What's your favorite Seattle Ethiopian restaurant? (Rainier: houses, closing, restaurants)

[homesinseattle]

Ever wonder why there are so many Ethiopian Restaurants in the Seattle area? Well, without completely boring you, the DERG was a murderous regime that took power in that country 1974-1987. The resistance to them was primarily in the North Ethiopia Tigray region, towns like Gondor, Axum, Adigrat, Mekele. The DERG were ruthless, terrorized and killed, withheld food distribution (this was a major contributing factor to the "we are the world" famine).

As you might imagine, many Ethiopians fled during this time, joining other relatives that had already made it to the US. There are huge communities in DC, LA and about 70,000 in Seattle. They are a proud, delightful people, the only country that was never colonized in Africa. Think about that for a second. My first experience with the food was when I wandered into a little convenience store in 1995 in the Central District. It was Ethiopian owned and the dude was cooking some lunch in the back with his family. He noticed my nose perk up and invited me to join them. It was delicious, they roasted some coffee (coffee was first discovered in the world in Ethiopia) and served it up fresh with loads of sugar.

The cuisine was a revelation for me. Spongy large slightly bitter bread (made with tef, an ancient grain) that looked like a huge pancake on the bottom of the platter, spiced meats, veggies and lentils on top, cheese and salad, served with some delicious beer that day. We sat around the platter, about 5 of us. Food is eaten communally, you grab chunks of the bread and use it to pick up the food. Delicious, from the first moment I tried it I was hooked.

So, fast forward 23 years, I go about once every 2 weeks, I start feeling in deficit if I haven't had it in awhile. There are veggie options very good for vegans and vegetarians too, but plenty for meat lovers. The epicenter, I guess you could say, is MLK Jr Way and Cherry St. You could thrown a rock from there and hit probably 6 Ethiopian restaurants. There are also some very good ones in Northgate and Rainier Ave S. I bet there are 20 of them in this region. 3 years ago, I took my backpack, flew to Addis Ababa solo and wandered around Ethiopia for a month. It was amazing, great people, ancient history. It was funny that I knew the food already when I went.

So, for many years my favorite place in Seattle was a cafe called Assimba. The woman owner, now nearly 65 years old, had been a guerilla freedom fighter before fleeing her country. She finally retired this year, my new favorite (right across the street) is Ras Dashen. Delicious, go try it. I also very much like Jebena Cafe, just north of Northgate. I'm definitely an Ethiopian food snob now, I search for the best, the flavors in these two places are complex, delicious and authentic. If you pop in about 2pm, you might get lucky and be invited to join a coffee ceremony.

So, what are your favorite Ethiopian places and why?

[Ruth4Truth]

I tried Ethiopian in Seattle. It was underwhelming. Aren't the Ethiopians Coptic Christians? A friend of mine who's a choir director in the Russian Orthodox Church, says they gravitate to Eastern Orthodoxy, and are great people.

[homesinseattle]

Guess you went to the wrong place, Ruth. Sorry about that. Although Ethiopia is about 65 percent Orthodox Christian and 35 percent Muslim, the ones who came to the US are overwhelmingly Christian. There is this town in Northern Ethiopia called Lalibela, one of the coolest things I've ever seen. About the year 900, many stone churches were carved out of solid rock in the ground. They still function as houses of worship today, most of the rituals and beliefs are the same. I visited little villages where the priests brought out ancient manuscripts and religious treasures for me to see and touch. If these places were in Europe, they would be overwhelmed with tourists.

The ancient town of Axum (which was incredibly prosperous and had many commercial and social links with old Israel), has really cool "stellae", big monuments. There are quite a few with just earth based symbols (moon, stars, animals) that were created hundreds of years before the introduction of Christianity about the year 400 AD. Fascinating culture, really affordable place to travel too.

Straight shot 14 hour flight from Seattle to Dubai on Emirates, then a 4 hour flight into Ethiopia.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

Guess you went to the wrong place, Ruth. Sorry about that. Although Ethiopia is about 65 percent Orthodox Christian and 35 percent Muslim, the ones who came to the US are overwhelmingly Christian. There is this town in Northern Ethiopia called Lalibela, one of the coolest things I've ever seen. About the year 900, many stone churches were carved out of solid rock in the ground. They still function as houses of worship today, most of the rituals and beliefs are the same. I visited little villages where the priests brought out ancient manuscripts and religious treasures for me to see and touch. If these places were in Europe, they would be overwhelmed with tourists.

The ancient town of Axum (which was incredibly prosperous and had many commercial and social links with old Israel), has really cool "stellae", big monuments. There are quite a few with just earth based symbols (moon, stars, animals) that were created hundreds of years before the introduction of Christianity about the year 400 AD. Fascinating culture, really affordable place to travel too.

Straight shot 14 hour flight from Seattle to Dubai on Emirates, then a 4 hour flight into Ethiopia.

Sounds expensive to reach. What's the best season, for avoiding the heat?

[homesinseattle]

Not too bad. Can find tickets as low as $1k. Rooms ($5), coffee (20 cents) and meals ($1) save a bundle. I went in December- January. People associate Ethiopia with hot desert but there are also high mountains where temps can be surprisingly cool.

[jakebarnes]

I like Altaye on Rainier. Really delicious.

[Xanathos]

Originally Posted by jakebarnes

I like Altaye on Rainier. Really delicious.

