restaurantgirl

Some restaurants lack soul. Not Korhogo 126. You can taste the soul of its owners on nearly every plate. This French West African eatery marries the culinary heritages of Parisian-born Emmanuelle Chiche and chef Abdhul Traore, who made his New York City debut at Les Enfants Terribles on the lower East Side. Traore hails from Korhogo, a small town in the Ivory Coast that's become this prideful new restaurant's namesake.

The chef injects a rush of seasonings and flavors from his homeland into French bistro staples. This translates to a menu where African classics, like grilled prawns in a pili pili (chili pepper) sauce appear alongside steak frites. But here the steak frites gets an aggressively spiced marinade of thyme, cardamom and kanifi (African black pepper).

These intensely exotic aromas spill into...

To read the complete review at The New York Daily News