Ethiopian Restaurants Reviews | Restaurants Information 
Ethiopian Restaurants Reviews | Restaurants Information
New restaurant offers a taste of Ethiopia in downtown Overland Park
By JOYCE SMITHEthiopian restaurant just about every where. Here is a new one in Kansas City. If you are close by, stop by and lets us know how good the food and service is. The name of the restaurant is Elsa's Ethiopian Restaurant. Owner is Elizabeth Michaels.
Elizabeth Michaels serenely smiles as she slowly stirs a skillet of her favorite dish — Doro Wat.
She points out how it’s served with egg and ayb (a traditional Ethiopian cottage cheese). But she’s also partial to the baklava she makes every morning at her new business, Elsa’s Ethiopian Restaurant.
Michaels and her husband, Haile Michaels, moved to Shawnee from their native Ethiopia in 1996. For a time, they joined Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant in Lenexa, but after a short stint it closed in mid-2005.
They’ve spent a year converting a former beauty salon at 8016 Santa Fe in downtown Overland Park to Elsa’s (after Elizabeth’s nickname). Menu items include Veggie Sambosa, beef tibs, pasta, Tikil Gomen (chopped cabbage, carrots, garlic and ginger in a mild sauce) and baklava.
“There’s no frozen food, but healthy items — fish, chicken, garlic, ginger, spices,” Elizabeth Michaels said.
Ethiopian restaurant New off Buford Hwy, Atlanta, GA
Mena Restaurant
by Gene Lee
Mena, dining room
A friend of mine recently took me to this new Ethiopian restaurant located off of Clairmont Road and Buford Highway, and in the back of a developing deli/market called Bethlehem Market Place. I say “developing” because dear Mother Hubbard, their cupboards are bare.
Regardless, the market was irrelevant to my cause this past weekend because I wanted to try the attached Ethiopian restaurant called Mena. It’s situated in the back of the deli, and is a vibrant dining room of colors complemented with high energy modern Eritrean(Tigringa) music.
We struggled with our waitress a bit as her English was limited, but were helped by the very friendly owner of the deli and restaurant. His English was strong and he came by and explained his various dish ingredients, and the restaurant’s process for making injera – the spongy flat bread made of teff (grass grain known for its high iron content) traditionally used to eat Ethiopian food. The bread itself is flimsy porous sheet, almost like a thin blanket, and a bit sour in taste. You are suppose to tear off a palm-sized piece of injera, and with your right hand maneuver some food into it, dip into provided spices (if you want), and then pop it into your mouth.
Kitfo, seasoned ground raw meat
On the restaurant’s menu, there are three dishes that contain raw meat. I went with their kitfo, which is like a seasoned and oily mash of ground meat. It’s similar to French-style steak tartare where the biggest difference (other than the oily seasoning) is that most tartare I’ve had tend to be hand-chopped or lightly pulsed. Mena’s kitfo seems to be machine processed, and almost pasty at times. You get a lot for what you pay for, and we barely put a dent in it. One thing you can’t tell from the picture is that it comes with a small scoop of Mena’s house-made cottage cheese served on the side that paired well with the spices of the meat.
My wife opted for the kitchen’s awaze tibs, which are cooked cubes of beef and bell pepper in their awaze sauce (spiced hot pepper paste). I enjoyed soaking bits of injera in the warm sauce that contained a multitude of wonderful flavors. The beef tibs were also well flavored throughout and each scooped-up mouthful was tender to the bite.
Kikel, lamb stew
Another one of my friends got the kitchen’s kikel, or lamb stew that had rolled up sheets of injera and bone-in pieces of lamb – including a few bits of lamb intestine here and there. This broth was delicious. It was hearty and spiced with fresh chopped pieces of jalapeno pepper.
Veggie combo
And the one plate that all of my dining companions collectively agreed on revisiting is Mena’s vegetable combo platter. It’s a huge serving of six different vegetable offerings such as spiced green lentils, processed chickpeas, stewed collards and cabbage, salad with an oily vinaigrette dressing, and one other reddish seasoned mesh that I forgot to identify.
