your signature plates. Do not use stolen or obviously stock photos. I've seen the stock photos you post on Yelp, and they misrepresent your food. Plus, they're tacky.
(3) Offer some smaller dishes at reduced prices, especially for lunch. Most newcomers aren't going to associate east African cuisine with a $30 high-end experience, especially if you don't attend to other expectations like a more thought-out interior, design, table arrangements and wait service. If you forgo those amenities, you need (some) meals lower prices. My wife and I were able to fill up on one shared dish. If you'd portioned and priced it differently, we would have been happy to pay 50% more for two plates.
(4) Think of something you might be able to put on the table while patrons wait, much like Mexican restaurants put our chips and salsa. It would have been nice to munch on plantain chips or peanuts while we waited a significant time.
(5) Use a higher starch-to-stew ratio. We didn't have enough ugali to finish our stew, but the ugali is the least expensive element of the dish. We would have been happy if you'd given us more starch and less stew.
(6) Include detailed descriptions of every dish to educate your patrons. Instead of just saying "Ugali", say, "*Ugali (large font)* // A dough-like ball of boiled millet. The traditional method of eating ugali (and the most common in the rural areas) is to roll a lump into a ball with the right hand, and then dip it into a sauce or stew. Making a depression with the thumb allows the ugali to be used to scoop."
(7) The lunch menu, which I only saw *after* I ate lunch, was comprised of mostly western dishes. Even if that's what you normally eat for lunch, non-African patrons may be more attracted by your uniquely African dishes. If they wanted to eat a burger, why wouldn't they just go to an American burger shop? It may be wise to keep around one or two more typical American dishes to accommodate less adventurous members of a large party, but you should play to your strengths.

UPDATE: Little Kampala has been posting a bunch of stock photos on Yelp. That's not what their dishes look like.

Big bold flavors just how love it !
The ambience is causal, intimate and contemporary. Love the bathroom very clean and updated. They have TV'S so you always catch a sporting event.
Appetizer: Wings very delicious marinated in a bed of secret spices none of which I could distinguished which is awesome gives me a reason to come back. They had a smokey/grill taste to them yummy.
Entrees: 1/2 chicken well very tasty. Well seasoned with secret spices! The half chicken had a completely different taste as compared to the wings. It was cooked all the way through delicious. With a side of Chapatti delicious.
Curried tilapia moist and has a Cajun and a bit of heat. I ordered a side of Ugali and greens
Fried tilapia well seasoned ,moist and meaty.
Great sized portions. The servers are very good and pretty. Love the bartender Steve !
This chef certainly surprised my palate. Job well done! This by far is one of the best African restaurant I have been to. Hopefully the next time they will have salmon. As long as the consistency remains the same I will be back!

Love this East African cuisine. Glad to see Uganda popping up on the map for our beauty and delicacies. Never been disappointed with the happy hour, dinner, or brunch. Would recommend to anyone coming from out of town or your adding this to your local favs. Giving Swahili Village a big run for their money!!!

Very tasty food, a lot of which I have never been able to try before, at very reasonable prices for this area. I especially liked the bread I had that looked a bit like naan but I found much tastier. I had a chicken dish that really reminded me of Peruvian chicken. Good service, very attentive, though part of that was probably that I was the only one there! Hopefully word gets out about this place and people will want to try something different.

This is probably my favorite African restaurant in MD, the customer service is excellent and the food is very delicious .
I would recommend this place anytime
Wish I could give them six star.

One day, I decided to go out on a whim and try out a new restaurant that I heard about. I must say, the excellent service was only matched by the impeccable food. Easily one of my new favorite places to eat! #littlekampala