Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Restaurant Review - Etete

Why, oh why, am I surrounded by people who detest Ethiopian food? DC is loaded with great Ethiopian restaurants, but I have the hardest time getting anyone to go with me. The common complaint seems to be about injera, which I guess one of those things you either love or hate.

Whenever I can manage to drag someone along, I go to Etete. I've been meaning to try out other places, especially Queen Makeda and Dukem, but it's hard to pass up a chance for Etete's vegetarian sampler. It's all vegan, so no fancy ordering required, and it's all delicious. It comes with a whole bunch of yummy things, my favorites being the yeataklit wat and the yemisir wat. The yeataklit is like Ethiopian comfort food; it's a vegetable stew with delicious but mild flavors. The yemisir is spicy lentils. The combo plate is tons of food, so I like to devour the yemisir and yeataklit plus all of the salad and gomen (collard greens) in the interest of healthy-ness, and take the rest home.

It's a tiny place and it can get very crowded, so don't try and go here with a big group. But the service is always wonderful, and if you're among the sane people who appreciate the wonderfulness that is Ethiopian food, you won't be disappointed.

I've tried making a couple of Ethiopian dishes on my own, posts on that to follow.

3 comments:

Susan Voisin said...

I LOVE Ethiopian food, and whenever I'm in DC that's what I look for. I will definitely try Etete the next time I'm there.

Anonymous said...

I am one of those who surrounds the author of this blog with hate of Ethiopian food. I'm a bread enthusiast and the fairly raw and spongy 'bread' served with Ethiopian food just doesn't do it for me and its in every bite since you get no fork. Call me intolerant but I have an urge to go to the resaurant with a fork and a portable grill and scream 'I bring fire!!'

A hater

supercarrot said...

hey, thanks for this post. (i have to search for restaurants around the country to verify if they're vegan. today it's featured at livingsocial if you want to jump on it.) https://twitter.com/vegandeals/status/258562717491814400 <3