Alafia West African Cuisine

Love the food here and Ismael is a great host and cook! The mafe, goat stew, and fufu were incredible. Treat yourself to the ginger juice and bissap too. Looking forward to returning on a Tuesday or Friday for ceebu jen!

Super friendly, the food is impeccably flavored and original. Stewed to perfection. The ginger drink is shockingly addicting. Substitute the rice for the fufu, it’s worth the extra $ 2! We will be back many times.
Six months later still just as awesome as before!

This is honestly one of the best meals I’ve had in Tucson. The whole tilapia was so, extremly delicious and perfectly cooked. The chicken in red sauce was amazing. And of course the fried plantains were so good. I highly recommend this place to anyone who loves a good, home-​cooked meal that someone else makes at a restaurant.

Tucsonans! (Tucsonites? Not sure what we call ourselves, honestly.) We have a West African restaurant in town! We really deserve all those foodie accolades. I’ve had two stellar visits to Alafia. A few highlights: the chicken in red sauce; the fried fish; the hibiscus juice (‘bissap’); the ginger juice (the most authentically gingery concoction I have ever tasted); and – for those who can take heat – the homemade hot sauce, which is so fantastic that we now buy it in bulk.
According to the ex-​W. African Peace Corps volunteer in our group, the meal, the menu, and the atmosphere are all authentic, so there’s the added benefit of getting the real thing.

I am a Nigerian who goes back to Africa a couple times a year so I’m quite critical about an African restaurant. Where do I start… Alafia gets 5 stars for everything. Customer service, taste, and ambience.
Just for fun I Unilocaled african restaurants in Tucson as I was driving through the city and I found this little diamond in the rough. I was a little nervous african food in Arizona. But what the heck why not?
I ordered goat soup with fufu and fish with jellof rice, potatoes and cabbage and his ginger juice.
My my my. Everything was delicious. This man knows what he is doing. I can’t even describe the flavours it’s just simply unbelievably good.
Do your taste buds a favor and do not pass up this dining experience if the opportunity ever presents itself.

The food is amazing! They were very accommodating. I went there with 8 other people an hour before they closed. We ordered one of everything. The food came out pretty quickly considering it was made by one person. The menu was small but everything is delicious. I would definitely go back there again next time I am in town.

Excellent. I love Ethiopian food but had never had West African cuisine before. Glad I tried it, we had two of the best dishes I’ve tasted in a while.
Wife had goat in peanut sauce with rice, very tender and flavorful. I had a whole grilled tilapia, lightly seasoned but cooked perfectly; crispy on the outside but fall off the bone soft on the inside.
I also liked the side dish it came with, onions and tomatoes, was oily and delicious and went great over the fluffy cassava couscous.
Will definitely be back again to get this and try some other interesting looking dishes. Oh, and the owner/​server/​cook is also very nice and friendly, stop on by and he’ll put a smile on your face with his food and laugh!

This was a great place to dine. Absolute blast and the service. The rice and assorted meat is a great dish. I also found Fanta which was amazing. You can trust me that I will always find Naija food anywhere.

So I have no other west African cuisine experience to compare it to, but I really like this place. I love east African food, and I’ll admit I was expecting something similar. It isn’t similar at all.
The staff was super friendly. The food was very good, but honestly a bit difficult for my American palette.
Anyway, I’d give it a five star, but the place was just little bit dirty.

Wow, West African cuisine has come to Tucson! Yes, fufu is on the menu, and that is a good place to start. We had fried plantains, Egusi Stew with rice, Goat Soup with fufu as well as the African BBQ chicken and Tilapia. Everything was VERY tasty. Next time I go I will ask Ishmael for some hot pepper on the side for those of us who like our African food on the spicy side. Not only is the food great… but the Beninious hospitality shines through. Come eat at Alafia and make a friend with both the people and their food!

Tasty tasty tasty. I have had lunch here at least a dozen times since in opened 6 months ago and I am never disappointed. The goat soup served with fufu is like cuddling up on a cold day. The chicken in red sauce is perfectly seasoned and melts in your mouth. Although the bisap (hibiscus drink) is cooling, I lovely the ginger juice which is spicy and fresh tasting. The lunch special is a bargain. Ismael, the proprietor is charming and enthusiastic. Check this place out!

«Peanut soup?» I asked.
«With rice?» He replied.
Five minutes later he handed me freshly steamed rice glorious peanut soup and African hot sauce.
Ten minutes later in my kitchen I was transported back to London, England where I dined on peanut soup with friends from Ghana every month.
Feeling mighty lucky to have such a good African restaurant so conveniently located. As a side note he was kind enough to take my order and bring it to me in the parking lot because I couldn’t leave my dog in the hot car.

