Kenyan eatery in Austin wows

Craving something different, we recently tried The Kibanda, a new Kenyan eatery operating out of GhostLine Kitchens, which is basically a stylish commissary deluxe off East Ben White Boulevard in Southeast Austin.

• There's no table service at GhostLine — instead you order at a window, or online, and your food is presented at a pick-up window.

• There are plenty of shaded picnic tables for dining.

Unexpected — and happy — marriages of flavors abound at The Kibanda. We ordered:

• The rolex — a delicious Kenyan omelet stuffed with beef and cabbage, and rolled in a flaky chapati;
• Smoked sausage topped with a fresh tomato and onion relish known as kachumbari;
• And, the winner, ng'ombe — a tender beef stew, served with sukuma wiki — bright-tasting collard greens.

After the meal we caught up with Eva Bundi, the cook and proprietor, who grew up in central Kenya.

• Back home, a kibanda is "basically a semi-permanent place where middle class and working class go to grab a good meal that is not expensive," she said — and that's the idea behind GhostLine. "It's good food without the frills of a fine-dining restaurant."
• She moved to Austin toward the end of 2020, amid the tumult of the pandemic, after stints in Seattle and South Carolina.

• "I toured Austin and fell in love with it and went back to South Carolina and moved here within a month."

The bottom line: "I realized there's no Kenyan restaurant and decided to go for it," she said.