The zoo has been trying to build themselves up after over the past few years, but adding on to some existing exhibits and creating a few new ones.   Hence the building of what they call Cafe Africa.  After strolling through some of the great apes, we decided to stop in for a bite.

Cafe Africa is centrally located in the zoo, and when we got there it was moderately busy.  It does have a nice open air feel, and there are indoor and outdoor seating options.  We ordered cheeseburgers and an order of spiral cut potato chips.  Now, if I learned anything about food from my mother, it’s that you don’t need a lot of fancy stuff to make something taste amazing, and I think burgers are a great example of this.  If you get a good burger with quality meat and good toppings, you can have something that is delicious.   Sadly, the people who decided to serve food at the zoo didn’t get this memo.

This is pretty much the same burger that you get in your average school cafeteria, only it’s more expensive.  For as much as they charge (like $4) they could do a LOT better.  The zoo has banned all outside food so if you have a hungry screaming kid, you’re stuck with this.  The one saving grace was the spiral cut potato chips.  These were actually pretty good, but not good enough to make up for that atrocity they called a burger.

So overall, I would say if you go to the Little Rock Zoo, eat a good meal before hand, and pack a big purse with some snacks if you just have to.  I didn’t see any food police on the prowl, and let’s be serious, how do they even know where that bag of chips came from really???

However, I did get some lovely animal snapshots for you to enjoy!

my favorite pic of the day!!!!

Well, FINALLY I have located a place that cooks not only the kind of food I grew up eating, but it’s also so well cooked I don’t have to add a thing to it.  Kitchen Express at 4600 Asher in Little Rock has made me nothing short of ecstatic.  When I first walked in to the cafeteria style restaurant, I was greeted with the sight of some of my favorite things; fried chicken, fried catfish, and smoked turkey legs.  Yes, giant caveman sized turkey legs.  Then on down the line to the sides, they have greens, REAL macaroni and cheese, black eyed peas, and one of my personal favorites, candied sweet potatoes.  I went for the fried chicken, with greens, mac and cheese, and the sweet potatoes.  I also had a roll, which was perfect for dipping into the delicious greens juice.

Every bit of it was a good decision!  The greens were perfect and I’m going to jump out there and say that they have the best greens in Little Rock.  They are seasoned to perfection, and don’t have that weird  chemical taste that the big chain restaurant greens have sometimes.   The chicken was crispy and juicy, the sweet potatoes were fabulous, and the mac and cheese is REAL.  It’s not that fake stuff from a box and it’s for sure not the big #10 can of cheese dumped over noodles.  It’s cheesy and perfect.  Then as if all that wasn’t enough, they have a peach cobbler that is so good I just wanted to eat a giant plate of nothing but cobbler.  Seriously, it was a perfect ending to a delicious, well-made meal.

http://thekitchenexpress.com/ is their site so you can scope them out online.  I went to their site and was beside myself to see that they have breakfast!

and they do catering……..I feel an excuse to party coming on!