I visited UGood twice, The Ugandan restaurant in Copenhagen. This is my honest opinion.

On Jaegersborggade, a street in Copenhagen, you’ll find UGood, the only restaurant in Denmark that specializes in Ugandan food. They claim to be an award-winning spot that highlights Ugandan street cuisine. They offer the classic Rolex that everyone loves, along with some stew, chips, and other side dishes.

UGood is nothing fancy. Nor does it claim to be. It is located in the basement of the building its located at, with a big UGood sign on top of the door facing sideways so people from both directions can see that the restaurant is there. The restaurant is small. Like, very small. However, it is cozy and quite comfortable for its size. I really liked the small entry room with a counter and a few chairs where you can see some of the kitchen in action. I would guess there’s enough room for about 6 to 8 people inside to sit and eat, plus a few more benches and tables outside to enjoy your meal. The walls of the restaurant are decorated with paintings, authenthic ugandan cloth pieces and instant photos of what I guess are some of the visitors.

But here’s the deal. Having visited Uganda myself and tasted lots of the food there so I know how it taste, I can easily say that, that food tastes little to what it is supposed to taste like. I ofcourse ordered the “Original” Rolex claiming to be the authenthic Rolex, I mean how could i not? I can tell you there was not a lot of authenticity to it. In my 2 years in Uganda, I have never had a Rolex with red cabbage and parsley, wether it was at a street food stand or a restaurant. The chapati itself was not soft either as it should be. Instead, it was hard. Then I also ordered Mandazi. At first he said that he wasn’t sure if they had any left but would go out and check. Luckily for me they had, but then again nothing like a mandazi i later found out when they served it. It was more of like one of the brown street food pancakes that you can buy for 100 – 200 shillings in Uganda. And it was rock hard. I also ordered kachumbari, a salad consisting of tomatoes, onions and other vegetables. But apparently they were out of that, which means that they clearly doesnt cook fresh food – or in this case, chop some vegetables. The only good thing that I ordered was the fries.

My wife got the beef stew, and she only ate a few scoops of it before she handed me the bowl and told me she didn’t want to eat anymore. I should mention that she is a former chef also from Uganda, having worked in various restaurants and even owned her own there. I tasted the stew and it was very overspiced. Also again, the chapati that followed was not soft as its supposed to be, but hard. I did manage to get through hear meal that she couldn’t finish herself, but each scoop i ate was worse than the one before. The stew was also said to be with matooke, but they were also out of matooke not offering any discount from the already steep price of approximately 75.000 UGX or 150 Danish Kroner. Remembering back, they were out of a lot of things, same as the first time I visited the restaurant.

I also think it’s important to mention that it wasn’t the owner that was working that day, but rather an employed. Though he was very friendly and we all got a good chat, the service that we got didn’t excuse the bad food.

Conclusion

To sum it up, UGood in Copenhagen has the chance to be a special place for food lovers, showcasing the street food of Uganda. The warm and friendly vibe makes it a nice spot for visitors. However, the food doesn’t quite meet the expectations, especially for those who really know Ugandan dishes. The kitchen often runs out of important ingredients and doesn’t capture the true flavors of classic meals like Rolex and beef stew. This creates a big difference between what the restaurant promises and what customers actually experience. Even though UGood is the only Ugandan restaurant in Denmark, it needs to make big improvements to its menu and ensure the food is authentic to really offer the Ugandan cuisine and please both Danes and Ugandans. Until that happens, food enthusiasts might be searching for a more real taste of Uganda somewhere else.