Exactly this. This little hole in the wall was one of our favorite haunts, and the owner became a great friend. Unfortunately, it's closing at the end of the month, so this suggestion is only good for another 2 days or so.

[homesinseattle]

Cafe Selam on Cherry just west of MLK has delicious "shahan fun" (shortened to just "ful"), the traditional Ethiopian bean based breakfast dish. It comes with the veggies and cheese, great with french bread and a strong coffee. That dish is unbelievably popular in Ethiopia as not everyone can afford meat. Also, when I was in the country, i noticed that almost everyone seems to have 2-3 days a week for "fasting", which means going meatless.

[RotseCherut]

Best Ethiopian food you can get is not in Seattle, but in Portland.. Dalo's Kitchen in Portland, had a wonderful Ethiopian dinner buffet. The food and quantity was better than most of those overpriced and underwhelming Ethiopian restaurants you go to. Sadly, after doing a google search I learned this wonderful restaurant is now permanently closed. CRAP!! Now, where will I get good Ethiopian food when I move to Portland? Probably will just have to make my own. I have the Berbere spice mix and can get high quality Tef injera. Most injera served at restaurants are crappy fake non-Tef/non-authentic wheat or barley flour injera that taste like pancakes and not the richer and grainier real injera flavor. Ethiopian restaurants, IMO, are rip-offs. I actually spent time with some Oromo people in Portland who would invite me over for food and we would have amazing feasts. After experiencing real Ethiopian food, I realized how pathetic most Ethiopian restaurants are, both in quality and quantity of food. Seriously, you pay $20 for a dish and they give you these little tiny portion of lentils, collards, about 2 oz of meat and a hard boiled egg (whoopie), etc. It's a joke!

I tried several Ethiopian restaurants in Seattle and they all were really low quality. Either they were very expensive or the meat dishes were tough as crap and the Berbere sauce tasted like it came out of a can or something. The same can be said for most of the Indian restaurants in Seattle. I only go to Indian restaurants on the Eastside, as I can pretty much heat up some "Kitchens of India" packets that taste way better and a fraction the price of what I can get an in Indian restaurant in Seattle. I'm sorry, just saying it how it is. The Ethiopian restaurants in Seattle are mostly there to serve the ignorant white Seattle yuppies who know nothing about the cuisine. In Portland, they had a big Oromo community that was very devoted to its culture and cuisine and I felt they strive more for authenticity than just being another big money-making restaurant venture where the customer base's ignorance helps the place pump out low quality food for a premium price. Then again, this can describe a lot of restaurants in Seattle.

I was reading that Washington DC is probably one of the few cities where you can actually go out and get truly gourmet Ethiopian cuisine at a restaurant. In most other cities, you really should just visit an Ethiopian community group or church and make some Ethiopian friends who will invite you over for dinner. There is no comparison. If I am going to pay a lot of money to eat out, it will be at Italian, French or Continental type of cuisine where it makes sense to pay so much extra. Seattle does have a few good restaurants in that category at least; although you will pay twice as much for even those cuisines as in most other cities of the same quality. It's easy enough to make Ethiopian food that it doesn't justify what most of these places charge and the low quality of food. In Portland, some of the Ethiopian restaurants had very good chefs who applied their skills to the cuisine, but in Seattle I found the Ethiopian restaurants lacked any culinary finesse.

[homesinseattle]

Originally Posted by RotseCherut

Best Ethiopian food you can get is not in Seattle, but in Portland.. Dalo's Kitchen in Portland, had a wonderful Ethiopian dinner buffet. The food and quantity is better than most of those overpriced and underwhelming Ethiopian restaurants you go to. Sadly, after doing a google search I learned this wonderful restaurant is now permanently closed. CRAP!! Now, where will I get good Ethiopian food when I move to Portland? Probably will just have to make my own. I have the Berbere spice mix and can get high quality Tef injera. Most injera served at restaurants are crappy fake non-Tef/non-authentic wheat or barley flour injera that taste like pancakes and not richer grainier real injera flavor. Ethiopian restaurants, IMO, are rip-offs. I actually spent time with some Oromo people in Portland who would invite me over for food and we would have amazing feasts. After experiencing real Ethiopian food, I realized how pathetic most Ethiopian restaurants are, both in quality and quantity of food. Seriously, you pay $20 for a dish and they give you these little tiny regimens of lentils, collards, about 2 oz of meat , etc. It's a joke!

I tried several Ethiopian restaurants in Seattle and they all were really low quality. The same can be said for most of the Indian restaurants in Seattle. I only go to Indian restaurants on the Eastside, as I can pretty much heat up some "Kitchens of India" packets that taste way better and a fraction the price of what I can get an in Indian restaurant in Seattle. I'm sorry, just saying it how it is. The Ethiopian restaurants in Seattle are mostly there to serve the ignorant white Seattle yuppies who know nothing about the cuisine. In Portland, they had a big Oromo community that was very devoted to its culture and cuisine and I felt they strive more for authenticity than just being another big money-making restaurant venture where the customer base's ignorance helps the place pump out low quality food for a premium price. Then again, this can describe a lot of restaurants in Seattle.

Jeez Rots, huge generalization. I've been to Ethiopia, wandered around it for a month, eating everything in sight. I agree that not all the Seattle places are not the best but a few are exceptional.