Saw this place opened up on Woodlawn by Sunergos and Annie's and thought I'd give it a shot. First time I tried, there was literally no one inside at all. After a minute or two, a guy walked in off the street and just said "no food. Come back tomorrow." Well, I did, and that day there was food, albeit one choice: the blue plate special for $10. If you've been to the Somali Mall* on York, it was pretty similar: a very nicely aromatic pilau, steamed goat, lentil stew, spiced cabbage, and a basic salad, with a cup of blended cilantro/jalapeño sauce on the side -- along with a bottle of ranch, which I declined. Plus a banana for dessert. I think Somalis really like ranch dressing.
I came back the next day, and it was quite different from what I had at the Somali Mall. This time it was the same stuff as yesterday, plus a beef wot, all served on injera. And again, the banana. Given that my entire experience with Somali food up till then had been East African staples like pilau, ginger tea, chapati and mandazi I was surprised at how quickly it all became Ethiopianized, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised given Somalia's proximity.
Silo's not a place you'd visit for decor or menu options, but the people are super nice, and the place it brings some more variety and options to an area that's already one of the culturally richest parts of town. I had been wishing for an Indian place on the south side for a while, but a nice spicy berbere-ey wot with a strongly scented pilau and green chutney is probably going to scratch that itch pretty well.
One thing I like to see is cultures whose food hasn't been deformed and programmed and suckified by Western palates (see Chinese, Thai, Mexican) and see them try to make a go of the restaurant business, because for them the rules are still undefined and anything is possible. Will they ever have a menu? Can you order camel? (They sell it at the Somali grocery next door.) Will anything ever cost more or less than ten dollars? If I give the guy a day's warning can I just order anything I want? I see that Cambuulo and Iskudhexkaris are two major Somali dishes -- what about those? Door and marraq sound pretty good, too. And does all of this go well with ranch dressing? We'll see what they say.
Anyway, I like this place and hope it makes it, and I hope you like it, too.
*Somali Mall is pretty great -- very similar to Silo but a bigger menu (although federation was disappointing to me) plus there's a tea house next door. Really feels like East Africa in there, very friendly vibe.