Places to eat in Uganda

Eating and Drinking

Vegetarian Food

Matooke- Green banana peeled, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed for hours.
Kabalagala – A mixture of sweet bananas and cassava flour fried in burger shapes
Binyebwa – Groundnuts roasted and ground and baked with tomatoes till it becomes a thick sauce, usually served with matoke or sweet potatoes.

Lumonde - Sweet potato
Irish - Potatoes (spuds U like)
Muogo - Casava
Kaungu/Posho - Maize meal porridge known as Ugali/Sima/Sadza elsewhere in Africa

Bijanjalo - Beans
Coawo– Peas/ cow peas
Agiira– Paste made of peas

Atapa/Kalo - Cassava and millet porridge.
Malakwang – Greens cooked together with ground sesame seeds to make a thick sauce.
Dek ngor – Split peas ground and also cooked together with ground sesame seeds.
Chapati – Flat bread fried on a griddle, a thicker less dry version of the Indian bread of the same name.
Eboo - Greens

Meat

Muchomo – roasted meat

Ssenene – grasshoppers. Ugandans go mad for these little insects that appear during the rainy season.

Mamba – crocodile Not available everywhere but a few places sell this local delicacy that for cultural reasons seems to be more popular with men.

Morikonyi – Cows leg soup.

Snacks
Gonja - Roasted banana
Chaps - Similar to a burger covered in batter and fried. Not to be mistaken with chips.
Egg roll - Boiled egg rolled in mashed potato dipped in batter and fried.

Drinks

Tea - Best drink of the day
Coffee/kawa – Surprisingly its not so easy to get a dent cup of coffee in a country that grows so much of it.
Soda.
Juice - passion batunda is the juice of choice.
Bongo – Natural yoghurt, Vanilla flavoured yoghurt is also available usually in packets.

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Uganda is predominantely agriciltural country and the food is good, to me it's much better than in Kenya. There are number of restaurants, all around, offering different kind of food for different prices, some are cheap, some average and some very expensive. Besides restaurants there is junk food too, not exactly Mcd kind but sort of domestic version.
The cheapest food can be found in so-called road restaurants, offering chapats (look alike to tortilla), which cost approximately 0,20 euros a piece. The next are, to mine opinion, kind of junk food restaurants, offering sausages and grilled meat. In such a restaurants average lunch cost from less than one up to 2 or 3 euros.
There are standard domestic restaurants with very good food where average lunch costs about 5 euros. Finaly, there are very expensive restaurants offering Italian, French, Indian or other cuisine, where average lunch costs from 15 up to 50 euros.

Favorite Dish: What to eat when in Ugandan restaurants. Cannot say much about because I ordered those dishes I could recognize food. To me the best was grilled chicken with chips and white coloured vegetables in a shape of sticks. I liked it better than chips. Lamb meat isn't that soft as we used on it in Europe. Sausages are pretty good but again not as good as am used on it. There are various kind of soups but I didn't dare to eat them.
Ugandans like to eat something what might be considerate as fast food:
- matooke is baked green banana, very popular food among the locals
- sumbusa is kind of pie with meat or vegetable, most oftenly with rise
- chapat looks alike to tortilla but smaller, also filled with other stuff
- mandazi is kind of donuts, local eat it for the breakfast.

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Might be very helpful if you get to know whites who already spend some time here, or even better, if they live in Uganda. Their advices regarding habbits, restaurants, clubs etc., could save your time and money. I was lucky to met Dutch guy who live in Kampala several years and got from him some good tips and advices.
According to him, Carnivors is one of the most expensive restaurants in Uganda but it is too much touristy and offers less than one can get in some other restaurants for more affordable price. I followed his advice and never visited Carnivors.
He invited me to "Le Chateau", Belgian restaurant which is situated in the Gaba Road. There is nice terrace and the atmosphere looks alike to most of a good European restaurants. My friend speaks good French so I let him to order food for both of us. It was delicious steak made in brown coloured sauce, best food I had in my two weeks stay. He ordered bottle of red French wine, which was very good. The dinner cost us 35.000 shilling for each, which is less than the usual price I used to pay in Mammamia or Rock Garden.

Favorite Dish: In two week time I was in a couple of other restaurants, most frequently at those in Nile Avenue, right where Speke hotel is. Khyber Pass offers authentic Indian cuisine but I didn't like it much, besides, it is pretty much expensive. Rock Garden makes very good grilled tilapia, which was my favourite food, and the service is excellent. Finaly, there is Mammamia too, which is supposed to be the Italian restaurant. Cannot complain much but it is far of being Italian cuisine, except for "spaghetti, aglio, olio e peperoncino", which was good. Other food I had there was "Italian" made in Ugandan way. When I ordered calamari (squids), couldn't finish it and almost the same goes for grilled tilapia. Once I tried pizza too, but it wasn't pizza.
Was in couple of local restaurants but unfortunately didn't catch the names, except for Bancafe which I visited regularly. Bancafe offers inexpensive but the best breakfast in Kampala. Many guest from nearby Grand Imperial prefer to have breakfast here, rather than in the hotel. Besides, it is the only place in Kampala, along with Speke hotel, where you can get espresso. In other local restaurants I had grilled chicken or sausages and it wasn't bad at all. The best grilled chicken I had in a night bar at Ntinda, on the outskirts of Kampala.

Food Court is situated on the third floor of garden city mall. It is essentially a fastfood joint where you will find kiosks offering all kind of food. You have the south indian udupi, chinese, persian, burgers, juice stalls and african grill. The price is cheap and the place is open from morning 11 to evening 10:30. Overall a nice place to enjoy cheap food...

Krua Thai is a Thai restaurant in Kololo. Open only for dinner, this restaurant is one of the best in the city and offers authentic thai dishes. It is an open restaurant, well decorated and the staff is pleasant. The food is amazing, one of my favourite restaurants in the city.

Fang-Fang is the best chinese restaurant in the city. There are two restaurants in Kampala. One of them is an open garden restaurant and the other one is a closed one. The food and ambience is both wonderful and you can find lots of chinese girls around waiting to serve you.
They also organise parties in both these places and the restaurant has got outdoor catering as well.

Athithi is one of the best restaurant in Kampala, situated in Nakasero. This is an open restauran facing a garden housed in a small compund. The food is delicious and the service up to the mark. The place can also be used for parties and other functions and they also do outdoor caterings.

Nawab is on the top floor of the Garden City. It is a nice place to spent time either for a elaborate dinner or for some nice time with friends. The restaurant is open ( covered only on the top) or you can also use the terrace. What I like the most here is the non vegetarian Indian food. The service is nice and the staff cordial.