Restaurants in Djibouti

Tonight I drove a vehicle off camp for the first time. It was a very short trip - which was why I wanted to drive, a warm up to the sometimes chaotic driving here. We went to a new Indian restaurant close to both the French and American bases. The food wasn't too good, proably because there weren't any Indians operating the place. I spent 2650 Djiboutian franks for a Coke, Chicken Masala, and a portion of an appetizer - thats about $15. That is the least I've spent at a restaurant here. A more typical meal seems to run about 4000-5000 DF (with a beer). I was anticipating that food and drink would be cheap out in town, $20 is a lot of money to a local Djiboutian. However, the restaurants and nightclubs (at least the ones downtown and near the base) are not frequented by the locals - its mainly French and Americans. The standard price for a beer is 1000 DF, $6.

The downtown area has several restaurants, nightclubs, and small hotels. I went to a pizza place and a Lebanese restaurant recently. The food at both was very good. Great European style pizza and nice atmosphere at the pizza place. The Lebanese place was fun, our group got the 'special' - they bring out several bowls of different kinds of hummus, appetizers, salad, sauces, and baskets of bread, and pita. The next course a tray of chicken and lamb kababs are passed around. Pretty good! My wife asked me when I was going to an African restaurant while I am in Africa. There aren't any traditional Djiboutian restaurants that I'm aware of (or that someone who has been here a year is aware of) in the parts of town where one would go. There are a few Ethiopian restaurants that I want to try as well as a Yemenese restaurant (not African but just across the Gulf of Aden from Djibouti).

Djibouti is a fairly safe area, but we are close to parts of the world where bad guys come form that might want to target Americans. In the interest of OPSEC I've deleted the names of the places. Not that its hard to pick out Americans here, we stand out, but I don't want to provide any open source intel or make it easier.