Just as at many of the city's other West African restaurants, dinner bears witness to a French colonial heritage.
No, not through the fries — via an assortment of grilled or fried whole fish, grilled chicken, sliced in two or en brochette, and the grilled, seasoned lamb called dibi ($11). Rather than being presented as prim chops, the lamb is cut every which way, bones and all, into thin slices that are engagingly chewy yet thankfully free of gristly connective tissue. The onions are very sharp, and lightly dressed with what may be a mustard-based sauce, which also takes well to the lamb. The golden fries, if you must know, are crisp and quite good.
Lunchtime entrees are more traditionally Senegalese, inclined toward one-pot preparations like mafe yap (below; $10), which I sampled at Sokhna's previous, 116th St. premises. This "peanut-butter stew" of lamb, carrots, and potatoes, bathed in a mildly spicy red-brown sauce, is predictably, almost relentlessly heavy; freshen your palate with the occasional swig of bissap ($2), a sweet-tart sorrel beverage.
Keur Sokhna
2249 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (132nd-133rd Sts.)
212-368-5005
www.KeurSokhnaPlus.com
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