Habesha Ethiopian Restaurant

Wow! This is honestly the most exciting new food experience I've had in years! My wife and I both agreed it is going to be our "new regular". Especially since they do take-out, though I just don't think it would be the same experience that way. It is just around the corner form our house and I'm ashamed to say this is the first time we've been there.

Neither of us had any idea what Ethiopian food was, but when we walked in around 5:30 this evening we were already on cloud nine just from the smell of the spices in the air. Putting it into terms I'm somewhat familiar with, it smelled almost Moroccan, but yet something unique all on its own.

I ordered the combo platter for 13 bucks, and my wife ordered something with beef. We enjoyed a really nice Ethiopian tea while waiting for our food to arrive - spicy with lots of cinnamon.

After only about 10 minutes the platter arrived - it was huge and almost filled up the entire table space between me and my wife sitting across from each other. Not having any idea how this works, my first thought was "they aren't leaving much room for the plates". Oh, silly me. A few moments later my wife's dish arrived on a sizzling cast iron platter like how some Mexican food is served, and it was dumped onto the main platter.

Next they brought a plate with rolled up crepe sort of things on them. Looks like a huge crepe had been cut into strips, and each strip was rolled up. But they were really thick but light and fluffy, so not crepes per-se.

Then upon closer examination I noticed that the huge platter had one of the same crepes covering the bottom of it, and the various foods ("curries", for lack of a better word) were spread across the crepe. My platter came with 6 or 7 of these "curries", which in appearance were very similar to what you might get at a Sri Lankan place. But the taste ended up being completely different.

Even though my wife had never had Ethiopian, she knew right away what to do. You take one of the rolled up crepes and tear off a small piece, and use it between your thumb and index finger to pick up food off platter, then eat it.

The taste was exquisite! Completely unlike both Moroccan and Sri Lankan food. Each of the 'curries' were spiced differently, but the spicing was not at all piquant - but rather diverse and exotic. Wow!

I really am sold, and hooked. We shall return!

Oh, and the price was pretty cheap too. We both stuffed ourselves very well for $30 including taxes. The same amount of food could have easily fed 3 people.

Also worthy to note was that when we arrived at 5:30 the place was empty, but by the time we left it was packed. We then went across the street to the Elmdale Tavern for a beer (even though they have beer on the menu here), and when we left the Elmdale there was actually a lineup in front of Habesha! I would strongly recommend reservations!