What to Order at an African Restaurant in St. Louis: Even the Raw Beef Comes Well Done
Revised November 5, 2026
What to order at an African restaurant in St. Louis?
Order a combination platter. At an Ethiopian table that means injera with several wot stews and vegetable sides, shared from one tray; Meskerem on South Grand lists exactly what goes on its combos. At a West African table, start with jollof rice, grilled tilapia or suya, and a swallow like fufu on the side. Ask the server which stew is mildest.
Keep reading ↓Raw beef, well done. That’s a real order on South Grand. At Meskerem, the menu says kitfo, chopped prime beef mixed with butter and mitmita, is served raw, rare or well done, your call. So text the friend who swears they can’t handle Ethiopian food: even the dish people dare each other to try bends to you.
Two lentil dishes sit side by side on the same sheet of injera, and they are not the same thing. One is cooked with ginger, garlic and curry, and the menu marks it mild. The other is finished with berbere, the brick-red Ethiopian spice blend, and it warms the back of your throat on the second bite. You tear off a strip of the sour, spongy bread, pinch up a little of each, and your mouth explains the difference faster than any menu could.
That tray is the Vegetarian Combo at Meskerem on South Grand, and it puts seven dishes in front of you at once. Most guides to African food tell you to “try a combination platter” and stop there. In St. Louis you can read exactly what lands on one before you sit down, because Meskerem prints it: miser alecha, miser wat, shiro wat, butecha, gomen wat and two vegetable sides. It’s a built-in heat test, mild on one side of the tray and berbere-hot on the other.
Order one cold thing with it. Meskerem’s timatim fitfit is pieces of injera mixed with chopped tomatoes, fresh green peppers, onions, olive oil and vinegar, served cold, and a bite of it right after the berbere lentils cools your whole mouth down. Most first-timers never know the bread itself comes as a salad.
Beyond that tray, keep reading for what the rest of the continent’s cooking tastes like and how to order it.
What to order at an African restaurant in St. Louis?
Order a combination platter. At an Ethiopian table that means injera with several wot stews and vegetable sides, shared from one tray; Meskerem on South Grand lists exactly what goes on its combos. At a West African table, start with jollof rice, grilled tilapia or suya, and a swallow like fufu on the side. Ask the server which stew is mildest.
Reading a real St. Louis menu: Meskerem on South Grand
Meskerem, at 3210 South Grand Blvd, was founded in March 2007 and is named for the first month of the Ethiopian calendar, the one that ends the three-month rainy season. Its menu is the cheat sheet most first-timers wish they had, because every dish is spelled out.
The Meskerem Combo for one brings tibs wat, doro wat, minchet alecha, miser alecha and tikil gomen, which is cabbage, potatoes and carrots sautéed with garlic, ginger and curry. The Vegetarian Combo for one brings miser alecha, miser wat, shiro wat, butecha, gomen wat and two vegetable sides. Butecha is finely milled chickpeas pan-crusted in olive oil with onions, jalapeños and a touch of lemon. Shiro wat is ground, highly seasoned chickpeas in berbere sauce. Gomen wat is chopped collard greens.
Doro wat here is chicken sautéed with butter and red wine, finished with berbere and served with a hard-boiled egg. And kitfo, the dish that scares people, is the one you now know to order well done if raw isn’t for you. Nobody has to eat raw beef on a first visit. You just say so.
Not ready for the heat? Start with a lentil sambosa: lentils with hot green peppers, onions and garlic, stuffed in thin homemade bread and served hot, crackling when you bite through the corner. Meskerem’s posted hours run 11 to 9 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 to 10 on Friday and Saturday, and noon to 9 on Sunday. Call 314-772-4442 before a big group shows up.
The one sentence that works at any counter
Say this: “It’s my first time here, I eat mild, what would you put in front of me?” That’s it. Whoever takes your order will steer you toward the dish the kitchen is proudest of, which is usually also the one that travels best to a new palate.
