Papa Ningo

On Friday night I came home from work not in the mood to cook or sit around. I had seen the newest copy of Richmond magazine recently and noticed the feature story was cheap eats in the Richmond area. I convinced Jeff that we needed to buy the magazine so we can try the best cheap restaurants around. We went to Ukrops, purchased the magazine and then chose which restaurant we would try. Papa Ningo won. Papa Ningo is a Dominican restaurant in Shockoe Bottom that has apparently been open for a couple of years . The restaurant is one that I have passed by many times but never would have considered entering had it not been featured in the mag. When we walked in, we were the only people in the restaurant who were not of some sort of Caribbean decent-to me this is always a good sign. The restaurant is tiny but I heard that they are expanding into the space next door so that after dinner service, the music will crank up and patrons can hit the dance floor. Most of the items on the menu were unfamiliar to us so we asked the waitress for a recommendation. She suggested Mofongo which is a mixture of fried plantains, pork and rice with your choice of shrimp, more pork or chicken on top. We both ordered the Mofongo-mine topped with shrimp and Jeff's topped with chicken. Mofongo is a delicious, yet extremely rich dish. It was not at all what we expected but it was very good. We will definitely go back to this restaurant again and Jeff is particularly excited about their $6.99 lunch buffet and since the restaurant is close to his office, I have a feeling he might be back much sooner than I will.