Sambusas Carry This Counter
Afro Deli & Grill built its name on the sambusa, and the record here bears that out: the fried pastry, filled with meat or vegetables, comes crisp enough that the counter will sell them one at a time rather than forcing a combo. The vegetable version outperforms the meat filling by most accounts, which says something about a kitchen that treats the vegetarian option as a real dish rather than an afterthought. The Somali sweet spiced tea, cardamom and cinnamon steeped strong, is the other order that keeps coming up, the kind of drink that turns a quick counter stop into a slower one.
Where the kitchen loses ground is on the Somali steak sandwich, which has landed tough on the plate often enough to flag it as the riskier order next to the sambusa's near-certainty. The chicken fares only middling too, inconsistent enough that it reads as the sampler's third choice rather than its anchor. This is fast-casual counter service: order at the register, grab a table, expect the room to move quickly rather than linger over table service.
Afro Deli has been part of the city's Somali food conversation for years, part of a lane that runs through Cedar-Riverside and East Lake Street, and this location functions as an everyday stop rather than a destination meal, priced for someone grabbing lunch or a quick dinner without ceremony. The menu leans into the Somali table's core pieces, bariis and grilled meats alongside the sandwiches and sambusas, but the fried appetizers are clearly what the kitchen has dialed in tightest. For a room this inexpensive and this fast, the standard should be that the reliable items stay reliable, and here that holds true for the sambusa and the tea while the sandwiches ask for a little more luck.