What a pleasant surprise! They serve West African home-​style dishes in a very casual setting. (It doesn’t look like they changed anything from the previous Jamaican restaurant – even the mural.)
One of my peeves is that Tucson is full of mediocre foreign restaurants because people don’t know better and there’s no competition. Well, this is the only West African restaurant in town – but the food is delicious.
Very tasty! They use authentic ingredients (like palm oil and egusi seeds), so it tastes like the real deal. I’ll vouch for the Egusi stew and the Chicken in Red Sauce. Nice staff too!
I’m worried Tucson isn’t suited to a place like this, which isn’t trendy or faddish but just serves good home-​style food. You won’t taste these flavors anywhere else in town.

This place should be packed — all the time! The crew working is incredibly nice and create a laid back atmosphere. When my friend and I got there we were the only ones in the place so we got to know a few of the workers, all of which were fun and happy to have us there.
We started off with some hibiscus juice and plantains. The hibiscus was awesome, but really those plantains stole the show. They cooked these perfectly. Some crispy nibbles on certain portions with the actual plantain soft and smooth. So good, you must have it!
They were out of a few dishes (tchop djen and ocra soup) that I was looking forward to, but the goat soup and «red sauce with chicken» was still really good. Of course, both the goat and the chicken still had the bones all over the place when it was served — I wouldn’t expect anything less. Out of the two dishes, I preferred the red sauce with chicken. The flavors were powerful, unique, and so tasty. Dishes naturally come with a large portion of rice, but you can sub in some fufu for $ 2 extra. I’m a huge fan of fufu, and they cooked it really well. Fufu would normally go better with a sauce dish rather than a soup, but either way fufu is a win.
What I really like about the food is how unique it is from the normal food options and the solid fact that I can’t go home and try to recreate their main dishes. If you’re looking for something different and perhaps might feeling a little adventurous, look no further.
One additional note. If you’re planning on paying with credit, they charge a dollar or two fee for that.

I always pass by on my way home from work, and think of stopping in. Well, today I made a lunch run, and am glad I did. Opted for the lunch special, which was goat soup. The young man taking my order asked if I wanted hot sauce. Of course! Got it to go, and back at the office, opened it up and it smelled great. Tasted it – delicious! I had two co-​workers stop by and comment, «something smells really good. What are you eating?» The hot sauce was really good too. A good high heat level, and good flavor. For $ 5.99, it’s a steal! I’ll be sure to check back.

Alafia is great! The host is fantastic, the food is great.
I took a friend there for lunch. We had the lunch special (goat soup) and it was the real deal, and the price was very reasonable. I ordered the ginger drink and my friend had the hibiscus drink. Both drinks were excellent.
We were talking about coming back before we even left. Bravo!

This place is incredible. From the moment you walk in, you are put at ease by the wonderful host and his delicious food. This is the only West African cuisine in Tucson, and what a treasure that we get to enjoy it.
I highly recommend swinging by for the great lunch specials.

Alafia is a superb addition to the global cuisine found in Tucson.
I started with the barbecue lamb lunch special. The owner then brought out samples of goat soup, peanut sauce (which is awesome over anything), and tchep djen — fried rice, carrots, cabbage, eggplant, and sweet potato. I was very fortunate to have left experiencing much more of the menu than I anticipated. Everything was delicious and cooked fresh.
Rich’s recommendation: tchep djen is a must try. The combination of the ingredients really makes it better than the sum of the parts.

A little skepticle at first never trying african cuisine but was pleasantly suprised. The chicken with red sauce my wife had the grilled tilapia with the habeñero sauce

This is a true mom and pop shop dishing up hearty portions of tasty food in a casual atmosphere.
Alafia just opened in CeeDee’s old location on the corner of Swan and Speeday. Same layout; different flavors. The menu seems to offer a good variety: vegetarian and meat options, some desserts and sides. I asked about the peanut sauce. The menu said it was available with goat or lamb when available. I wanted goat, but it was lamb that day, so the owner/​cook/​waiter/​cashier suggested I try the goat soup.
Most of the food comes with either rice or fufu. What’s fufu, I asked. Fufu, I learned, is pounded yam. (Cassava, I think?)
He asked me if I wanted it African style, with the fufu in the bowl. Mais, oui! (Everyone else who came through seemed to be speaking French with the owner. I asked what country he was from and he said Benin.)
This soup was a delicious, filling red soup with a perfect degree of heat (although I was offered more hot sauce if I wanted it) topped with tender chunks of delectable goat, poured over a mound of creamy white fufu. The fufu is extremely filling, like a very thick porridge, and made me wonder if people rolled into balls and fried it. Because that would be amazing. I was not able to finish the fufu, but I ate up all the soup and meat. There were only a couple bones in it. There was also something rubbery and white, about the size of a little finger, that I could not chew. I didn’t eat that part. But everything else was delicious.
The owner asked me why I didn’t like lamb. When I said I didn’t dislike lamb, it just wasn’t my favorite and I really liked goat, he brought a big chunk of grilled lamb out for me to taste, and it was also incredible. I could have easily enjoyed a plate of lamb. Then he gave me some fried plantains in a bowl. They were crispy and sweet (I saved them for dessert).
I should have brought the fufu home and fried it.