I even saw a goorsha go down between two diners, which I initially misunderstood as some sort of undefined intimate display of feeding. It’s basically an Ethiopian custom where one diner rolls food up in a piece of injera and directly feeds it into another diner’s mouth. I must have enjoyed the meal from the get-go because I goorsha’d myself until I couldn’t eat anymore.
Mena, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Mondays-Sundays. 3680 Clairmont Road, Atlanta. 770-936-8460. $.
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Marcus Samuelsson Opens in Harlem
New york Times
Mr. Samuelsson, 39, was born in Abragodena, Ethiopia, orphaned at 3 and adopted by a Swedish couple in Gothenburg. But cooking in Harlem, where he has lived for six years, is a voyage home to his identity and ancestry, he said. “For any person of color, no matter where you come from, Harlem has special meaning.”
The name of his 100-seat restaurant, opening in October, salutes the original Red Rooster, a storied, long-shuttered Harlem hangout whose clientele included James Baldwin and Willie Mays. The ground floor of the new $2 million Red Rooster will have a restaurant, a breakfast cafe, a grocery, a horseshoe-shaped bar and a communal table, all of it covering 3,400 square feet. He means to fill the 1,800-square-foot basement not only with a party space that has “a speak-easy vibe with jazz, gospel and open-mike music,” he said, but also with cooking classes and demonstrations.
Also on the menu are a duck- and chicken-liver ganache seasoned with garam masala, cardamom, ginger and port-wine reduction; flank steak with oxtail; and two Ethiopian dishes, including a spicy-egg chicken stew. Read more...
A Taste of Ethiopia in the SuburbsBy M. H. REED, NYT
LUCKY Mount Kisco has snagged the rarest of rare in Westchester County — an Ethiopian restaurant — and it’s a honey. The food at Lalibela is rich and delicious.
Many Ethiopian dishes call for braising or stewing, which no doubt accounts for the distinctive, well-married flavors characteristic of this cuisine, as well as for its pleasingly yielding textures. Tastes are soothing yet exotic, provided largely by berbere or by mitmita, which are, the menu explains, two compound powders ground from various chili peppers and other spices. Other additions to a dish might be onions, green pepper, fresh ginger or turmeric, depending on which combination best suits chicken, lamb, beef or vegetables.
Ethiopian-style dining has long been and still is a communal, ritualized affair. Portions come carefully arranged on a large round central tray lined with injera, a flat disk of spongy bread. Injera is not only the bread and the plate, but also the knife, spoon and fork. Simply tear off a piece of injera and use it to pinch up the food. As a meal ends, the injera will have soaked up some of the stew juices, turning it into a delicious final nibble.
Conventional utensils are available on request, but that would ruin the fun. Forget that don’t-play-with-your-food rule. Eating with gusto shows appreciation and respect for what has been served, and sometimes swiftness is necessary to maneuver food from tray to mouth.
Swiping through an Ethiopian meal is not always a dainty operation, and clean hands are a necessary courtesy. Although the rest rooms supply plenty of soap and water, my companions and I wished that wipes furnished after the dinner had also been offered before. But that is one of our few complaints about this hospitable place.
Putting together a meal here is easy. Three or four selections will easily serve two diners. Except for a dry, tasteless hamburger and the beef in pastry (sambusa), offerings were up to the mark, so it’s hard to go wrong — from fresh-tasting salads, like chopped avocado and timatim fitfit to chunky doro wat, a Lalibela “signature dish” that includes a chicken drumstick, spiced butter and a hard-boiled egg. And a few vegetable dishes are very much worth including. Smooth-cooked split lentils with sweated onion and tumeric nicely complement a beef or a lamb stew, as does cabbage cooked with aromatic vegetables. When in doubt, order a combination plate like Taste of Lalibela, which includes a sampling of four meat and three vegetable dishes.
Most diners will find spicing subtle and mild. We watched a diner at another table who obviously likes it hotter mix in awaze, a slightly tart chili pepper condiment that comes to every table. Approach with caution; the stuff is dynamite.
