Eating at State Street staple Buraka can be intimidating — those hoping to sample the restaurant's East African cuisine must first descend the steep stairs into the windowless but clean cavern beneath Husnu's and Kabul. Once confronted with a steaming plate of authentic African cooking, however, all else is forgotten in the joy of savoring great ethnic food.

Located at 543 State St., Buraka serves lunch and dinner Monday through Thursday and lunch on Friday and Saturday. The restaurant's brightly colored cart can also be found serving a limited menu on Library Mall most afternoons.

For a small establishment, Buraka offers a wide selection of 13 dinner entrees. Each comes with a standard salad, which in my case featured high-quality romaine lettuce that mostly made up for the excess of vinaigrette dressing.

The entrees are mostly based on the meat-and-vegetable stew format, and are served either with rice or bread. This bread, however, bears little resemblance to its Western cousin; it's a cold, spongy flatbread with a sourdough flavor that provides a surprisingly good complement to the hot food.

The most popular dinner plate is the "Dorowot," a stew of chicken and carrots in red sauce. The dish was well seasoned, combining a spicy taste with a hint of lemon and made full use of the tender chicken pieces. The "Sigawot," a mixture of beef and potatoes in red sauce, tasted similar but lacked the other dish's variety of spices or quality of meat.

For beverages, diners can choose from a variety of juices, wine, beer and mixed drinks. The dozen red and white wines usually available all hail from South Africa, while the beer selection is split between local microbreweries on tap and imports from around the world. For mixed drinks, diners can decide between a collection of standards as well as a few Buraka originals, such as "Mango Maniac," a combination of rum and mango juice.

The only food items not authentic to East Africa were the desserts, which were relatively standard, American restaurant fare. Otherwise, the food was a welcome taste of the exotic, served quickly and to near perfection.