Cafe Bukata is an easy-to-miss restaurant on the south side of
Columbia Pike in Arlington just east of Four Mile Run. It serves West African and Carribean food. I've been there twice on weeknights. Both times the place was decidedly undercrowded and the service a bit inept (though quite friendly), but the food is definitely worth a try. The first occasion I was there with a companion and we both had the bean fritters appetizer - hard to describe, but good - and goat curry. The curry was nicely spiced, and they can make it hotter or milder if you like. At the end of the meal, it took quite a bit of explaining to convince the waitress that the bill only reflected one entree, not two, and that we were being undercharged by $10 plus tax.
The second time I was there alone, around 8:30 on a Wednesday, and
nobody from the restaurant was visible for the first two minutes - there was only one couple dining, friends of the owner, and it took a trip back to the kitchen to get someone out. However, once that little problem was taken care of, the meal was quite nice. I had the plantain with corned beef sauce appetizer, and egusi (a Nigerian meat stew) with gari (no, not pickled ginger :) - a kind of starchy root, rather bland but nice to combine with the sauce from the stew).
Supposedly there is live reggae there on weekends. I hope their
business is a lot better then than during the week, or else I'm afraid they're not going to survive much longer. However, I'd say their problem is location (as I said, it's easy to miss) and lack of publicity rather than food quality - the service problem I had last time should clear up if they get used to having customers during the week.Washington, DC