Hedzole

West African restaurant in Washington, DC

Address

5505 Colorado Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20011

Phone

(202) 885-9831

Website

hedzole.com

About Hedzole

Hedzole is a Ghanaian-American restaurant in Washington, DC, founded and led by Chef Candice Mensah. Located at 5505 Colorado Ave NW, the restaurant brings traditional West African cuisine to a casual, contemporary dining room, describing its food as intentionally and authentically Ghanaian-American. The menu is built to serve two kinds of guests at once: diners already familiar with West African cooking who want to experience it in a fresh, modern setting, and newcomers tasting Ghanaian flavors and cultural traditions for the first time. Hedzole offers dine-in service with limited seating (guests are encouraged to call ahead), along with delivery through DoorDash, Uber Eats, and EzCater, and catering for private events. The restaurant also sells gift cards and takes reservations through Resy. Hedzole is open Wednesday through Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday, with hours varying by day: Wednesday and Thursday from 3 to 8 PM, Friday from 1 to 8 PM, and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 PM. Guests can reach the restaurant by phone at (202) 885-9831 or by after-hours text at 202-370-7985, and can follow along on Instagram at @hedzole. Rooted in Chef Mensah's heritage, Hedzole positions itself as a genuine expression of Ghanaian food culture rather than a generalized West African concept, with dishes and hospitality shaped directly by her upbringing and culinary training.

okay so Hedzole is honestly one of those DC stories you can't make up. Candice Mensah wanted to open a Ghanaian restaurant since she was a kid, her parents were like absolutely not, go get a normal career — so she did, for years, and then at 40 she just... did it anyway. Started the whole thing as a stand at the Taste of Springfield food festival back in 2019, basically testing the waters, and then it kept popping up at farmers markets around Northern Virginia and a pop-up in Tysons. People kept showing up. Lines got long enough that her dad, who'd been skeptical this whole time, saw the crowd one day and was like "oh, this is real, I guess I gotta get behind it." Which, honestly, feels like the whole immigrant-kid-follows-her-dream arc in one sentence. Now Hedzole has a real spot in 16th Street Heights, in the old Social Kitchen space, serving jollof rice and West African bowls that Washingtonian and the Washington Post both wrote up. The name itself is a Ga word meaning "freedom," and Candice has talked about how growing up second-generation, there's this default idea of what "Black" is supposed to look like in America that flattens a lot of the nuance — Hedzole is her answering that, one bowl of jollof at a time.

Photos