West African downtown: Levels on Washington Avenue
For Nigerian food, LEVELS Nigerian Cuisine at 1405 Washington Ave calls itself “the premiere destination for West African cuisine and culture in St. Louis City.” It runs dinner from 4 p.m. on the nights it’s open, plus a Sunday brunch, and it says reservations are highly recommended. Call 314-571-9990 to book. Book the table before you go, then order a soup with a swallow and let the table fall quiet.
What not to do on a first visit
Don’t order four separate entrees for four people. These menus are built around sharing, and four solo plates taste like less. Don’t ask for a fork before you have looked at the table. And don’t skip the salad or the collards, since the cool, sharp stuff is what makes the rich stuff work.
What is Ethiopian and Eritrean food?
Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking is built on injera, a wide sour flatbread, and wot, the slow-simmered stews you spoon on top of it. You eat with your right hand, tearing bread and scooping. The cuisines are close cousins with overlapping dishes and some real differences, and a St. Louis kitchen may cook either tradition or both.
Injera, and why it tastes like that
Injera is made from teff, a tiny grain, and the batter ferments for days before it hits the griddle. That fermentation gives it a distinct sour tang, closer to sourdough than to any flour tortilla. The surface is covered in little holes that grab sauce. First bite alone, it can taste strange. With a spoonful of spiced lentils on it, the whole thing clicks.
Wot, tibs, and kitfo
Wot is the stew family. Doro wot is chicken simmered long in berbere, a red spice blend, usually served with a hard-boiled egg sitting in the sauce. Misir wot is red lentils, and it is the dish most beginners fall for. Tibs are cubes of beef or lamb sauteed hot with onion, jalapeño, and rosemary, served sizzling and often milder than the stews.
Kitfo is the one to know about before you order it. It’s minced raw beef warmed in spiced butter with mitmita, a hot chili blend. Many people love it. If raw beef is not your thing, ask for it leb leb, which means lightly cooked, and nobody will blink.
The fasting combination, which happens to be vegan
Ethiopian Orthodox fasting days exclude animal products, so nearly every Ethiopian kitchen keeps a full vegetable lineup ready. The veggie combination usually brings red lentils, yellow split peas, cabbage and carrot, collards, beets, and a salad, all on one tray. It is one of the most satisfying vegan meals in the city and it isn’t marketed as vegan anywhere on the menu.
For where to actually go, our local guide to the best Ethiopian food in St. Louis covers the rooms themselves. This post is about the menu; that one is about the address.
What does West African food taste like?
West African cooking runs on tomato, onion, chili, palm oil, ground nuts, and smoked or dried fish. Think deep, savory, a little oily in the good way, with heat that varies by cook. Nigerian, Ghanaian, Senegalese, Liberian, and Ivorian kitchens all sit in this family, and their staples overlap while their names differ.
Jollof rice and grilled tilapia
Jollof is rice cooked in a tomato and pepper base until the grains take on the color and the flavor. Smoky, savory, mildly spicy, and beloved to the point of ongoing argument between Nigeria and Ghana about who does it right. Order it with grilled tilapia, a whole fish scored and charred, and you have the most approachable plate in the entire category.
Egusi, okra, and the soups
Egusi is a thick soup built from ground melon seeds, and it eats almost like a savory, nutty stew with bitter greens and meat or fish worked through it. Okra soup is deliberately slippery, which surprises people the first time. Peanut, or groundnut, stew is rich and slightly sweet, and it is the easiest of the three for a new palate.
A note on the word soup. On a West African menu, soup means a thick sauce you eat with a starch, not something you sip from a bowl with a spoon. Order a soup and you should order a swallow to go with it.
Fufu and the swallow foods
Swallow is the category name for the soft, dense starches you pull apart by hand and use as an edible utensil. Fufu made from cassava or plantain, pounded yam, eba from cassava flour, amala from yam flour, semolina. They are mild by design, because their job is to carry the soup. Pinch off a piece, dent it with your thumb, dip, and swallow without chewing much.
