Somali Cafe

The food is properly prepared, while the owner and his staff are super friendly. Very honest home cooked meals.

Somali food for the local Somalis, delicious and unpretentious, this is the kind of place you go for the food or the companionship.My husband and I took our son, a student at St. Cloud State Univ., there for lunch on a bitterly cold day. The sign outside says "Somali Cofe." We entered a small dining area with about 6 booths. In the adjacent back room, five or six Somali guys were riveted to a soccer game on TV.When we told the proprietor we had never eaten Somali food before, he explained the offerings and made recommendations. Food selections, posted on a board on the wall, all cost $8 and seemed to be variations of meat with either spaghetti or rice.We ordered chicken with spaghetti, chicken with rice, and goat meat with rice, but we got much more than that. After taking our orders, our host brought us each goat soup in porcelain Campbell's soup mugs, followed by crinkly clear plastic takeout containers filled with simple iceberg lettuce and drizzled with ranch and French dressing. Next--on paper plates--came sambusas, triangular pastries filled with spiced ground meat and onions and accompanied by a spicy-hot dipping sauce. After that, the proprietor brought oval Melmac Chinese restaurant plates heaped with pasta or rice, and separate plates of meat. At the same time, he handed us each a fresh banana.The spaghetti was served with plain tomato sauce, nothing special. The rice, however, was more interesting, golden in color with herbs and cardamom. The meat--boneless chunks of chicken or bone-in goat--was richly flavored but not spicy-hot.Portions were huge, and with all the extras, we ended up taking about half of our entree food home. Not knowing how much of the food was part of the "dinner" and which items were extras, I didn't quite know what to expect when the bill came. I was amazed when we were charged $27--three $8 entrees plus a dollar for each of us for bottled water.With its drippy paint, plain Formica tables, mismatched dishes, misspelled signage, and blaring TV, the Somali Cafe is inelegant, but I will go back next time I'm in St. Cloud looking for a warm, welcoming atmosphere and tasty, interesting food.The cafe also delivers.

For those of you not old enough to remember Holy Land grocery, Mpls, in the mid-1980s, welcome to Somali Café. Except Somali Café has tables! All worthy institutions have to start somewhere. The sambusas are spicy and delicious and the Somali tea is perfect on a winter St Cloud day. This restaurant is a new staple for me. And the grocery is small, but stocked with traditional spices and essentials.

Delicious food, friendly people! I've lived over here for over 5 years and am kicking myself for not trying it sooner!

Let us be honest. From its appearance the Somali Cafe is a little scary. Then you enter. Trepidation arises when you encounter the buzzing flies, torn and shoddy seating, a faded television screen blaring news in a foreign language, and three or four adult men lounge around the establishment on benches. I walked in with my family and immediately regretted my decision.To call this a cafe or a restaurant is to stretch the bounds of common imagination.Yet we stayed. Perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps out of a wish to seem like good cultural ambassadors. We sat down to a slightly dirty table.Ordering was difficult. Only one man spoke English - and the rest eyed us warily. The most prominent item, the sanbusa, was sold out. We ended up with an order of chicken keykey, beef keykey, and two orders of chicken "legs."From the orange colored sauce we expected something spicy. Instead we had a sweetly hinted, complex flavor that was both exotic and comforting. It was delicious. My daughter (8 years) devoured the food, claiming it her new favorite. I loved my meat and bread "keykey." We were not given an option of ordering drinks, but were handed two bottles of water and two boxes of guava juice.The food really was quite good. I look forward to going back and trying the sanbusas. I encourage you to try the place, but be aware that this is something out-of-the-ordinary. Similarly, I encourage the owners to attempt to create an atmosphere that will put the average diner more at ease.

We often get food as take out. The kids live the rice with chicken. We are not real sure what we are getting but it's always good at a great price. It does take a bit of courage because at first glance it may cause pause. But go for it! You won't regret it. The juice is delicious too...

I'd like to give this place a good review because I love Somali food done right, but I went there on a Friday night at 6:30 and was told that they had run out of food. Strange. Maybe I'll try them again, and maybe I won't. I've never been to a restaurant that was out of food on a Friday....

Don't be afraid to try somthing different! I've been to this establishment a few times and the food is tasty and inexpensive, but it is worth saying that the Sambussa keeps me going back. Truely a food that I crave every month or so.

1st time visiting Somali Cafe and cannot recommend it enough. My wife and I had the fish and rice and my daughter had the goat and rice and both dishes were fantastic. The fish was one of the best things I have had in quite some time. Owners were friendly and you really felt like they were making food for family based on how important they treated it. Excited to go back and try something else...possibly.

Abdi was a true gentleman and somewhat of a community icon, was good to be in his presence and enjoy his food full of flavor. Convenient location near downtown I grabbed it to go and ate along the river. Would definitely recommend this place