Review - Awash Ethiopian restaurant

A tasty adventure...Awash Ethiopian restaurant

Awash Ethiopian restaurant is sparsely decorated but clean and comfortable. Their menu offers a pretty long list of authentic Ethiopian food. If you’re new to Ethiopian food but are adventurous, you’re in for a treat. What makes Ethiopian food unique is the spices they use and the way the food is served. All the entrees are served on enjera, a thin bread with a spongy texture and a tangy taste. You’ll also get plenty more enjera on the side. The enjera is the utensil they use to eat. After tearing a piece off you use it to pick up your food. Some might be afraid this would be messy, but the enjera prevents the sauce of the food from getting all over your fingers.

They offer entrees made with beef, chicken, lamb, a large variety of vegetarian options and fish (only served Wednesdays and Fridays). To start try a sambusa, seasoned beef or lentils wrapped in a flaky pastry and fried, served with a really spicy hot sauce on the side. The portions are large enough that they can be shared by two. With the most expensive dish being $16, it’s quite a good deal. Most dishes run around $9 or $10. They offer beer and wine from Ethiopia as well as American beer and wine and a few popular import beer brands. There’s a happy hour on certain weekdays with $2 beers including imports.

What do I get?
I love lamb and they offer a few different lamb entrees so I usually choose one of those. I also love their sambusas and their home made baklava is great. It’s served warm and isn’t as sweet or as rich as Greek Baklava. I like it much better. Someday I’m going to try Tej, an Ethiopian honey wine, but haven’t yet.

What's cool?
If you’re a true coffee lover you’ve got to try their Ethiopian coffee. They roast the beans when you order it and bring them out in the pan for you to smell before grinding and brewing. It’s served in an African pottery pitcher with demitasse sized cups. As you might imagine it’s very strong.

What sucks?
Their American wine choices. At the same price as their Ethiopian wines ($4 per glass and $14 per bottle) they only offer Charles Shaw wines, commonly referred to as 2 buck Chuck. Some of the Charles Shaw wines are pretty good, but it’s difficult to see paying $14 for a $2 bottle of wine.


Rating...You must go if you’re ok with eating with your fingers.