This is an interesting little place. If it looks closed press on. Many times I have been here and the lights have been off.
You might feel a bit out of place here but ignore that part of your brain and just have a good time. Most of the clients are Somalian taxi drivers. There is an extreme sense of community here. Many times I have been served by other customers.
The food here is simple but everything is done just right. The lamb is tender and has great flavor. The greens are to die for. They are not cooked to oblivion and still have some crunch let in them.
Everything goes great with the hot sauce. Ask for extra.
With your meal you will get an option of rice or spaghetti. I like the rice better but the spaghetti certainly wins eclectic points.
If you want a sweet chai like hot drink ask for the tea after your meal.
Any time I have been here it has been a flat 10 dollars. I love simplicity.
The more I think about the fantastic meal I had here, the more I like it. I'm a big proponent of 'one big happy'- where friends become your family. I don't mean it in a creepy sense, but in a way that shows you care. The people fixing the food here, obviously care, and we cared about the food, and each other! I love family style meals also, and that's what we had- a flatbread, goat, spaghetti, rice, veggies, chicken and fish! I tasted everything and found it delightful, and the tea at the end was the capper. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, and I want to definitely go back and take my 1st, and 2nd, and 3rd families also!
Review Source:The Yelp Indianapolis International Supper Club had a great visit to Safari. Â The owners are Somali immigrants who were observing Ramadan at the time, so we didn't arrive for dinner until 9:00. Â The owners had worked with our fabulous YIISC coordinators to prepare a meal for us rather than having us order off a menu. Â
We had a huge meal with a lot of different dishes. Â The centerpiece was a huge platter of goat. Â I'm actuallly not a fan of goat, but I did try a taste (didn't want to miss anything) and the herbs in the meat were heavenly. Â We had a great chicken dish with vegetables, more veggies in their own dish, spaghetti noodles with something hard to describe--not at all substantial enough to be a sauce, but more just ingredients clinging to the noodles. Â That was actually my favorite. Â And there was a unique kind of unlevened bread. Â It was slightly sweet and chewy. Â Then we topped off the meal with some chai-like tea.
The whole meal was delicious and satisfying. Â The owners could not have been nicer. Â The building is nothing special, just a basic room with tables and chairs, and a window to the kitchen where you order and collect the food. Â But if it was a fancy restaurant, I wouldn't have expected it to be authentic. Â I love whole-in-the-wall places, especially when it comes to international fare. Â Check out Safari, you won't regret it!
Safari restaurant was the setting for the International Supper Club's August meeting. I had a chance to visit before the supper club meeting on Monday, August the 1st, which was apparently the first day of Ramadan. We arrived at 8:20 p.m. to open doors, but lights off. A bit confused, we entered to find a single guest at the ordering window and two women in the kitchen. We were told that we could be given something to go, but as it was Ramadan, the restaurant was not going to be open until sundown, approximately 9:00 p.m. We talked with one of the cooks, a very gracious woman who showed us a menu. We discussed the food we'd like, and told her we would be back at nine.
Nine rolled around, and we came back. A few taxis populated the parking lot, and a few taxi drivers sat around the sparse dining room, beginning their first meal of Ramadan. We sat down and were treated to a delicious plate of goat meat, greens, rice, and chapatis, one stuffed with bits of meat and vegetables and one plain. It was served with a green hot sauce that reminded me of fresh chiles and green tomatoes. Everything was simple, yet delicious. We requested soup and were given what was said to be a goat soup, though the light broth made it seem more like a chicken soup. Tea, much like chai, came out at the end of the meal, a sweet end to all things that came before.
The menu for the International Supper Club was similar, although there was spaghetti (which is apparently somewhat commonplace in certain African countries), a chicken and vegetable dish, and a different vegetable dish instead of the greens. Again, everything was simple, yet delicious, and we ate with other patrons coming in for a good meal at sunset.
To eat food from an unfamiliar culture with people from that culture, prepared in a traditional manner, is one of the ultimate dining experiences. While the food might be simple and the setting plain, Safari is worth checking out. The chefs were quite kind, and I'm sure I will be back again.
