Our First Time Trying Halal Somali Food

Safari (@safariharlem) is a halal Somali restaurant located in Harlem, Manhattan. It’s been on our list of places to go to for a while and we finally got the time to check it out!

Kalankal

Food 6/10
For starters we got the chicken and beef sambusa, both were very light and flavorful. It’s not necessarily crispy, but we liked the fluffiness of the skin. We ordered the kalankal which is the beef hanger steak with basmati rice. The kalankal was good, well seasoned, and tasty. It resembled a lot like “gorur mangsho” which is Bengali cow meat curry. It was super hearty. The bariis (rice) to accompany the kalankal was also nice. The chicken suqaar was minimally flavored in our opinion. The chicken was a little dry but the curry made up for it. We got chapaati on the side which tasted similar to desi parathas you get in the frozen section, but nonetheless they were good. 😅 All our dishes came with bisbas sauce which is a green sauce that’s sour and delicious. We also tried all the drinks the Fiimto, homemade mango juice, and isbarmmuto. Out of all of them the fiimto was out favorite and most unique. Homemade mango juice tasted similar to mango juice you can buy at the supermarket, however still good for those of you who like mango juice. The isbarmmuto, which is a white grapefruit drink that we were most excited for was just a San Pellegrino can. Not sure if they ran out of the actual drink and substituted it for San Pellegrino, but we were told as such so it just felt like false advertisement. Overall the food we ordered was mediocre. We would love to go try other stuff on the menu if we are in the area. Or if y’all recommend something else.

Price: 6/10
One sambusa was $4 the entrees are all above $16 which seemed too much taking flavor and portion into consideration.

Atmosphere: 7/10
Small indoor seating area with approximately 5 tables. They have outdoor seating including a cute igloo but it was too cold for that.

Service: 8/10
Service was standard. They were also some aunties making sambusas on the side which was really heart warming to see.

Safari NYC
219 W 116th St
New York, NY 10026

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