The Ethiopian Restaurant

New York, New York, United States

The Ethiopian Restaurant in the Upper East Side

The Ethiopian Restaurant is located in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This was my first experience with Ethiopian food, and although I thought the food was very good, I wasn't fond of the method of eating. All the food is served on Ethiopian style pancakes called injera. There are no utensils - you eat with your hands by tearing off a piece of the bread and using it to scoop up the food. This was fun and novel at first, but I soon became full and tired of eating the injera. The injera also had a strange taste that didn't seem to go with anything. I also wished I had a spoon so I could just eat some more of the tasty meat sauces.

Dress

Casual

Cost

Starters were around $5, and entrees were around $13.

Reservations

We made reservations by calling the restaurant earlier in the day, but it wasn't necessary. The restaurant was completely empty when we arrived, although a few more tables became occupied shortly after.

Items Ordered

Timatim Fitfit

Timatim Fitfit

This was just like a green salad served on the Ethiopian flat bread. It was good at first, but by the end of the meal, I felt I ate too much of the bread.

Ethiopia Combo, Tibs Wot, and Yedoro Tibs

Ethiopia Combo, Tibs Wot, Yedoro Tibs

Our group of three ordered to these three items to share. The items were served "family style" - all the dishes were placed on one injera and we received two more on the side for scooping. All the meats were in flavorful sauces. The beef was my favorite, but they were all good. The combo dish, which was one of our three choices, also came with a lentil sauce, mashed potato, carrots, and cabbage and some green vegetable that was also mixed with cabbage. The lentils were pretty good, but the other two vegetables just tasted too much like cabbage. I found the injera had a strong sour taste which didn't really go that well with the food.