Cafe Nema

On Friday night I met some friends for dinner at Café Nema on U Street. I had walked by Café Nema many times since I lived in the U Street neighborhood when I first moved to Washington in 1999, but I had never eaten there. I had no idea what I had been missing.

As we were settling in, one of my friends told me that Café Nema is owned by a Somali man. Being unfamiliar with the cuisine of Somalia, I was surprised to discover that the menu included many dishes that I recognized as Middle Eastern or Italian. Upon reflection, I decided that this made sense. Somalia is a predominantly Muslim country, which would explain the Middle Eastern influence, and part of Somalia had for a time been an Italian protectorate. The menu included dishes I did not recognize that I assume are wholly Somali.

Googleing “Somali food” to read other’s descriptions of Somali restaurants, I learned that Somali food is often eaten with the hands and that, Somali’s being muslim, Somali restaurants are typically alcohol free. However, Café Nema is a full service restaurant with silverware and there is a full bar. The beer selection includes Heinekin, Fischer Biere D’Alsace, and Spaten amongst others. All beers were $6 per glass or bottle. I didn’t look at the wine selection.

Our group shared several appetizers, all enjoyable: sambousas, triangular pastries filled with jalapeno-spiced meat; falafel; kibbeh, an oblong-shaped fried ball of seasoned ground meat and pine nuts; and hummus, with a strong cumin flavor, rather than the garlic flavor I'm more accustomed to, and served with pieces of tortilla like wheat flatbread.

So many things on the menu looked good, but my mouth started watering when I read the description for Kalankal: either chicken, lamb, or beef stewed in tomatoes, onions, peppers and spices. The actual dish lived up to my expectations. Apparently I wasn’t the only one whose mouth watered at the description, several in our party ordered it. One who didn’t, had lamb chops and he later reported that they were very good.

There were some downsides to Café Nema. It is a small restaurant and was very crowded when we were there. We were interrupted half-way through our dinner to make room for a DJ to set-up. Also the service was poor. There were not enough menus to go round and our waiter took appetizer orders from only half of our party and didn’t return until they had been consumed and we were ready to order entrée’s. Despite these problems, the quality of the food made it enjoyable.

Café Nema is located at 1334 U Street NW inWashington, D.C.