Inside Civic’s newest African restaurant, where culture is on the menu

Posted on 9 September, 2026

With traditional dishes, plans for palm wine and a deep love of culture, Nigerian friends and chefs Silverline Uzomanze and Promise Rose Okuchukwu want their new Civic venue, Unique African Restaurant, to be more than a restaurant.

For Silverline, a plate of jollof rice is never just rice cooked with tomato, capsicum, onion and spices, and fufu shared with hands is never just a meal – it’s connection and a taste of home.

So, when you arrive at the restaurant on West Row in Canberra’s historic Melbourne Building, understand you will likely get more than just a taste of Africa, you may get a cultural immersion.

“I’m a lover of culture,” says Silverline, who came to Australia from Nigeria in 2021. “I want Africa to be out there, because I feel Africa is amazing and there are a lot of things people don’t know about Africa. There is no better way to tell the story than through good food.”

The restaurant will seat about 65 people, with booths down one side, tables through the dining room and a courtyard-style lounge space for private functions and organised events. But Silverline and Promise are imagining something bigger than lunch and dinner service, they want the venue to become a cultural destination in the middle of the city.

On weekends, they plan to host cultural nights celebrating different African countries, with food, music, dance and conversation. A Ghana night, for example, might include Ghanaian dishes and a singer sharing stories about Ghanaian culture. A projector will show African dance and cultural performances, giving diners another way to connect with the traditions behind the food.

“Every country and every state in Africa has a unique story,” says Silverline. “That’s what we want to tell.”

The menu will centre on traditional African dishes, especially the Nigerian food both women know and love. Diners can expect jollof rice with turkey or chicken, rice and beef stew, goat meat, grilled fish, grilled lamb, egusi soup, efo riro, and fufu. For those new to African food, the team plans to offer a buffet every second Saturday, giving customers the chance to taste a wide variety of dishes before returning during the week to order their favourites.

Silverline’s joloff rice

Breakfast and lunch are also part of the plan. From 7 am, city workers will be able to grab coffee alongside African snacks such as fish rolls, African meat pies and puff puff, with takeaway lunches and delivery through Uber Eats intended to make the food as accessible as possible.

And once their liquor licence is approved, they hope to serve alcohol too – including palm wine, a traditional drink made from palm tree sap that Silverline describes as sweet, slightly sour and gently fermented. It is part of a dish-and-drink pairing she is especially excited to introduce – cow leg served in red palm oil sauce with oil bean, presented with palm wine in a local wooden cup.

If nothing else, this restaurant seems intent on breaking the stranglehold of Italian, Asian and Indian restaurants on that side of Northbourne Avenue.

For Promise, who arrived in Australia in 2024, the restaurant is the next step in a career built around cooking. A private chef in Nigeria, she continued cooking after moving to Canberra, catering private events and building her own food business. The two women met through Canberra’s Nigerian community and discovered they worked well together while cooking for events. Their big break? Like many emerging local food brands, it was the National Multicultural Festival.

For Canberra’s African communities, the restaurant will offer a taste of home. For others, it will be an invitation to try the famed African dish of jollof rice for the first time, or to experience a steaming bowl of Pepper Soup, featuring meat or fish in a light broth of uziza seeds, ehuru, calabash nutmeg, scotch bonnet, scent leaf, onions and seasoning. Perhaps an African breakfast of Akara and Pap might hit the spot, combining crispy bean fritters made from seasoned black-eyed peas, served with smooth, creamy Nigerian pap. Whatever the order, it promises an adventure.

In a city that prides itself on being multicultural, Silverline and Promise hope their new restaurant will become a place where people do more than eat. They hope they leave with a fuller understanding of Africa – and maybe discover a new favourite dish.