UPTOWNflavor

In the area that has come to be known as Little Africa, emerges another West African restaurant. This one specializing in Senegalese or “French-West African” fare. The Village Voice offers a review of the cuisine served at the latest addition, Dibiterie Cheikh. Below is an excerpt:

In Wolof, the language of Senegal’s dominant tribe, “dibi” refers to any dish of grilled lamb. Combing [sic] French and Wolof, “dibiterie” signifies an open-air chophouse that specializes in lamb roasted over charcoal. The Dakar yellow pages lists six, and now New York has one, too. Named after proprietor Cheikh Goumbal, Dibiterie is the usual bare-brick box we’ve come to expect from West African restaurants. True to form, there are two humongous monitors, both tuned to CNN. Among other things, these are intended to help West African immigrants with their idiomatic English. Pictures of Senegalese marabouts—Muslim holy men—dot the walls.

Predictably, the dibi ($10) is awesome. Rather than serving lamb chops, as other Senegalese and Ivory Coast restaurants do, Dibeterie hacks irregular hunks of lamb from the leg, flame-blackened morsels that include bits of skin and bone. The taste of this locally sourced halal meat is far superior to anything you’d find in a midtown brasserie. The humongous entrée comes with salad, a small plastic cup of vinaigrette, and rice decorated with tomatoes and onion relish. The same mustard-laced relish accompanies the fried or grilled pink snapper ($12), served whole, and it also smothers the roasted chicken. Sure, the half-chicken is commendably crisp and greasy underneath the relish, but even better is the pintade ($10), a roasted guinea fowl that’s mainly dark meat, with a more assertive flavor. Choose french fries, white rice, or fried plantains to go with your main course.
Read the entire review here