Hamdi Restaurant

This place is now Fez.
Update: this place is now Safari.
Update: this place is now something else.

Having been to this Somalian restaurant many times since it first opened around 2006, I’ve seen it go through 3 different managements, 3 different decors, yet 1 common theme: friendly African ambiance. You are guaranteed every time you come here to have a unique and interesting experience.
The atmosphere is bare. Welcome to Somalia. It’s not a place to bring a date to make a first impression. But feel free to move the plastic flowers from another table to yours to make it a tad bit more, romantic.
The food however deserves 5 stars. The food is simply delicious, flavorful, and quite addicting. Somalian men get the goat, and their women cook it, and although the tables, chairs, walls, and floors might be a tad sticky (it’s the mens’ fault), the kitchen is immaculate. I get the thinly sliced steak meat every time, my friend gets the goat meat on bones dish, and we both admit that it’s been fantastic every time we’ve been there the past few years despite the different managements. For 10 bucks (total), you get juice, a banana, salad, a heap full of flavorful rice, lots of meat, and a night of amusement trying to communicate with some of the people who work here.
It’s an experience you definitely won’t get anywhere else in white-​bread Maine. Just be sure you don’t park at the gas station across the street. They tow. A lot.