Suya, the gateway dish
If one West African dish converts skeptics, it’s suya. Thin strips of beef are coated in yaji, a dry rub heavy on ground peanut, ginger, and chili, then grilled over open flame and served with raw onion and more of the rub on the side. Smoky. Nutty. Hot in a warm, spreading way rather than a sharp one. Order it as a starter and watch the table go quiet.
What is on a Somali or East African menu?
Somali food shows its Indian Ocean history in every dish: rice cooked with cardamom, cumin, and cinnamon, goat and lamb over anything else, and a bright green chili sauce on the side. It is warmly spiced and rarely fiery. Utensils are normal here, though many people still eat rice by hand.
Sambusa, bariis, and goat
Sambusa is the triangular fried pastry, usually stuffed with spiced ground beef or lentils, and it arrives hot enough to burn the roof of your mouth. Bariis iskukaris is the signature rice, tinted gold, perfumed with xawaash spice, often studded with raisins. Goat or lamb shank comes alongside, slow-cooked to falling apart, with a banana on the plate.
Yes, a banana. You slice it and eat it with the rice, and the sweetness against the spiced meat makes complete sense after two bites. Basbaas, the green chili and cilantro sauce, is where the heat lives. Add it yourself, a little at a time.
Meatless? Read how to eat out as a vegetarian in St. Louis.
What is North African food?
North African cooking, from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, leans on couscous, slow tagine braises, preserved lemon, olives, cumin, cinnamon, and harissa chili paste. It reads as the most familiar of the four families to an American palate, largely because it shares a Mediterranean shelf with food most people already eat.
Couscous, tagine, and harissa
Couscous is tiny steamed semolina pasta, light and fluffy, and it usually arrives under a pile of stewed vegetables and meat with broth to pour over. Tagine names both the cone-shaped clay pot and what cooks inside it: lamb with prunes, chicken with preserved lemon and olives, beef with apricot. Sweet and savory sit in the same bowl on purpose, and it works.
Harissa is the heat, a paste of roasted chili, garlic, and caraway. It typically comes on the side rather than in the dish, which means you control the burn entirely. Egyptian menus bring their own staples, like koshari, a carb stack of rice, lentils, and macaroni under tomato sauce and fried onion.
Is African food spicy?
Some of it, not most of it. Ethiopian berbere stews carry real heat, West African pepper soup and some jollof can run hot, and Somali basbaas will light you up if you pour it on. Plenty of dishes are barely spiced at all. The heat is usually on the side, not baked in.
Where the heat actually hides
Hot: doro wot, kitfo with mitmita, pepper soup, anything described as pepper anything. Medium: jollof, suya, egusi, tibs. Mild: alicha stews, the yellow split peas, peanut stew, bariis, couscous, most tagines, fufu itself. A kitchen will almost always dial a dish down if you ask before it’s cooked. Ask when you order, not when it lands.
The palate coolers on the table
Injera absorbs heat. So does plain rice, fufu, and the side salad with its sharp dressing. Ethiopian kitchens pour honey wine, and a lot of West African spots keep malt drinks and hibiscus coolers, both of which do more for a burning mouth than water does. Water just spreads it around.
How do you eat with your hands?
Right hand only, no utensils, and the bread or swallow does the work. On injera, tear a strip from the edge, use it to pinch up stew without your fingers touching the food, and eat it in one bite. With fufu, pinch a small ball, press a dent, scoop soup, and swallow it mostly whole.
The mechanics nobody explains
Tear with your fingertips, not your whole fist. Keep the food off your palm. Work from the section of the tray nearest you rather than reaching across somebody. The bread under the stews gets soaked through by the end of the meal and turns into the best part, so don’t leave it. Most places bring a warm towel or point you to the sink first.
Gursha, and what a shared platter means
A shared platter means one tray, no individual plates, everyone eating from the same surface. It feels odd for exactly one minute. Gursha is the Ethiopian custom of feeding a bite to someone else at the table by hand, an act of affection between people who know each other. Nobody expects a first-timer to do it. Nobody minds if you do.
