This is of one of those places that has at once very good food and an excellent atmosphere. Whenever I enter the Central District’s Lake Chad Cafe, I always feel like I have completely left Seattle, left the Pacific Northwest, left the US all together. The place really does feel African. And it’s not a matter of decoration, but of mood and of mode. The volume of the music, the arrangement of the tables, the modern furniture, the little stage in the corner, the purple covers on the bar stools, the cramped-looking kitchen—this is exactly how Africa feels and thinks. I recommend the rice with tilapia—the fish of the global south. CHARLES MUDEDE