Karimi’s Kitchen – Alford SA

Karimi’s Kitchen

This next review was totally unexpected and one that came totally out of the blue. We left Port Broughton and made the short trip down to Wallaroo. The trip is only 50km long and there’s not much to see in between, but between Port Broughton and Wallaroo there’s a little town called Alford and it’s got something very special.
Alford is tiny and I’m not kidding when I say that. As you drive through the Main Street you will see a small white food van and a sign saying “Home Made 🥧’s”. Lucky for me Julie was on the ball and saw the sign before it was to late. I quickly pulled over and walked over to this special place called Karimis Kitchen Takeaway.
Karimi’s Kitchen is a small food van owned and operated by a remarkable women named Karimi. Originally from Kenya Karimi came out to Australia as a skilled migrant where she worked at as a chef in various places around Adelaide. When she met the love of her life they decided to move back to the area and eventually settled in Alford, where she opened up her own food van out the front of the family home.
Over the last 5 years this place has gone from strength to strength. Everything in this food van is 100% home cooked and cooked with serious love. For a little van the food options are very generous and consistanly changing. Open 5 days a week, but beware the van can get very busy. The 🥧‘s in particular grabbed my attention straight away and we decided to get this review under way.
The place has a terrific selection of 🥧’s on offer.
These include chunky steak, pepper, chicken and lamb. All homemade on the premises and gee wizz they all looked amazing. The 🥧 of choice for this week was going to be the “chunky steak”
🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧
1. Value for Money – $5.90 represented pretty good value for this 🥧. It was a standard size 🥧 in both diameter and depth. To get a chunky steak 🥧 under 6 bucks under these days is pretty rare, particularly a homemade one. Overall you would pretty happy to pay this asking price. 9/10
2. Meat Ratio – While the meat chunks were massive there was a little bit of room left in this 🥧. The gravy, herbs and spices Karimi uses can we quite runny and it does appear as if the 🥧 is empty, but there is a fair bit of meat in this 🥧. When the 🥧 was cut a bit of sauce did spill out. Maybe a thicker sauce would helped but this was change the overal flavour of the 🥧. Overall not bad but a bit more could have been squeezed in this bad boy. 6/10
3. Flavour – Fav part of this 🥧 hands down !!! The meat chunks were massive and melted in your mouth with every bite. The gravy sauce Karimi uses was a little runny but holy moley it was full of flavour. She uses a stack of African herbs and spices and gee they give you a whack. Loved it 10/10
4. Pastry – Terrific job here as well. The top has a lovely puff to and and was baked right through, while the sides and bottom bakes were fully cooked. The bottom was a little soft and you had to be careful because as mentioned above the gravy sauce was a little runny. Overall great job !! The pastry tasted great and was full of flavour. 9.5/10
5. Serving Temperature – No issues here 10/10
Overall Rating
🥧🥧 44.5/50 🥧🥧
This was a beautiful 🥧. The flavour in particular was easily my favourite part. The meat was so tender and the various african herbs and spices Karimi uses were sensational. The price point for a 🥧 of this standard was more than acceptable. The pasty was also very good but the gravy sauce was a little runny and you needed to be a little careful how you attacked this 🥧. Only real negative was the meat ratio. As mentioned in the gravy was a little runny and the photos looked like the 🥧 wasn’t full. This could easily be fixed with a thicker gravy but this would change the whole flavour of the 🥧 and that’s not required. A few minor points to work on but nothing major. Overall this was a terrific 🥧 and one I would have again in a heartbeat.
This was a ripping review and a place 100% worth the stop in. Karimi is a remarkable women who is massively devoted to her faith and cooking incredible food. This is another story of hard work, dedication and I feel so privileged to have met Karimi and been able to share her story with you.
Our stay at Wallaroo was awesome. There is so much to see and do and places like Kadina, Moonta, Moonta Bay all worth checking out. The Wallaroo Holiday Park was a great little caravan park. The beach was stunning and only a stones throw from the park.