RAVE OF THE WEEK
By Helaine Williams (Contact)
LITTLE ROCK — I was still mourning the closing of a southwest Little Rock restaurant run by people who have come to be good friends and who turned me on to their delicious fried tilapia filets.
Then I “re-found” good fried tilapia by accident. My husband, a friend and I were headed east on Little Rock’s Wright Avenue when we spotted a sign for Ummah’s Cafe. We were on the lookout for somewhere to have lunch anyway, so we decided to stop.
Part of New Africa Plaza in the Islamic Center for Human Excellence, 1717 Wright Ave., the cafe specializes in the basics of “fast” soul food - chicken wings and strips, catfish, regular and veggie burgers, chicken and fish salads, nachos and chili-cheese dogs.
Looking over the menu, my husband and I were excited to find two- and three-piece tilapia dinners listed. We ordered two twopiece, cooked-to-order dinners ($6.75 each), hoping to recapture the enjoyment we’d gotten from this entree at our friends’ restaurant.
Did Ummah’s tilapia dinner taste as sumptuous? Hey ourfriends know where I live and write, so I know better than to make any comparison. Suffice it to say that we are so happy not to have to settle just for our homebaked or pan-fried-in-cooking-spray tilapia, which may be healthy but just doesn’t compare to Ummah’s fried tilapia. This is a treat to which we’ll be only too happy to turn whenever indulgence time swings around.
Ummah’s Cafe is open 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The number is (501) 372-6240.
This article was published Friday, October 10, 2008.
Weekend, Pages 75 on 10/10/2008