Ready to eat? Browse African restaurants around St. Louis on St Louis Near Me Directory, pick two within a short drive, and ask the counter what the kitchen is proudest of.
If you run a kitchen like this, the diner reading this page is the one you want. They are hungry, curious and searching on their phones for where to try injera or jollof tonight. A listing helps those customers find your door instead of a chain’s. List your restaurant.
How to pick your first African meal around St. Louis
Shortlist two or three places instead of researching one to death. Meskerem is on South Grand and Levels is on Washington Avenue. Pick two that are close enough to try on a weeknight without it becoming a project.
Then go in and ask plainly. Tell them it’s your first time, say how you handle heat, and ask what they would put in front of you. Compare that answer against what actually arrives. The gap between the two, or the absence of one, tells you more about a kitchen than any list ever will.
Timing, groups, and the practical stuff
Some dishes cook to order and take a while, doro wot especially. Go when you have an hour. Bring at least two people so you can order a combination and split it.
If you want to walk a block and compare several cuisines at once, our guide to where to eat on South Grand maps that stretch.
Across the Atlantic the same spices went a different direction. Here is what Caribbean food is and what to order in St. Louis.
Egypt cooks from the same North African pantry with its own habits at the table. Here is what Egyptian food is and what to order in St. Louis.
Frequently asked questions
What does African food taste like?
It depends on the region, because there is no single flavor. Ethiopian food tastes tangy and warmly spiced from berbere and fermented injera. West African food is deep and savory with tomato, chili, peanut, and smoked fish. Somali food is fragrant with cardamom and cumin. North African food leans sweet-savory with cinnamon, preserved lemon, and olives.
What is the most common African food?
There isn’t one dish for a continent, but a few show up on menus everywhere in this metro. Jollof rice appears on nearly every West African menu. Injera with wot anchors every Ethiopian and Eritrean table. Starchy staples run through all of it: rice, cassava, yam, plantain, millet, and maize in some form at almost every meal.
Is African food healthy to eat?
Much of it is, especially the vegetable-heavy plates. The Ethiopian fasting combination is legumes and greens with no animal products at all. Teff, the grain in injera, is naturally gluten-free, though some kitchens blend in wheat flour, so ask. Fried items, palm oil stews, and big starch portions are the heavier end. Balance the tray.
What does fufu mean in Africa?
Fufu names a soft, stretchy dough made by pounding a boiled starch, usually cassava, plantain, yam, or a blend of them. It belongs to the swallow family, meaning foods you pinch by hand and use to scoop soup. The word travels across West and Central Africa, and the exact starch and texture shift country by country.
What are some basic Ethiopian foods for a beginner?
Start with misir wot, the red lentil stew, and tibs, sauteed cubes of beef or lamb that tend to run milder. Add the yellow split peas and the collards for balance. Doro wot is the famous chicken dish and it carries more heat. Order all of it as a combination platter so you taste the lineup at once.
How to properly eat Ethiopian food?
Wash your hands, skip the utensils, and use your right hand. Tear a strip of injera from the rolled pieces on the side, pinch up a bite of stew so your fingers stay off the food, and eat it in one motion. Work from the part of the tray in front of you. Eat the soaked base bread last.
What is injera called in English?
English has no separate name for it, so injera stays injera on every menu. Descriptions usually call it a sour flatbread, a spongy pancake, or a fermented teff bread. None of those are quite right. It is closer to a soft, tangy crepe with a honeycomb surface that exists to hold sauce.
What do Ethiopians eat with injera?
Wot stews, mostly. Red lentils, yellow split peas, chicken in berbere, beef or lamb tibs, collard greens, spiced cabbage and carrot, beets, and fresh cheese all get spooned onto the bread. A tomato or green salad usually rides along. On fasting days the whole tray goes vegetable, and rolled extra injera arrives on the side for scooping.
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