African Grill and Bar

Tucked into a Kipling Parkway strip mall you'd blow right past, this is one of the few places in metro Denver doing real West African food, and they've quietly done it since 2004. Owners Sylvester and Theodora plate fufu, jollof rice, peanut soup, kelewele, and South African pap, and on the right night there are drummers and dancers. The Denver Gazette framed it as a restaurant that 'beat the odds' — it survived precisely because the people who find it keep coming back. Nothing about the storefront tells you any of this is inside.

The move: Go hungry and order family-style — get fufu plus a stew so you're both tearing into the same bowl, and split an order of kelewele (spiced fried plantains). It's a low-stakes, talk-a-lot dinner where you're learning a cuisine together rather than performing a date.

• 📍 Lakewood
• 💸 $$
• ⚡ Up for anything
• 🌗 Indoors

Where: 955 S Kipling Pkwy, Lakewood, CO 80226 (inside the Kipling Parkway strip mall; easy to miss from the road)

Hours: Roughly noon-9pm Mon-Sat per current listings; call (303) 985-4497 to confirm and for reservations/live-music nights.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4

Verified 2026-06-07.