Ethiopian Restaurants

I ate at an Ethiopian restaurant in Atlanta years ago.  I enjoyed the wine, found some of the food so hot that I could not eat it, remember something about a yellow egg (tumeric?), and the bread.  Not one near me now, so I have not had the opportunity to dine at one recently.

There are a couple of good Ethiopian restaurants in Milwaukee--Ethiopian Cottage (1824 N. Farwell Ave.) and Alem (307 E. Wisconsin Ave.). They both opened within the last couple of years or so, and I have a feeling one will eventually fall by the wayside.

I've been to some good ones in Chicago, including the Red Sea (used to be on Broadway, but seems to have moved) and Demera (on Broadway, near Lawrence).

The first place I ever had Ethiopian food was at the Blue Nile in Berkeley. According to Google, there still seems to be a Blue Nile there, but it's at a different address from what I remember.
 
I've enjoyed Ethiopian food in many other cities, but a meal at the Queen of Sheeba in Toronto was particularly memorable. Partner and I were the only customers that night, and the owner/chef kept bringing out samples of things for us to try. In addition to our regular order (Doro Wat, Alicha, Beef Tibs, and a couple of other things) we must have tried ten more items as samples. It was pretty spectacular.

Blue Nile in Columbus is a must-taste for any adventurous foodie.  Traditional seating goes well
with good friends or a date for communal eating.  Don't miss the eggplant dish debinja which not
all Ethiopian restaurants offer.  The sweet honey wine is a fitting complement to the berbere spicing.
 
Owners Mequanent and Maaza have earned a place in my heart since bringing this favorite eatery
to town in the 90's.  And their food has earned more than its fair space in my stomach since then.
My friends and I go every chance we get.  Can't wait to try Emanu in Cincy to see how it stacks up.
 
Another mention goes to Abyssinia in the Carriage Place shopping center on East Broad.  It's twin
sister servers are friendly and serve up tasty and spicy tibs along with their self-proclaimed 'best
kitfo in town'.  I ordered the kitfo more raw than rare and was pleasantly surprised at the unique
texture and powerful chili flavor.  Sunday afternoons are worth stopping in so that while waiting for
your meal you can watch the men in the back room playing an Addis game that uses a western pool
table, board game pieces, and involves throwing British billiard balls with spin at the proper angles!
 
Just two of the great unsung ethnic restaurants Columbus has to offer.  Where is the thread for
Somali, Senegalese, South Indian, Thai, Indonesian, Ghanaian, Korean, Persian, and Turkish places?
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No silverware right?

Baah Ben


No silverware right?

Be adventurous, Baah Ben.  Sit on the floor, eat with your hands, and look, you don't need teeth!
 

MD - Do you know if the redish "entree" made with eggplant?

We have eaten in most of the Eithiopian places in Atlanta at one time or another and generally enjoyed the experience.  Best examples of Ethiopian food I've had though were when I was working with an Ethiopian man whose wife was a very good cook and baker.  He would often bring a fresh loaf of home made bread with a subtle cumin flavor and also home made hot sauce.  Some one else would bring cream cheese and that was an office snack that put the best bagels to shame!  And at the office parties where we all brought food, well, I never expected to have home made doro wat and so on. 
 
One thing I wonder, and this is a toss up question, how many of you are eating at places where the injera is made from teff rather than a more readily available substitute?
 
 

 
Sounds like delicious bread.
 
I'm pretty sure teff has been used in the injera around here in Milwaukee, and in other places I've been to. There's a domestic teff industry based in Idaho, and from what I understand that's what North American Ethiopian restaurants generally use. What I don't know, though, is how domestic teff may differ from imported teff, and which injera I've had might have been made from the imported kind (maybe in NYC?). The domestic stuff is available here in Milwaukee at the Outpost, a natural foods store, and I've thought of trying to make my own injera some day. (Seems like a daunting task, though.) 

The Mikado
I can say I enjoyed my experiences in Nashville, which for years was a bleak desert as far as a wide range of ethnic choices. One WAS called the Abyssinian, I think. That may be the one called Addis Ababa. They move and change names, and it throws us off! But, hey, it's all about the injera! (BTW, Horn of Africa is getting some buzz in the Music City. Again, I can't remember which is which?!)

Gojo is the Ethiopian restaurant in the old Addis Ababa location.  They have an excellent lunch buffet which I highly recommend!

pogophiles


Gojo is the Ethiopian restaurant in the old Addis Ababa location.  They have an excellent lunch buffet which I highly recommend!

A couple years back or more, I went looking for Gojo while I was in Nashville on a short stay, but couldn't find it, unfortunately.   Maybe my address info was wrong.

We went to Horn of Africa instead, which was excellent both times I've been there.

We recently got an Ethiopian Restaurant in the Oklahoma City Area.  Queen of Sheba (2308 N Macarthur Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73127-2208, (405) 606-8616).  I hadn't previously had Ethiopian food, but what we had was delicious.  I also appreciated that they had a pretty wide array of vegetarian options (there was a small group of us, and one of them is very picky on this point).  The Tej (honey wine) was terrific and the service was excellent.