Abyssinia

May 29, 2024

Taking a trip to Ethiopia today by way of Abyssinia🇪🇹 The only Ethiopian restaurant I frequent often is Habesha so this was a nice new experience. I was at the Westlands branch for dinner with some friends. They have quite a cozy setup, both indoors and outdoors and the owner, Mikias was around and gave us a warm welcome telling us the story of how the family run business came to be.

The menu has a variety of items including the only thing I eat at Ethiopian restaurants - Doro We’t and injera😋 We got the platter for 8 people that goes for KSH15,000. This includes 2 portions each of Doro Abyssinia Wet, Shekla Beef/Lamb, Shiro Tegamino, yesiga key/alicha wet, and atikilt (veggies) and it comes with lots of injera (you can have a mix of brown and white). We also got the vegetarian version enough for 2 people.

We got started with some traditional Ethiopian coffee (200/) which was served with some popcorn🍿 The coffee wasn’t annoyingly bitter which is good for me because I don’t like super bitter coffee.

I enjoy Ethiopian food so much because of how rich in flavour it is! So so yum. There’s this spinach, kale and cottage cheese mix thing they have… my goodness! I had to carry some home and really added it to every meal for three days straight, so good! Doro wot gets me every single time, the spices, the moist juiciness of the chicken, the berbere sauce… plus a handful of that soft yet tart injera makes for a great taste combo in your mouth. The lamb and beef tibs (sauteed cubes of either) are a nice contrast to the saucy parts of the meal. Kadry fry hivi😉 Though I did note that the beef bits were tougher than the lamb bits.

The portions were great and no one felt like they didn’t have enough food. We were all so full and ready to go to bed after that😅 (whether we did make it home is a story for another day🫣)

Another thing I enjoyed was the passion juice (KSH250), super fresh, perfectly tart and it was just the right amount of cold. The place wasn’t super full so service wasn’t lacking and I appreciate that the servers explained the different meal descriptions to us just in case anyone didn’t know what was what - it’s the little things:)

Ethiopian food isn’t for everyone I know but I think it’s worth trying especially for a first timer. Try the different dishes, see what you like and it’s also just fun to go on a culinary journey with a cuisine that’s clearly very popular for a reason. Abyssinia has two branches - this one in Westlands and another in Kilimani; perfect for friend catch ups, family dinners and yes, even date nights.