Nigerian Fare in Bed-Stuy

We enjoyed our time at Dept. of Culture (@deptofculturebk), a restaurant serving North and Central Nigerian fare, and trying out some new things we’ve never tried before! When they do use meats in their courses, they use halal meat!

Pounded yam with egusi

Food: 9/10
To start off, we had the Fish Pepper Soup. The fish itself was buttery and cut very easily. The soup itself was spicy, flavorful, and overall a very good dish. The next course was fried cheese curd with red pepper sauce - we really could eat loads of this one. The cheese was very ripened and had bold flavor that you can still taste through the sauce. For the third course we had pounded yam with egusi (ground melon seed), velvet fish, and spinach. We liked the texture of this pounded yam compared to other places we’ve tried it from. It was overall a good dish. For dessert we had fried plantain that was coated in caramelized sugar with a side of vanilla ice cream. We thought that this was kind of hard to eat for us because of the crystallized sugar. But we enjoyed the flavor very much.

Price: 6/10
It is $75 for the prix-fixe menu (4 courses). Portion was pretty small for price point.

Atmosphere: 7.5/10
It’s sort of like dining in someone’s living room! It’s communal seating with one big table in the middle seating 12 people. Then there are 4 seats by the kitchen. Although it’s not like a typical restaurant with multiple tables, it is quite an experience to dine in a communal setting. Also, there could have been a little better ventilation.

Service: 10/10
Food is served quick and plates are taken quick to deliver the next course. Staff is super friendly.

Dept. of Culture
327 Nostrand Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11216

Fish pepper soup

Fried cheese curd with red pepper sauce

Fried plantain with ice cream