Juballand Grill

So tasty goat meat. I wish they put more goat meat than the rice. However the rice they fix is freaking tasty. Growing up in Nepal– I love goat mean and rice, somali goat meat tasted pretty much the same (Nepalis might fix it better though). Also the tea there is freaking good. I tried chicken plate the next time. It was good. Just good. I probably can cook better than that. The rice is just amazing though.
All the local somali guys come here, it seems like. People were ordering this huge plate of food and two guys were sharing it; I asked them what it was and they told me that its $ 18 for three different different meats, chicken, goat, fish, and rice and spaghetti and salad. Very weird combination but it looked pretty good. I would totally get it if I was with someone.
The second time I went there, there was this somali guy– he ordered two somali buttery tortilla on a plate, bought a cup of tea, and he poured it on the plate. He took out a banana from his coat pocket and put it in the plate. Whatever the hell he was doing it looked pretty dang good, must be authentic somali snack.
The place might look a little sketchy but if you have an open mind and want to try authentic somali food with and around somali people, please try it out.

I regret driving past this place for the past 1.5 years…
I’m a huge fan of shady looking hole in the wall restaurants. This one was in a neighborhood that doesn’t have a reputation for being friendly. With bars on the windows this was definitely a place that was out of my comfort zone to go into. I always see cabs at this place so that is a big sign that it must be good!
After grocery shopping I decided to try it out. I walked in and was greeted by someone who was probably a regular, he said «Hello! Good to see you». I’m guessing he said this because I’m the only white guy that’s been in that place in a long time. Regardless, a warm invitation is always helpful when you don’t know what you’re getting into.
The menu was a wonderful display of thing I couldn’t pronounce and a few strange regular items like chicken wings and a Philly cheese steak? Is that an African thing? The wall has some less than optimal photos of some of the items and after giving it a good look I went with the curry chicken. The side options were a traditional style bread, spaghetti? (No clue on this one) rice and beans and some sort of corn maize dough ball thing. I went with just the rice.
It came with a salad that a 4^th grader could have made, a tomato, lettuce and terrible ranch dressing on top. Regardless if you toss it in the rice its still pretty good. The curry chicken is a dry spiced chicken and insanely awesome. It is cilantro heavy and has a sweetness underneath all the spice. It is cooked wonderfully and easy to get carried away shoveling it in your mouth. It has a very ethnic taste but is still what I would call «White people accessible». The rice was excellent. But I’m not sure if thats because it was seasoned well or just because the chicken was on top and was mixing in the spices. Eitherway, great food for 8 bucks, definitely 2 meals worth if you can stop eating it.
I will be back very soon.
Minus a star because of the lack of upkeep on the building. This place is all about the food, the appearance is not attractive at all.

I don’t know why it is, but every time I end up on Independence boulevard; I feel like trying something new. Maybe its because this is the epicenter of all foods foreign to the average American palate. For me Independence boulevard presents endless opportunities for me to try something that were it not for my own curiosity I would never have experienced.
Example: Jubaland Grill. A small yellow and blue building with very large white bars on all the windows, nestled in a less than desirable neighborhood. The sign on the front reads North African Grill, and at the same time declares that they have both gyros and fried chicken wings. The parking lot almost always has at least one cab in the parking lot, clearly a cabbie hangout.
I went in with zero expectations. There is a menu on the wall above a service counter enclosed in plexiglass. There are only 6 tables in the awkwardly small dining room and as I assume is normal, 5 of the 6 were taken. So standing there studying the menu looking lost, while cab drivers from North Africa stare at me with a curious look was not an option. I simply went to the window and asked what the traditional meal was. The cashier firmly stated «goat and rice». I request one order of goat and rice with a coke.
I grabbed my own coke out of the fridge in the corner and sat down. About five minutes later the cashier called me up to hand me my plate. A large plate 2/3’s of which was covered in a deliciously simple basmati rice with light seasoning. The other ¹⁄₃ a Denny’s style side salad with Best Choice ranch dressing on it, strange. On top of the rice was 6 – 7 chunks of goat from unknown parts. Surprisingly leaner than I was expecting, the meat was savory, tender, and suprisingly lightly seasoned. All in all, very tasty goat; not something I eat regularly but run across on occasion. Not an amazing meal, but good enough to warrant a stop when in the area.
Something worth noting. While waiting for my meal, I did what people do; I observed other people. What I saw was a restaurant full of men eating food with their hands, in several cases; from the same plate. It took about 20 confused seconds before I recalled that my travel channel and food network education taught me that this is a perfectly normal practice in many parts of Africa. Don’t worry, they will give you a spoon if you want one. But the goat… you eat with your hands!