Category Archives: Somali

Ginevra Cafe

Posted on November 16, 2011 by | 2 Comments

mediterranean restaurants columbus Somali/Middle Eastern/Mediterranean

2285 Morse Road
614.475.4880

Click here to map it!

In the short time it has been open, Ginevra has had an interesting evolution. It started as a Somali coffee shop offering coffee, tea, snacks and desserts but has recently expanded to offer a full lunch and dinner menu. Rather than providing a strictly Somali menu, they opted for mix of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Somali dishes. The kitchen is run by Mo, the nephew of one of Columbus’ well known Middle Eastern chefs – Nasir of Lavash (and formerly of Firdous).

somali restaurants columbus

Pictured above is the lamb shank with basmati rice,  salad,  a tomato based vegetable stew and some hot sauce. The lamb was falling-off-the-bone tender. I asked for more of the delicious tomato-saucey stew to accompany it.

ginevra restaurant

So far one of our favorite dishes has been the chicken Tawook (marinated chicken kebabs). Entrees come with a choice of rice, couscous or pasta, bread and sauce and salad. The pasta is the Somali influence showing through (Somalia was an Italian colony). The chicken, cooked on an indoor charcoal grill was also nice and tender.

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The gryo was another hit. Both the meat and pita were better than average and less messy than other gyros we have had. The sandwich contained tzatziki, grilled onions, lettuce and no tomatoes. We were told that we could have asked for more sauce on the side.

We have also enjoyed the lentil soup and the Somali chai. I don’t think a visit to Ginevra would be complete without the tea which has a wonderful mix of ginger and cardamon. I would also recommend the Ginevra special juice, an intriguing mix of dates and milk but quite delicious.

somali tea shop

Service is friendly and both the owner Jamal and chef Mo have struck us as being refreshingly eager for feedback on the dining experience. They are considering offering some Egyptian dishes in the future. Ginevra also has free wifi.

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Posted in African, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Somali

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Somali Famine Fundraiser Dinners

Posted on November 16, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Thanks to your support, the dinners that we organized in September to raise money for the famine in the Horn of Africa were very successful. We were able to send $2400 to the American Refugee Committee who are working on the ground in Somalia, we also introduced some new people to Somali food, connected with the Somali community and had wonderful feedback on Nadira’s delicious cooking.

fundraiser for somali famine

Sadly the famine continues to claim the lives of innocent children and we wanted to do more to support the victims of the famine. At this time of Thanksgiving when we give thanks for the food on our plates, please consider making a donation to the American Refugee Committee or attending one of our upcoming fundraiser dinners. The ARC are working very hard to improve conditions in the refugee camps and our assistance can help them to make a difference.

Here is a recent update on conditions from the ARC program director in Somalia:

“Fleeing for their life, many of the families have trekked for days before reaching Mogadishu. They left behind almost all of their household effects. They arrived in waves, populating spontaneously created internally displaced person (IDP) settlements within the city. They hardly come with containers to collect and store water, utensils to cook food, or spare clothes to replace the ones they’ve been wearing for days and weeks. Most of the temporary settlements still lack sanitary facilities. The IDPs who ended up in urban settings faced serious problems in finding proper open space to relieve themselves – in fact, women have to wait until sunset to venture out of the squalid settlements to answer nature’s call. Owing to shortage of water and the absence of latrines, many people are unable to bathe for extended periods of time.”

“After four months of sustained relief assistance by the international community, the drought and famine continues to ravage southern Somalia – and Mogadishu. Currently, there are more than 300 IDP settlements scattered all over Mogadishu. The conditions of many of these are quite squalid, crowded and with poor hygiene. The conditions are more stabilized in the major camps such as Badbaado, Rajo, and Taribunka (where ARC is working). In the latter two, many households are still without shelter, water, sanitation and food.  Many of the smaller settlements are without shelter and are not benefiting from regular food and water distributions. There is a huge gap between the resources available and the needs prevailing on the ground.”

The dinners will be held at Solay Bistro on December 7th and 14th at 7pm. Tickets are available online and are priced at $35 per person. There will be plenty of dishes for vegetarians.

The buffet style dinner will (almost certainly) include the following:

- Slow-cooked Somali rotisserie chicken
- Roasted goat
- Sabaya bread (think chapati, but better!), and injera bread (a spongy Ethiopian bread, eaten with a special spicy injera sauce)
- Beef suqaar (similar to a mild chicken curry)
- Solay’s special cardamom rice
- A selection of vegetable dishes including curried chickpeas, lentils, and cabbage
- Fata Muus (a sweet mix of sabaya, honey, butter, and bananas)
- Somali Chai

We look forward to seeing you there, and look forward to sharing some of the best of Somali food in Columbus with you while supporting a great and urgent cause.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

To learn more about Solay Bistro, see here (alt.eats), here (Columbus Alive review), or here (Urbanspoon reviews). Believe them, it’s that good!

 

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Posted in event, Somali

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Horn of Africa Benefit Dinner at Solay Bistro

Posted on August 23, 2011 by | 1 Comment

best somali restaurant ohioWe’ve come to feel a strong sense of admiration for the large (as in second largest concentration in the US) Somali community in Columbus. Through our experiences with the always-smiling owners and patrons of Somali restaurants, as well as our discussions with documentary filmmaker Abdi Roble and friends, we’ve been amazed by the energy, good cheer, and entrepreneurial spirit found within.

