Food: London Safari Restaurant

Ok, I admit it. I've never actually had Somalian food before. However I say that with great regret, because from what I tasted tonight I've been missing out. A lot.

I suspect the key thing that makes the food London Safari serves so good is in the preparation of it. You can almost taste the time that has been given to the food while it was being made. After being cruelly teased by Ibrahim our host (who decided to spend over five minutes telling us what we were going to eat in great detail!) we started with the rich lamb stock based vegetarian soup, which may sound like a contradiction but really means that there was no solid meat in it. Not that that made it any less meaty - this was as close to liquid lamb as you could get. Delicious, and I could have just had a couple of servings of that alone this evening.

The main course was made of a variety of rice and roti (which wasn't quite roti - more parata and could have totally been eaten on its own) along with meat dishes served both on and off the bone[1]. I may have mentioned before how much of a lazy eater I am, so you can probably guess which foods I preferred. Oh and yes, the stewed lamb in both forms literally melted in my mouth.

I should also mention the drinks - a freshly squeezed (as the noise of the machine proved) orange/carrot/berry juice that shows just how mistaken other restaurants are to offer more complex and less authentic substitutes instead.

The place is totally halal, both in terms of meat served and the prohibition of alcohol - even that brought by guests themselves. As such it was pretty quiet for a Saturday night as people preferred the choice to drink; on the other hand it's another reason why I find it hard not to recommend it while feeling the need to go back again very soon myself. As for money, the bill came to a very reasonable 16 pounds per head, including tip. Great stuff and totally worth the trouble I'm going to get into with certain individuals for going there.

[1]At this point I should quite shamefully admit that I didn't quite note down the names of the dishes, but if you are thinking of going, I'd be more than happy to get a few suggestions for you.