Safari Restaurant

I had a fantastic meal here! The veggie muufo special was incredibly delicious. Loved the banana and the sauce that came with the meal. The service was outstanding: so nice and helpful. Also, very cheap. I was absolutely stuffed when I left and my dish cost $ 6.50. Go to this restaurant. Bring friends and try everything.

This place has good food, great staff and awesome timings. :) I ordered Sambosas and Chicken KeKey and loved it!!! Good portions, great taste and the service was pretty fast.
Some menu items like Sambosas and Baryani are most likely adopted from other cuisines, so ask them before you order.
This will be my Go-​To place if I have cravings after 10pm. :)
The staff were very friendly… and you get a free Banana!!! How cool is that. :)

I used to love this place (Which means not anymore)
I dont know if there is any change in kitchen crews. but their foods are not as good as it used to be. Very friendly staff members on the floor. It can be busy during weekends.

We came here for dinner after shopping at Mall of America. At 9:45pm and starving, we had trouble finding places that we wanted to try out that were open. Luckily, Safari came to the rescue. We got here around 10pm and they had couple tables full. But 15 minutes later this place was hoppin! Apparently lot of locals there eat late so place filled up quick (no wonder they close at midnight).
We decided on sambusas, Chicken Fantastic, and Safari Famous Kekey Noodles. Sambusas came in twos for $ 3 and was well worth it. They were fried just right and still golden in color; the inside was ground beef that was perfectly seasoned. It came with a sauce that I assume was mint. They also added a small side of vegetables with ranch to the sambusas. You can order the Chicken fantastic in medium or large size. I opted for medium size given my earlier pre-​dinner pizza… but the portion was very generous. (It was about the same as the Kekey noodles). The chicken fantastic had tender pieces of chicken and the sauce was creamy but not too rich. It sort of reminded me a bit of cream of mushroom. The Kekey noodles were delicious. You can opt to have chicken, shrimp or beef and we chose beef. The noodles were very light and sort of reminded me of the chinese dish, beef stir fried with flat rice noodles. I personally liked the noodles more but my boyfriend insisted the chicken fantastic was better. At the end we cleaned our plates!

Visited on 2 – 1 around 6pm. The place was busy with folks going back and forth from the event center. We were neither seated or offered a menu. We had to circumvent the situation and order food at the bar. We were not offered drinks we paid for until after our food arrived about 40 minutes later. My husband went to the bar to ask for drinks– he was waived off by staff who said our order would be coming soon. Our appetizer, and dinner orders came out at the same time, again took 40 minutes and nobody in the place was ordering food. Our drinks did arrive after the food which was ok. And we were nearly collapsing with hunger. Fried beef entrees tasted greasy and unimaginative. Lamb entrée was better. I was overly impressed that safari was not looking to expand their customer line to more than regulars. We were grunted at and treated with coarse indignation. They succeeded. Will spend our money elsewhere.

The food and service were excellent. We had the Safari Famous Ke’Kay with beef, chicken fantastic, and ugali with goat curry. The flavor was great for all of the dishes and the portion sizes were generous. It was a bit cold in the restaurant, which might also be a reflection of the fact that is was very, very cold outside. I would definitely eat here again.

I was in Minneapolis at a conference and went to this restaurant with five colleagues. We had a fantastic (and large) meal at a very reasonable price. The owner was very friendly and selected for us a number of traditional Somali dishes. The food was beautifully served and delicious — really a cut above traditional home cooking — and the owner made us feel like welcome guests. I highly recommend this restaurant!

It’s one of the best restaurant in Minneapolis, especially Goat with rice.
All meat is Halal.
And, The waiter is Muslim, friendly lovely and so nice. They do their best for you:)
I will go again and again.

This is located in the midtown market.
Spicy chicken was okay, veggies, rice great. All 3 together were around $ 7 and like the name suggests, were very spicy. :)
They offer goat (yum) and camel meat which I have never tried. Will come back to try their beef Somosa soon.
Park in the parking lot on 10^th for free parking, otherwise it is $ 1.50 for two hours which isn’t bad.

When Safari was on 14^th and Nicollet it was solid. The dinner I recently had there was such a disappointment that I really don’t want to return. The Shrimp Fantastic was completely bland and forgettable. It was frozen shrimp, shredded carrots, and cream on top of a portion of rice big enough to feed 3 – 4 people. There were no herbs whatsoever, and it didn’t even taste like salt and pepper were included. The goat curry was actually pretty decent, but there were exactly 7 morsels of goat meat in the entire helping. Here again, there was more than enough rice for an entire family served with this one skimpy portion of curry.
The Foule was actually delicious, but the Mufo Veggie Special had absolutely no flavor and was little more than steamed spinach with sliced onions. Here again, no spices, herbs, or seasonings were apparent.
There is much better Somali food in the Twin Cities, and I am much more inclined to return to those establishments long before I return to Safari. I hope this negative experience was just a fluke. Minneapolis should have much better Somali food than this.

Came here a bit nervous because I’ve never had Somalian food. I didn’t regret it. Food was solid. Spacious and clean restaurant. Ordered Sambuza for an appetizer. Pretty much two ground beef samosa on top of salad that I’m pretty familiar with but it was scrumptious. Then the main course was the roasted goat cutlet. It was awesome. You could taste all the seasonings, which is good because it’s easy to get served bland goat. The basmati rice had a bit of a sweet taste to it which went well with the roasted goat and curry potatoes. Beware, there will be bones. It can get loud here as they also have a banquet hall. Overall great food and wait staff was attentive. Definitely recommend this place

This place is different, it is the only Somali restaurant I’ve ever been where there were — non-​Somalis, non-​males, non-​astronomical portions, you don’t get a banana, the food takes longer than 5 minutes to prepare, and the water is served out of the tap and not a bottle (yay).
For my kid I got the Kismaya Fish Sticks, if they are homemade as they said, then they are the only fish sticks I’ve ever had that didn’t come frozen in a box. My kid really like them, but personally I found them a bit mushy. The Chicken Mango Curry was good, but where was the mango? And the Foule Madammes (mashed fava beans) were tasty.
I like the décor, and the menu options seem very, very interesting. There is a sign claiming they are «Open 24 hours,» but it ain’t true, so don’t try to get your breakfast at 5am.

