Mali High

Simple flavors drive this modest West Philly eatery.

by Elisa Ludwig

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Published: Jun 3, 2008

It's interesting how one person's selling point is another's deal-breaker. We came to West Philly's Soleil de Minuit specifically because it offered Malian cuisine (the only such restaurant in Philly that I know of). Yet there seems to be some reluctance to marketing that angle — the awning more vaguely promises African-American cuisine, and, less explicably, a buffet.

Should there be any lingering doubt, one need only walk into this pleasant little eatery and observe the mudcloth wall hangings and traditional wicker baskets adorning the walls, or the concert videos of Mali's great export, Ali Farka Touré, playing on a large mounted flat-screen display. Needless to say, there is no soul food or steam trays to be found.

The small weekday menu will be familiar to anyone who's sampled other West African cuisines, but the young proprietors are happy to explain anything you might want to know, and even offer some samples for your edification. The grillade entrées include tender smoky lamb chops and a whole tilapia grilled to a blackened char with delectably moist white fish flaking off its bones.

Grill items are served with an appealing topping of mustard-stained pickled onions and peppers, a sort of milder version of escabeche, and platters come with a choice of fries or a simple iceberg and tomato salad with a plastic cup of vinaigrette. A homemade fiery orange pepper sauce is available, but only if you ask for it. (If the seasoning is not intense enough — which it certainly was for our palates — there is also a bottle of Maggi for splashing.)

Plantains, available as a side dish, are round discs of sweet, velvety softness char-grilled and stacked in a large bowl. There's also djinimbere, or ginger beer, made from scratch, though it may require a wait.

The mainstays at Soleil, though, are the "sauces," thick stews that come with a mountainous plate of fluffy white rice so generous it will have you feeling guilty about the global grain shortage.

The Senegalese poulet yassa is a magnificently rich braised chicken with mustardy translucent onions and cabbage melting and seeping into the snowy rice beneath. In other dishes, savory peanut butter sauce speckled with orange oil bathes chunks of fatty lamb, while a finely chopped, highly salted spinach gravy is like the Malian answer to Indian saag. They're the kind of hearty, simple dishes that would work no matter how they were presented or packaged — plattered, buffet-style, whatever. They're just plain good.

(e_ludwig@citypaper.net)

Soleil de Minuit | 5148 Locust St., 215-220-8623 | Entrées, $7-$10 | Hours: Daily, noon-11 p.m. | Cash only | Delivery available

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