African Spices in College Area serves East African and Somali comfort food out of a counter-service kitchen at 6197 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92115, inside the Cartagena Square shopping center. Established in 2014, the restaurant is Black-owned and women-owned, and its menu centers on sambusas — deep-fried pastry triangles filled with seasoned chicken, beef, or a vegetarian mix of lentils and spices — alongside full entree plates of spiced basmati rice, chapati maharago, and grilled tilapia. The chapati maharago layers a soft, flaky East African flatbread with a coconut-spiked bean stew that the kitchen seasons with a proprietary blend of cardamom, cumin, and coriander. All meat is zabiha halal, sourced through a halal supply chain that also feeds Halal Burger Co. and other halal-certified kitchens on the same College Area dining corridor. The goat suqaar plate — bone-in goat sauteed with onions and peppers over basmati rice — runs as the most protein-heavy option, and the whole fried tilapia arrives head-on with a side of chapati and a green chili sauce. University Avenue through this section of 92115 sits roughly a mile south of SDSU, drawing a lunch crowd from the campus and the surrounding residential blocks of Rolando. The kitchen originally operated inside Safari Market before relocating to its current Cartagena Square storefront, where a free parking lot fronts the building. A San Diego County health inspection returned a score of 97 out of 100. The fufu, a starchy dough made from cassava flour and served with a slow-cooked beef or chicken stew, pulls from the West African side of the menu and gives the lineup a cross-regional range that extends beyond the Somali core. El Tio's Restaurant anchors the Mexican side of College Area's international dining strip a few blocks north, and the two kitchens together illustrate the corridor's range from East African spice profiles to Oaxacan mole. The family-sized platter serves up to four people with a choice of rice or pasta alongside chicken, beef, or goat, and the kitchen runs catering for private events and community gatherings across San Diego.