Angelique Kidjo at Bing Concert Hall, Stanford

On the spur of the moment, Inna purchased two tickets to Angélique Kidjo's concert at Stanford's Bing Hall, for Saturday, April 25, at 20:00.

Before the concert, we stopped by for dinner at the newly opened Zaytinya Palo Alto (Mediterranean Restaurant).

Right before dinner, we learned of a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. It made us a bit anxious at dinner, and we were happy to learn that the shooter was apprehended and the president was safe.

When we arrived, we were assigned to some unfavorable seats and asked to be reseated. After waiting 5 minutes, we were reseated in a booth that was not well cleaned, so I had to manually remove crumbs from the couch (not something I was expecting to do).

We looked at the menu and ordered the following items:

Drinks: Sparkling water
Appetizer: Baba Ghannouge
Salad: Fattoush
Mezze: Sea Scallops, Shish Taouk, Kofte Kebab
Dessert: Greek Yogurt

The Baba Ghannouge was not bad. The Fattoush salad was small but tasty. The Mezze were tiny, and the sea scallops were smaller than expected. The Shish Taouk (chicken) was not bad. The freshly baked pita bread was delicious. We also really liked the Greek Yogurt dessert.

The food was above average, and our waitress was excellent, but the small portions and unclean booth disappointed us. I still prefer Evvia or Dishdash for Mediterranean food in Palo Alto.

After reparking near Bing Hall (about 5 minutes away), we waited for Angélique Kidjo's concert to start. In addition to Angélique, there were 4 other band members:

Bass: David Donatien
Drums: Stixx Taylor
Keyboards: Etienne Stadwijk
Percussion: Magatte Sow

There was no guitar, and I felt that the band was missing something. Inna and I were hoping to hear some recognizable songs, but Angélique's program did not include many. We felt a bit disappointed with her choice of songs.

Angélique Kidjo Concert Review

Highlights