Unfortunately, the extended families of many of these people are hurting. Due to the famine in the Horn of Africa, a staggering number of Somalis and people in bordering countries are unable to access even the most basic of food staples. Starvation is rampant.

During one of our Alt.Eats tours, we made an offhand comment to Solay Bistro’s owner, Nadira, about the desire to help. Vague plans about a benefit dinner were discussed. Later that evening, Nadira called us and excitedly told us she had discussed our idea with others in the community and received nothing but positive feedback. In fact, she had received commitments to purchase 40 tickets for the dinner. So, it’s ON!

best somali restaurant columbus ohio

Here are the particulars: We’re helping Nadira to now promote two fundraiser dinners, one on Sept. 7th, and the other on Sept. 14th. They’ll both be held at Solay Bistro, with a maximum of 80 people on each night. They’ll be buffet dinners featuring some of the best of Somali cuisine and some menu items new to Solay. Nadira will sell half of the tickets to the Somali community for each night, and we’ll be selling the other half to the city at large.

Tickets are $35/person, with proceeds going to the American Refugee Committee (one of the most highly regarded non-profits working in the Horn of Africa region). If you’d like to join us (and really, why wouldn’t you?) you can purchase tickets through Brown Paper Tickets.

We look forward to seeing you there, and look forwards to sharing some of the best of Somali food in Columbus with you while supporting a great and urgent cause.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

To learn more about Solay Bistro, see here (alt.eats), here (Columbus Alive review), or here (Urbanspoon reviews). Believe ‘em, it’s that good!

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Solay Bistro

Posted on July 14, 2010 by | 20 Comments

Cuisine: Somali with Ethiopian and other influences

5786 Columbus Square (near intersection of SR 161/East Dublin-Granville Road Cleveland Avenue)
614.899.8800
Open: Monday-Thursday, 11am – 10pm, Friday 11am to 11pm, Saturday 9am to 11pm, Sunday 9am to 9pm
Breakfast from 9am to noon on Saturday and Sunday

Click here to map it!

(Reader warning: There is a long lead in to the meat of the story.)

The aim of alt eats is to make connections. We want to connect you with new cultures, cuisines, areas of the city, and ultimately, the people behind the counter and in the kitchen. The stories of the people that make the food are often as important as the food they create.

Food has a way of bringing people together. Taco Drew met CMH Gourmand at a beer tasting via Columbus Underground. CMH Gourmand met Hungry Woolf at a North Market cooking class. The three of us went on to join Slow Food Columbus. Then we created Taco Trucks Columbus which introduced us to more people and places we would not have met any other way. It seems each person we meet or tweet with or e-mail, adds to the melting pot of alt eats with a restaurant lead, suggestion or feedback. Adding more people to the alt eats team has helped us spice up the content as well.

Food continues to connect us with new people. We met Abdi Roble from the Somali Documentary Project at a Social Media Conference. This prompted us to ask him to share a meal with us to help us better understand and appreciate Somali food and culture. We met with Abdi and his wife Fatima as well as Ismail, another acquaintance from the Somali Documentary Project for a meal. Fatima suggested a last minute change of venue which led us to the newly opened Solay Bistro.

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Posted in African, Ethiopian, Somali

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Sabrina’s Cuisine

Posted on May 21, 2010 by | Leave a comment


Cuisine: Somali / Kenyan
4212 Westview Center Plaza (just off Georgesville Road)
614.272.5592
Hours 10am-9pm daily

Click here to map it!

Most of the Somali restaurants in Columbus are clustered near Cleveland Avenue, but there are 3 or 4 outposts on the West side of town. One of these is Sabrina’s. Tucked away off Georgesville Road, it is a small cafe run by a Somali family who made their way to Columbus via Kenya. Sabrina’s has a limited menu and seems part restaurant, part coffee shop.

Most of the menu is made up of seven appetizers, and those available (four on the day we visited) are displayed in a heated display case. We started with a mandhaazi, which we were told was a Kenyan speciality (the only one on the menu). A mandhaazi (above, right) is similar to a donut – a triangular fried bread, not really sweetened, and best, I’m sure, when both fresh and served with tea or coffee.


Next were bajiya which the menu describes as ’round stylish bean mash, mixed with saffron recipes and deep fried’. It seems that these are commonly made with black eye peas, but I am not sure what the bean was in this case. We were not able to detect the saffron but it seemed to contain some red pepper. It was reminiscent of falafel, but drier and would have benefitted from some sort of dip or chutney.

The sambusa’s were easily our favorite appetizer – crispy fried shells filled with shredded chicken, onion, and garlic and well spiced. According to the menu fillings vary and fish and meat sambusas are also available. I was a little disappointed not to be able to try the najakho (boiled egg enveloped in mashed potato).

As with other Somali restaurants we have found that the menu only loosely reflects what is available. The menu lists three main dishes: steak sub, chicken sub and baked chicken with rice, but we were told that we could have meat, chicken or fish with rice. We opted for the chicken with rice which also came with a small iceberg lettuce side salad and a banana. The chicken was extremely moist and heavily seasoned with black pepper and cardamon. The rice was also cooked with cardamon. We were also given a small dish of a green chili chutney. I found this simple dish satisfying but not overly exciting.

Sabrina’s is a sound but limited Somali option for west siders. As is usual with Somali cuisine, vegetarian dishes are not well represented, although the bajiya and mandhaazi were meatless.

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Posted in African, Somali

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