Best of Boston

2021 Best Neighborhood Restaurant, East Boston

Tawakal Halal Café

This national-caliber Somali kitchen makes and bottles its own luxuriously supple-textured mango-habanero hot sauce, which adds just the right zhoosh of incendiary complexity to coconut-milk grits with slow-cooked chickpeas; unctuous braised goat (hilib ari) bursting with turmeric and cardamom; and, honestly, any leftover taking up space in your fridge right now.

389 Maverick St., East Boston, 617-418-5890, tawakalfoods.co