The Horn of Africa – named, not after the vuvuzela, but Somalia’s coastline – has been set up to provide low-cost, healthy and familiar food to the growing Somali population in Glasgow. There is not yet a menu so you take pot luck and eat what’s available – and if you don’t make the lunchtime serving all the food may have gone by the evening. Staples include a fragrant rice with vegetables and dried fruit served with either chicken, fish or lamb and lettuce on the side. The lamb is slow-cooked and marvelously tender, and a green chilli and lemon sauce adds an unusual piquancy that brings the parts together well. Other dishes combine Italian (southern Somalia was an Italian colony) and north African influences so spaghetti or canjeera, large savoury pancakes similar to the Ethopian injera bread, may be on offer. There is sweet halva or fresh fruit but the experience is best rounded off with a cup of Liptons tea served Somali style with warm milk – there is no alcohol in this Muslim-run establishment. With all meals £5 it is most definitely worth a look-see.

+ Generous attitude all round
- Not much else on the doorstep

Horn of Africa
672 Eglinton Street, Southside, Glasgow 0141 429 4285
Mon–Sun 10am–11pm
Ave. price two-course meal £6 (lunch/dinner)