Places to eat in Ethiopia

After a meal in a restaurant or invited at a family's house you will for sure experience a coffee-ceremony during your visit in Ethiopia. Your host sits on a stool with her charcoal stove. To create a good ambiance there is mostly also incense burning and freshly cut grass scattered on the ground.

First of all the coffebeans are roasted at a iron plate. When it starts to smoke and smell the host will draw it towards you, so you can inhale its flavour. Next the beans will be ground with a mortar and brewed up with water.

When the coffee, called buna in Ethiopia, is ready, it's served in tiny cups with lots of sugar. You have to drink three cups at least. The last one is the blessing cup or berekha.

If you are desperate about injhera and there is no international restaurant around, spaghetti and pasta dishes are a good option, as it is a common meal in all menus. Italian heritage I guess... Anyway don't expect it to be "al dente", and if you don't like spicy food ask for them plain, no sauce at all...

We stopped at this road bar for a drink during one of the bus rides. If I had a slight doubt about it belonging to the world famous hotels chain, it certainly disappeared after going in! I had a "shai" (tea) with a lot of sugar (10 cents).

If you like to have a quick lunch, you can go to a pastryshop. We did in Debre Birhan, after we had some delay because a blocked road caused by an accident north of the town.

You can order different types of coffee and soft drinks and snacks like pizzas, bread and cakes.

I liked the colourful neighbour house. It was like a painting. You could hardly recognize, if the window and door were painted or real.
So far I can remember, the window is real and the door is painted.

Injera is the national staple, serving as a base for a meal. Injera, made of the local cereal tef, looks like a thin pancake and tastes a little sour.

The food like vegetables, meat, sauces is heaped on top of this pancake. Also the injera can be served rolled up beside the food. Anyway tear of a piece of the injera and wrap it around the food, using the injera as ''spoon''.

Injera is served at a communal tray at a mesob (mushroom-shaped table). Use always your right hand and avoid touching your mouth or licking your fingers. Take the food only from your side of the communal tray.

The most convenient central hotel in Gondar is Quara Hotel & Restaurant which has small but nice rooms.
I didn't stay there but I can recommend it as a restaurant because I had both breakfast and dinner there almost daily. Its most strong asset is the leafy courtyard where the restaurant is, perfect for a romantic dinner, and a nice terrace with view over the central square for a good breakfast. The staff are very polite but extremely slow...
Prices are average for Ethiopia. It will cost you about 70b-100b a person.

If you are tired of local food go to Dib Andessa Hotel. I liked the food there, especially because the grilled food is really grilled, with no oil as it usually happens in Ethiopia.
The hotel rooms are no good, but I recommend it as a restaurant.
The dishes tend to be more western than local judging by the way they are cooked. Their taste is satisfactory. The service is excellent for Ethiopian standards.
The terrace of the restaurant is a real joy with fine breezes and views of the lake.
Mains cost 25-30b plus the tax you always pay at the good restaurants which is about 16% here.
This hotel is just a few meters from Summerland.

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Olympiacos Greek Club has a beautiful restaurant which really saved my life! I am not exaggerating because I had reached the limits of starvation. I couldn't take anything more of local food – I heard other tourists say this, too - and it was the only place that kept me from jumping into a plane and go home!!!
It is built in a huge site with tall trees and a lot of flowers. Members gather here to celebrate events, play tennis and practice other athletic activities or enjoy their meals in the fresh and airy green environment. It has two airy and sunny terraces, excellent service and great food – at least for me... It is actually a club for Greeks who live and work in Addis but it is frequented by a lot of other foreigners as the food is very tasty! All the dishes are very well prepared and many of the ingredients are bought in a local Greek supermarket that imports excellent food products from Greece, such as authentic white cheese, “Feta” and, most important, virgin greek olive oil!!
Some dishes I loved so much that I repeated them for many days. Greek dolmadakia (30birr), minced meat wrapped in vine leaves, yiouvetsi, (45b) a kind of Greek pasta called “manestra”, with delicious soft lamb (ask the chef to give you a good part of meat), spinach pie (30b), not very successful by Greek standards but still acceptable. Moussaka, (43b) the famous Greek dish with eggplants, minced meat, potatoes and bechamel cream on top, very tasty! Cheese pie (30b), although the flaky pastry is not crispy. Greek salad with authentic "feta" cheese (50b) or local cheese (30b). Bacclava (30b) is not so good because it is not filled with hazelnuts but with peanuts and it has a completely different taste.
Their best dish I think is roasted lamb, soft and deliciously juicy! And their worse is their imitation of Greek souvlaki...don't even try it.
The name of the club is: Hellenic Athletic Association
It is located near Dembel City Center, on Africa Avenue. You get off the bus at this stop. Then you take the (dirt ) street that starts across the center, and next to the big bookstore, and turn left on the big street you meet. You take the second turn and walk for 100 meters, pass by the Greek school and the old Greek embassy until you arrive at an opening. If you go on straight you get into Olympiacos.
Olympiacos, by the way, is a top Greek football team...

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