Great West African Fare Served in What Feels Like a Diner

What to order at Azara Kitchen in Harlem

Senegalese lamb mafe at Azara Kitchen.

The evolution of West African restaurants in the city, beginning in the late 1980s, has been a thing to behold. At first, Senegalese women cooked in SRO hotel rooms for street vendors, then clubby spaces appeared mainly in the Bronx and Harlem, each catering to immigrants from Nigeria, Guinea, Ghana, Sierra Leone, or the Ivory Coast. Next, we had full-blown restaurants welcoming the general public, and nightclubs — mainly Nigerian — that catered to the alcohol-drinking segment of the African population. (Many restaurants as opposed to the clubs were Muslim-owned and didn’t serve alcohol.) Finally, we had fast-casual spots like Teranga and Voila Afrique, and steam table joints in Manhattan, all of which served dishes from several West African nations simultaneously.

The diner-like interior of Azara Kitchen

And now there’s Azara Kitchen (348 Lenox Avenue, at 128th Street). Opening a little over a year ago, it is unlike any West African place that New York City has yet seen.