If you're looking for an adventurous dining experience then you should definitely consider taking a journey to The Safari. Side note: if you're looking for 5 star restaurant elegance and pampering comfort you may be disappointed. We had a group dinner with some other Yelper's and arrangements had already been made for our table to receive several different dishes for all to share. Which was wonderful because I'm pretty sure there's no posted menu here. And, I don't believe there's any table service to speak of, I saw other diners ordering at a window to the kitchen area. Our food was wonderful and consisted of platters of the following: (1) spaghetti noodles with a very delicate marinara sauce. (2) triangular shaped fried dough that tasted like state fair elephant ear sans the sugar & cinnamon. (3) a dish with cooked cauliflower & carrots with slices of crisp onion and delicious chunks of roasted chicken. The sauce was light yet flavorful with hints of cilantro. (4) rice (basmati?), what can I say about rice except it was extremely good and I wanted seconds. (5) a big platter of large chunks of stewed goat meat with fragrant flavors of cinnamon, garlic, cumin and ginger. (6) small bowls of a very unique hot sauce that tasted of green apples with spicy peppers. Sounds strange but tasted great. (7) filets of delicate, flaky pan fried fish, the coating was very light and the fish was really moist and tasty. Pitchers of ice water were served with our meal and afterwards we all had the hot tea which tasted exactly like chai tea. I'm glad I came here for the first time with a group, I think I may have been intimidated if I hadn't. I really like this place and will try to return soon.
Review Source:Think about what was memorable from your last positive experience dining out. Think about the food, the friends, the friends sharing in the food. Now think about the menu. Typically, the menu resides low on the list (if there was a menu & it took the spotlight, then well, the food was probably *boooooooosh*).
In the case of Safari... the only reason the menu was memorable was that there was not a menu.
You may think back on the experience, "wow, that was a pretty remarkable hostess and walk with the hostess through the labyrinth of gas station signs on the wall and servers in over-laundered shirts," or, "gee, I really did enjoy reading the menu and making choices." I'm sure you're out there, liking these things, but I'd reckon to guess that for most of us it's the food that's memorable, and who you're dining with (and the tattooed cute tee'd waiter doesn't count).
This is why I eat out. I may have written this before in other reviews, but this is *exactly* why I eat out -- adventure. I don't eat out for table cloths or wine pairings. I eat out for adventure with friends. When the Yelp Indy Int'l Supper Club began I knew that maybe something like this existed sure... but a Somalian restaurant in Indianapolis that is observing Ramadan so food isn't ready until after sundown. And while we wait for food there are men praying on prayer rugs underneath an American flag on the wall? No. No I did not have an inkling that this could exist in this city. This city is as beautiful as any other major city experiencing the "melting pot" that I learned about in junior high.
Instead of hosts, waiters and menus, you order at a window, where I'm sure if you asked about choices they'd give you some and you can hash out what you're looking for. But I'd really suggest just showing up a couple times so they know what you like so there aren't any questions asked.
The food:
*Stewed goat with spices that when spooned had a serious pumpkin pie thing going on.
*Stewed chicken in an orange light vegetable sauce.
*Fried bread
*Rice
*Spaghetti (yeah, spaghetti. Eat it with your hands).
*a hot sauce chock full of something you've never had before, I promise you.
*slow cooked fish.
*Tea that reminded me of seeing tea in Long Way Down & wanting it & now, here, I have it.
When I left I felt I could return at any time, whenever I wanted. An incredibly welcoming atmosphere. Although you may think it's stark when in fact the simple notion that guests sit down at a table and are served without pretensions creates the most welcoming & trusting atmosphere in the city. I felt like I was in someone's home, a Somalian kitchen, and because of that it was honestly my favorite dining experience in Indy.
Great food. Â And good prices. Â Ambience and cleanliness are not up to what most westerners would expect when dining out. Â So go for the food experience.
The menu contains a lot of pictures, so you can see what you're ordering.
I really like their chicken stew. Â And the Somalian bread is unique. It's not spongy like Ethiopian injera (enjera). It more like a square tortilla. Â And it's layered, with about 3 or 4 thinner layers that you see when you tear the bread.
My food was not served immediately, so I believe it was cooked to order, not sitting around. Â It was really good stew.
This isn't really an Ethiopian restaurant. Â They don't serve Ethiopian cuisine. Â And the owners are from Somalia, not Ethiopia. Â Unless there's a "Somalian" (Somali) category, I'd categorize this place as "African".
Okay, this place may be a bit 'too' authentic for those in the heartland. And I hate to admit that the beef stew was only fair. Still, the prices were good, the food edible, and the samosa was just about the very best I've ever had.
But really people, how is it that I've asked dozens of people for leads on African cuisine and absolutely NO ONE even knew that this place existed?! I've only been here a month ... and I don't even live in Indy!
No, it's not that I think I have super-powers. I just open my eyes to the community around me. But so far, the only problem with ethnic cuisine in this town is FINDING people who know about it, not a lack of opportunities. So, if you're one in the hoard of self-righteous idiots who likes to rant about how provincial this place is, realize that the problem isn't that such places don't exist ... it's that most people are too boring, pathetic or scared to seek them out.
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