If you’re bored with English cooking and fancy something entirely different then help is at hand – from another continent.

It’s not often you get offered dishes involving cow-foot in Huddersfield’s restaurants but Rosiyk Kitchen in the town centre does just that.

Offering authentic African cuisine, Nigerian-born Roseline N’Wabude, is making her first venture as a restaurateur a success and delivering the town’s first ‘African’ restaurant.

She told the Examiner she had been making authentic dishes to sell in a nearby shop for years but felt the time was right to make a go of becoming a fully fledged restaurant.

Some of the food offered at this eaterie on Cross Church Street will be well-known to British diners but much is enjoyably unfamiliar, Miondo/Bobolo or Spicy Dodo Gizzard anyone?

There’s a huge range of African and Caribbean dishes to choose from with everything from grilled lamb chops to jerk chicken as well as all manner of fish and beef stews.

Having enjoyed goat curry in Jamaica many years ago I called in to try it again and it was so delicious I quickly enlisted my brother-in-law, Mindy, for a full visit.

Apart from the quality of the cooking the relaxed informality of the restaurant is refreshing. Roseline, who moved to Huddersfield from Nigeria in 2005, and her husband Tony are as personable and friendly a couple as you could wish to meet.

Typical African dishes include: Jollof rice – a one pot spicy rice dish popular in west African countries, deep fried plantain – a banana-like fruit that is best eaten cooked, and Akara – fritters made from peeled brown beans.

But I decided to start with snails, naively assuming they would be cooked in a similar fashion to the garlicky ones dished up in French restaurants.

Needless to say they bore little relation to them and at £15 per portion they don’t come cheap. They had a chewy and slightly spicy texture.

That is the thing with this kind of food you have to be prepared to be surprised even a little startled and give yourself a chance to enjoy a culinary adventure into the unknown.

Mindy, meanwhile who used to enjoy a foul-smelling concoction from an Indian restaurant in Bradford, went for the Nkwobi – cow foot prepared with seasonings cooked in palm oil.

I had a mouthful. It was sticky and not at all unpleasant tasting but I wouldn’t have wanted to eat a whole dish.

The one drawback with the informality is that it’s easy for misunderstandings to arise and Mindy and I had a long interval in between our starters and mains though the time was enjoyably filled with chit-chat with fellow diners.

Eventually, we resumed our meal with Mindy opting for the goat curry while I settled for that old classic, jerk chicken with coconut rice and a spicy sauce, washed down with an excellent Nigerian beer, Gulder.

Snails - Nigerian style!

Mindy doesn’t have a sweet tooth so he didn’t have dessert. I fancied the hot waffle topped with sliced plantain pieces drizzled with chocolate syrup served with vanilla ice cream which sounded delicious but we were out of time so I settled for vanilla ice cream which, almost comically, was precisely just that.

Mindy said: “I’ve been brought up with people from the Caribbean, have many friends from there and enjoy the cuisine but I hadn’t eaten African food before.

“It did not disappoint. The cow’s foot was very good and rich and came as a dry dish to chew.

“The cook omitted to serve it with tripe as she thought this may be a step too far. This was unfortunate as I love tripe curry so it wasn’t some thing I couldn’t stomach. Would have got extra points for tripe!

“The main dish was the old classic curry goat. Again quite nice and it came with an excellent-tasting spicy rice. I would certainly come back for a takeaway. The food was good value and tasty.

“I recommend clients have a look at the menu online as there is a vast choice of interesting foods for different tastes though some need pre-ordering.”

And although Rosiyk may be Huddersfield’s first African restaurant it will soon have competition. Plans to open an African Caribbean grill in Huddersfield were lodged last month (July) with Kirklees Council.

Manjaros, which already has branches in Leeds, London, Birmingham and Middlesbrough, is set to open in the former Ox and Bone and 1535 bar and restaurant on Firth Street, just out of Huddersfield town centre.

Rosiyk Kitchen

6 Cross Church Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2PT

Phone: 01484 768500

Website: www.rosiykkitchen.com

Opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday: 11am-11pm. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: 11am-1am

Children: Yes

The bill: £79 including beers

Would you go back? Yes!