Darou Salam Store

This place is so good! It’s been open for a while now, but I only just recently made it in. Apparently they used to have a restaurant on Colerain Ave and the owners still have a store across the street (Darou Salam Store). The restaurant is in the old Picnic and Pantry space at the back of the courtyard next to Northside Tavern.
The people — I felt super welcomed when I walked in. The phone was ringing off the hook, but I still felt taken care of. One guy also come in while I was waiting and was super friendly — he seemed like a regular.
I ordered carry out for both myself and my husband — one entrée each. The portions were so big that gave us 2 meals EACH! We got the Poulet Braise (grilled chicken) and Poisson Braise (grilled whole tilapia). Both came with sides (got the couscous with one, salad with the other), a great chunky spicy red pepper sauce, and then a sweeter caramelized onion reduction sauce.
Everything was so flavorful and good! Usually I don’t talk up such standard sounding sides like couscous and salad either, but both were yummy and interesting. The meat on the chicken was phenomenal, and the fish was super tasty. This was also my first experience getting a whole fish rather than a fillet and I’m glad it was so good!
On spice — I wouldn’t have called anything spicy except the chunky red pepper stuff. If you don’t like spice, don’t eat it with the meat or ask for it not to be included. You also don’t chose a spice level — I think this had been stewed all day so customization is not an option. I would rate the space level at about a 5 on a scale of 10.

I wasn’t impressed with my visit to this African and ethnic grocery store. The store carries various imports from somewhere in Africa. I couldn’t place the nationalities, but I have a feeling that they were what was listed on the sign that I’d never heard of.
They had lots of various items such as vegetables, meats, spices, grains, and canned goods. My only problem was that I couldn’t tell what anything was. Maybe I don’t know what that spice is, but it would help if the label said something like, «good for spicing lamb». At least for those of us who haven’t had any exposure to this particular cuisine. There was lots of interesting stuff, but I didn’t know what it was!
My other problem was that nothing seemed to be priced. If I had been interested in something, I would have wanted to know how much it was without going up to the counter.