In our eagerness to try so many other interesting offerings, we missed kitfo, a kind of steak tartare of chopped prime beef mixed with spiced butter and mitmita — a dish prized by many Ethiopians. Tradition has it served raw, but most kitchens will give the meat a very quick stir in a pan. I look forward to trying the Lalibela version on my next visit to this refreshingly different restaurant, which is something of a Westchester pioneer.
With Lalibela and the already established Persian restaurant Shiraz signaling a trend toward more culinary adventures in this county, can Afghan or Vietnamese restaurants be far behind?
•Lalibela
37 South Moger Avenue
Mount Kisco
(914) 864-1343
lalibelamountkisco.com
F U S I O N S "Ethiopian, Asian and Europian food IN WINING, DINING in Addis Ababa.by HANS LARSON
The well-travelled Fasil Mengistu brings an international level of wining and dining not seen elsewhere in Addis Abeba. His signature culinary style is one of fusion, which incorporates Ethiopian cuisine with those of more than a half dozen other countries. His inspiration and philosophy are what really set him apart from other restaurants in the metropolis as well as many other cities the world over, writes HANS LARSON, SPECIAL TO FORTUNE.
Fasil Mengistu has been making history for a year now in the historical high-class haunt of Villa Verde, which has been a high-class restaurant since the time of the Italian occupation. Through the entrance of Pleasant Pleasant Chez Fasil Restaurant and past the fancy polished wooden bar, he and his well-trained staff concoct a galaxy of fusion cuisines, inspired by Ethiopian born Marcus Samuelsson who was the youngest chef ever to receive a three star restaurant review form The New York Times.
Fasil, himself, was born in Ethiopia and fled to Djibouti during the Derg Regime. He later made his way to France where he received his culinary training. He worked as a chef all over Europe before making his way to New York where he met Marcus, who recently prepared US President Barack Obama’s White House dinner during the visit of Manmohan Singh, India’s Prime Minister.
Fasil’s fusion cuisine combines the tastes of France, North Africa, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, and of course Ethiopia. The Ethiopian fusion cuisines involve the use of such distinct tastes as enjera (Ethiopian flatbread), kinche (a porridge normally used for breakfast),and berbere (ground hot pepper). He combines Ethiopian cuisine with many other cuisines in such a way that all the ingredients blend together in perfect harmony.
In the nine course meal sampled for this article, none of the dishes were bland, overpowering, off balanced, or strange, yet all of them were unique and simply sublime. From the presentation to the service, everything was done in high-class style. After all, Fasil is known for his consultation and training in hospitality and company belongingness and is hired for such purposes in the highest arenas of business in Addis Abeba.
The villa in which his restaurant is located provides an intimate setting to take business clients, long lost friends, lovers, or anyone else one would want to impress with all sincerity. Capable of accommodating 100 drop-in clients, it is also reservation ready for gatherings of up to (200 or even 400 using outside tents).
It is evident that Fasil is a man of high-class in many art forms, from paintings and music to architecture and cuisine. He frequently hosts art exhibitions, including that of painter Tewodros Tsegemarkos, which ended last Tuesday, April 20, 2010, only to be replaced by “Wax & Gold,” which commenced on Friday of the same week. These exhibits can be enjoyed with what Fasil calls Addis Abeba’s best wining and dining experience. Even the music is high-class and features fusions of Ethiopian sounds and rhythms with American Jazz, which Addis Abeba is famous for. On Friday nights the music is live starting from 8:30pm and featuring the Live Trio Jazz Band.
The art Fasil cares the most about, however, is cuisine especially fusion cuis. If the idea of eating “The Crazy Roulade (Fusion)” (enjera with German and Italian food) makes one’s stomach turn, despite the above assertion that every course is exquisitely well-balanced, there are many other food fusions to choose from. The “Ethio Maghreb” is “minced white fish and chopped vegetables [that] decided to hang out with teriyaki sauce-accented kinche (Ethiopian version of couscous),” according to the menu. The “Creamy Aja (Fusion)” is a “simply Chez Fasil version of risotto,” as the menu reads.
There is even what is called “The Bunk Bed (Surf and Turf).” This is a “lightly hammered steak wedded with oven baked fish finely sauced on two delicate chef’s sauces.”
