An Expedition to the Blue Nile-Eritrean Café in Woolwich 

“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected”. – Charles Lamb

And what a lot of nonsense we talked. Thus we were a larger group that ventured into Woolwich on Saturday night.  The Gannets had brought their spouses; we even had a fledgling, but strangely she had become a swan, not having bred true to form. And we invited the Puffins from down the road.   7  in all. Best to be a in a group in Woolwich…….

Above:  Mrs Gannet 2, the lovely cafe owner and Mr Gannet 1.

Overall, much better organised than last week (although Gannet 2 - the Lesser Gannet - got lost again!)  

Gannet 2 (the Lesser Gannet) suggested to Gannet 1 (the Greater Gannet) that Woolwich was a “bit edgy”;  the Greater Gannet pretended that she was perfectly at ease, after all it had only been a 50 metre walk from the car park but those 50 metres would feel a lot longer when it was time to go home; cold AND edgy then.

The Greater Gannet had changed her place of work in September; “We are all going to the Woolwich centre; much better for integration of services”. As the Greater Gannet mentioned this to friends and acquaintances, she would see the shadows pass over their faces, but so many said, “But you can have lunch at the Blue Nile!”. “The Blue Nile is just round the corner”. “ Let’s meet at the Blue Nile”. “ Fab Ethiopian Restaurant in Woolwich, I hear”.

The Lesser Gannet had also heard of the Blue Nile, famous throughout London, and reportedly No 1 on Tripadvisor for a while. A whole article written in the Guardian to dissect what it means; and therefore an easy choice for our second outing.

The Blue Nile is an unprepossessing small restaurant, maybe even a café, set just opposite the new central development in Woolwich. (Greater Gannet’s spouse was very pleased to have such a clear view of the Carbuncle Cup winner from 2014).The food is not Ethiopian, but Eritrean. Very different countries, as various wars have determined. We cannot comment on whether the cuisine is different; maybe time will tell. However, Eritrean cuisine has been heavily influenced by Italian food, following on from involvement in Italian possession from 1889 to 1941.

The restaurant was a butcher’s shop in the past; white tiles, racks on the ceilings. However, the welcome was warm, and it was busy on Saturday evening; the tables were full, and there was a general buzz. The menu is not extensive, and the charming woman  “front of house” suggested we shared platters of vegetarian and meat “injerers”. A good suggestion, it turned out.  An “injerer” is a flatbread or pancake, which serves as an edible plate, and curries are piled upon it, and eaten with portions of the injerer; economical with the washing up, and tasty to boot. (We knew that there would not be cutlery, and had come appropriately dressed).

So, we enjoyed: beef and lamb curries; chick pea and lentil curries; spinach and kale curries. Condiments of salad and yoghurt.  An edible injerer. Washed down with lashings of Eritrean beer. We all finished up with pastries, a definite Italian influence noticed there, accompanied by lightly perfumed coffee, or Kemen tea; the latter being absolutely delicious and a resounding success.  It might look like normal tea but it has all the spices of mulled wine and Christmas.

And what value for money! Just on £20 per head.

So:

Value:           10/10   Don’t see how it could be beaten on price
Ambience:    8/10 Great for what it was; buzzy, lively and welcoming   

 Taste:            8/10     maybe a bit variable, but the beef curry was reportedly fantastic ( Gannet 2 vegetarian for January, and desperate  for a piece of steak)
Authenticity:  10/10     Absolutely.

 Should it be No 1 on Tripadvsor? Read the Guardian article, or visit and make up your own mind. However, we don’t think that you would be disappointed, and definitely a new experience and thoroughly enjoyable. 

And the conversation? Eclectic to say the least; one minute it was Graham Norton and what Miriam Margolyes had said the previous night (everyone was slightly shocked); the next it was ethical relativism . We also had a small lecture on how to tidy your drawers, thanks to the swan.

And then, home to bed, and an episode of the last series of Madmen; oh joy!

HOW TO TURN IT INTO A CHEAP YET CULTURAL TRIP

In the opinion of Gannet 2, any visit to Woolwich town centre in the evening is a cultural trip.  Not high culture, mind, but certainly different.  If you go during the day then you could always go first to the Waterfront centre for some wet'n'wild fun on water slides.  Or walk along the river to look at the Thames Barrier and try to guess whether or not it will survive the built in 5m sea level rise from past global warming gas emissions.