Addis Ababa Restaurants

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Why here? Well, it’s close to the airport off Bole Rd, it has excellent Ethiopian food and a live music/dance show every night at 8pm. If you want to see waitresses dressed in the different tribal clothes of Ethiopia and dancers performing varied tribal dances (and in outfits), then this is the place for you. I could not believe what great value this place was for entertainment, quality & quantity of food and some great Tej! This is a fantastic night out and a real flavour of the diversity of Ethiopia. It also has a good vegetarian menu.

Please note: Haile Gabriel Selassie (fastest Marathon runner in history) eats here (pictured). He even signed my guidebook!

CLOSED ON SUNDAYS

Favorite Dish:
Doro Wot (spicy chicken in a red sauce with whole boiled egg) and Tej (fermented honey wine that takes 1 year or more to make!)

THIS IS A DAO RECOMMENDED RESTAURANT

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SADLY THIS GREAT RESTAURANT HAS NOW CLOSED (DEC. 2008). IT IS NOW A PARKING AREA FOR TOUR BUSES.

This is a nice Italian Restaurant near the Train Station and the Lion of Judea Monument. You can sit outside on the porch and watch CNN or dine inside. It always seems quiet here, yet the food is very good and well priced. Service is exclusively yours. I always seemed to be the only person there during lunch. Every dish and soup I have had has been good, my beer cold and the bill reasonable.

THIS IS A DAO RECOMMENDED RESTAURANT

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London Cafe and restaurant is amazing. A full size aircraft model is build into the wall of a building where people are living. The aircraft is made of fibre glass/hard plastic. You can sit in the aircraft by entering it on the front stairs or you can go in from the basement and take the stairs up to the aircraft.

Favorite Dish: The place is known for Melewah, which is a Yemeni pastry.

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Bon cafe and restaurant is a popular restaurant for foreigners and middle class ethiopians. It is located in the embassy area in the upper part of Bole road. You can sit in open air at the top floor.

Favorite Dish: This place serve their own special ginger tea with or without alcohol. Price 11 birr.

Very nice place with traditional furnitures. Friendly environment, nice staff, good food, good dancers, traditional songs... all you can ask to get a taste of Ethiopia! The only "con" is the music volume, which is usually too loud to allow a conversation.
Every night there are four dancers performing traditional dances with their traditional clothes (and one of the female dancer is, IMHO, gorgeous....). Very often they try to involve the customers in their dances, but usually foreigners are left alone, especially if they are eating. The atmosphere is friendly anyway, and the food is very well worth the (ridicolous) expense, which usually is about 5-6 euros per person. When the food is about to arrive, a guy comes at your table and pour hot water to wash your hands. Same at the end of your meal, and sometimes he also brings a hot towel that makes the experience even nicer. A "must go", definitely!

Favorite Dish: All dishes here are very good, from the traditional (several kinds of) tibs, to the fresh injera, to the vegetarian sauces. Don't miss the grilled fish, it's delicious!

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I love this place. Great food, live entertainment, great service and surprisingly low prices. They have it all:
• Live Music – every night!
• Fantastic food. Fresh, premium cuts of meat, vegetarian options
• Great decorations of Traditional Ethiopian life
• All the friendly staff are dressed traditionally
• A huge and lively bar downstairs
• Lots of ex-pats (downstairs)
• Family oriented (upstairs)
• Performance of the Coffee Ceremony every night
• Great selection of ice cold beers and local wines
• Great prices

Favorite Dish:
I have tried several dishes and they are all delicious. All mains come with 4 different sauces to add extra flavour. Try the local Axumite Red Wine. Semi-sweet and light.

THIS IS A DAO RECOMMENDED RESTAURANT!

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I really wanted this place to be good. A guidebook talked it up and I planned to go, even though I knew it was an Ex-pat hangout and expensive by Addis Ababa standards. It was not good. My starter was deep fried and tasteless. My main meal was a deep fried burrito and it tasted so bad I barely finished it. Beers are extremely expensive as well.

It’s a shame as the décor was very nice. I should have known something was wrong when several taxi drivers in the Piazza area had never heard of it and when I walked in there were no other customers. Give this place a miss!

Favorite Dish:
Nothing

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Ethiopia is a vegetarian utopia. The majority of people here are Ethiopian Orthodox and ‘fast’ 2 full months and sometimes one day for the rest of the year. Fasting here means no meat, or diary products (i.e. egg, butter, milk, and cheese). Because of this ALL restaurants have vegatarian dishes. Lots of dishes and they are served in a variety of sauces and styles. One of the most popular is called ‘Alicha’ and its served in its only little simmering pot which is brought to you table with injera. This dish can have several variations.

Some other vegetarian dishes include:

Aterkik Alitcha - split peas prepared with light sauce
Atkilt Wot - cabbage, carrots, potatoes simmered in sauce
Atkilt Salata - boiled potatoes, chilli peppers mixed in salad dressing
Buticha - chickpea dip mixed with lemon juice
Inguday Tibs - mushroom sautéed with onions
Fasolia - string beans and carrots sautéed in caramelized onion
Gomen - collard green cooked to perfection with spices
Misir Wot - pureed split red lentil are simmered berbere sauce
Misir Alitcha - pureed split red lentil are simmered in mild sauce
Shimbra Asa - chickpeas flour dumplings & cooked in wot
Shiro Alitcha - mild split peas are milled together & slow cooked
Shiro Wot - split peas are milled together and slow cooked
Salata - Ethiopian salad, dressing: lemon, chilli peppers & spices
Timatim Selata - tomato salad, onions, chilli peppers & lemon juice

Please note: Spellings vary wildly on menus.