“The Half Caste (Surf and Turf)” tones down the previous selection by substituting fish with “bashed seafood sauce.” But one might as well go all the way with “The Bunk Bed,” as it is an absolutely heavenly combination. Surprisingly, there is no detectable border between the taste of the fresh baked fish (surf) and the taste of the beef (turf). It is all blended together using the most amazing sauces.
“Many people try to figure out the taste of a cuisine. If they finish the dish before they figure it out, that is [a win in]the game of cuisine,” Fasil said.
There are many things that inspire and motivate Fasil to want to build his business to the point where it can stand on its own two feet. One of those is education.
He is happy to share his knowledge with anyone who shares his passion for quality cuisine and wants to learn his specific style and philosophy. Halfway through the nine courses, Birhanu Mergia, Fasil’s protégé chef, who has been working with him since he opened for business a year ago this month, brought out freshly harvested vegetables from the sizable garden in the backyard. Birhanu comfortably explained some of the courses as well as why he loves working at Pleasant Pleasant Chez Fasil Restaurant and Bar.
“Fasil is a very nice guy, he wants to develop our knowledge and skills,” he said.
Fasil even believes that his recipes can help solve the problem of hunger in Ethiopia. The reason some people are starving is because they are looking for enjera, when there are many other edible plants around them, he said. But one has to know how to experiment and blend different foods like Fasil to make them taste good.
“Enjera is a very arrogant food,” he said. “It requires a lot of work and time to prepare, and it cannot be eaten alone like bread, so you have to spend even more time making the wot (stew).”
He lets the servers and other staff ask any question about his cuisine and sample the leftovers in order to make their own judgements about the food.
“I believe in knowledge transfer,” he said. “My knowledge is the only asset I have, and I give it away to everybody.”
The opportunity to build a different kind of asset that he can eventually pass on to his young daughter and newborn is another reason that he decided to open his own restaurant. Rather than just being a chef trainer at the Hilton or teaching hospitality at Ethiopian Airlines, both of which he has been doing for many years, he has taken the hard road of building something that he hopes will continue to contribute to society after he is gone.
He chose Villa Verde because of its history and its role in bringing cuisine of international standards to Addis Abeba. That is why his daily uniform includes a bowtie to honour the previous head chef who always used to wear one. Villa Verde’s bar has also always been his favourite. Now he offers equally creative concoctions and drink fusions there as well.
Pleasant Pleasant Chez Fasil Restaurant and Bar is located just across the railroad tracks at the bend in Gabon Street (Meskel Flower Road).
Do not be fooled by the dirt road or the modest blue sign at the gate to the villa. This is truly “a great culinary experience,” as visiting celebrity chef Paul Rankin proclaimed.
This place suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. It's an Ethiopian restaurant, it's a lounge, it's a bar for beer geeks, and it's a nightclub. And although it doesn't excel in any of these functions, the Blue Nile succeeds at all of them. The food is good and reasonably priced, the tap selection is eclectic and carefully chosen, and the environment may be shabby but the layout encourages comfortable socializing. You can belly up to the bar to watch the scene or cozy into more private booths and create your own vibe with your friends. Read More
Little Ethiopia Restaurant/Maxi Priest
Gaetano visited Ethiopia, right in the heart of Washington. According to the Ethiopian Yellow Pages in this area, there are more than 45 dining rooms serving Doro Wot and Injera. First stop was Dukem, one of the most enduring Ethiopian music entertainment landmarks in the district, offering great Ethiopian music and the most famous singers DC has to offer. Next on Gaetano's list was hitting the streets to check local hang out spots. He got to find out more about the colourful outdoor markets around Georgetown, Dupont Circle or Adams Morgan and enjoy a great night life full of hip restaurants, bars and a fantastic Jazz scene. He also visited Zanzibar, a club that caters largely to DC's Caribbean and African crowd. He found out more about this hot lunchtime spot with a menu that features African and Caribbean-inspired food, offering both seafood and the popular Indies' flavours and operating as a night club in the evening. It must have been Gaetano's lucky day and international star, Maxi Priest was performing on that day!
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