A Safari In The City?
There is no need for a base camp with this safari or a large truck protecting you from a bunch of wild animals that want to have you for dinner, but this safari WILL provide you with some amazing African cuisine that will have you coming back for more and maybe even getting a chance to have an animal one takes pictures of on a real safari…
Safari Restaurant & Banquet Center and owner Sade (pronounced — saw dee) is an immigrant turned entrepreneur and providing said amazing African cuisine to a growing demand for ethnic food in the midtown neighborhood of Minneapolis. A good friend and food lover himself asked my wife and I to join him and his gal for our first time after trying to explain to me all about the amazing food he had from one of his clients, Safari’s owner and that we needed to try it. We’re always up for trying something new and exciting, so why not?!
After sitting down and getting an opportunity to meet Sade, he briefly described all the things he wanted us to try and as he explained everything in detail, my mouth started to water and I promptly said, «yes please!» With a giggle, he was heading back to the kitchen for our first dish and appetizer, Sambuza’s. Small pastries filled with some of the best ground beef you’ll ever get a chance of tasting and it was just the beginning dish…
What could possibly be better than what I just ate? Oh my Gnaw Blog friends, I’ll provide you with the full details… How about a platter the size of your thanksgiving turkey platter that’s piled high with delicious seasoned basmati rice than throw some curry chicken, roasted goat and seasoned beef in with it. Throw in some additional spices and veggies and you have yourself heaven on a platter… Sound good yet? It should! It’s goat for heaven sakes…
One would think it’s over after devouring such a delicious meal, but there was more. Yet another large dish piled high with a completely different seasoned basmati concoction which was probably the best rice I’ve ever had with an aroma of cloves, all-​spice and cinnamon with curry roasted goat and marinated basbaas tilapia. How does it sound now?
As we prepared to head out, Sade came by to say thank you for stopping by and to let us know he would have served us camel had he had any in stock… Did he just say camel? Yep! We were invited back to not only try the camel, but also to experiment in the test kitchen and make an African juicy. What would an African juicy involve, well… that my friends is; lean camel meat filled with goat cheese and cilantro! I found a new friend as did Sade and I can’t wait to try his camel and play chef.
The Safari is simply divine and serving some of the finest food I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. I’m extremely excited about going back for more and glad my friend had us join him and his gal for an awesome African lunch date, a three hour lunch date at that and well worth it. I know some of you may have a closed mind and won’t even consider trying this great food, that’s fine, more for me, but for those who are open to trying new foods, I’ll meet you at 4^th Ave. and Lake street anytime!

Quite tasty, although I was a little bummed that they didn’t have the camel burger on the menu like they do at the express version in midtown. They also didn’t have any injera. I got the goat curry stew, and it was spicy! so good. Goat is just one of those boney creatures, isn’t it? Not always the most pleasant experience, but what you would expect — there was this citrus spicy salsa with what they called «african polenta’. Not sure what it is exactly, but it was a soft puck shaped glob of white dumpling stuff. Mixed well with the peppers and goat. I’ll be back no doubt.

Ate here a couple months ago, and promised a review. Sorry for forgetting.
First off, the proprietor/​manager was exceptionally friendly and welcoming. I showed him a coupon, which is why I came here, and told him that I wanted to really have a chance to try out their food. He offered a «sampler» to me for the price of a couple of meals and I jumped at it.
The food was amazing. Bold flavors that were not overpowering. The flavors were very layered, with each spice complementing the other to create something very special. There were 5 different dishes on a plate, along with a healthy mound of nicely seasoned rice that complemented the dish perfectly. Unlike most sampler platters, there wasn’t a missed note on the plate. Everything was delicious and the prices, even had I paid full price, would’ve been well worth it.
The only negative was that the waiter came by and asked if we needed anything, and I asked for a refill on the mango juice that came with the meal. About 10 minutes and no juice later, he came by and asked if we needed anything. I asked again for more juice, he said that he would bring some, but never did. Oddly, given the great experience we had otherwise, this seemed more of an adorable quirk than anything really bothersome.
Overall, a five star meal at a one dollar sign price. We will be back.
Incidentally, I’ve eaten at their «express» location at the Midtown Global Market several times. The food was good, but not the same as at their full restaurant.

Delicious.
This place is so good, I was literally shoveling food into my mouth at a rapid-​fire pace.
The service was great (even though I was using a coupon), the tea was creamy and sweet, the food was fresh, colorful, large portions, and accurate spice amount.
The owner himself even came out to check on us, to see how we were liking things.
While the décor is minimalistic, the food is enough to keep bringing me back. If you’ve ever gone to their location at the Global Market, this will not dissappoint!
I believe they also do catering– this might be a fun wedding reception option (I’m thinking about it myself!)

I would have really given this place a 5 star if it wasn’t for my encounters with what appeared to be two girls right outta high school with snotty attitudes.
Great variety of African & Middle Eastern food tho, great owner and despite my two not so pleasant encounters, this is the kinda place you keep finding yourself in because the food is REALLY good.