Abol Cafe, Restaurant and Mart is a small Ethiopian restaurant and cafe located on the backside of Plaza Fiesta. While Plaza Fiesta's main storefront faces Buford Highway, Abol has its own separate storefront facing Clairmont Road, next to a Bank of America ATM. This business, a quiet and humble "mom and pop" shop, opened in 2017. While not the best Ethiopian food I've had in Atlanta, I still think it's quite good and worth a visit. Plus, the folks that work here are nice.
Abol offers late breakfast, lunch, and dinner and also serves up espresso-based drinks made from house-branded coffee beans from Ethiopia. The menu features Ethiopian breakfast dishes like kinche (cracked wheat, the Ethiopian equivalent of oatmeal, $7.99) and chechebsa (spiced bread, $7.99); appetizers such as sambusas ($2 each), timatim fit-fit (tomato salad, $7.99), and salads; over a half-dozen varieties of tibs (sauteed meat and veggies, $12.99-15.99 each) like godin tibs (short rib) and tilapia tibs; assorted kitfo made with marinated raw beef ($12.99-19.99 each); several vegetarian dishes from red and green lentils ($9.99 each) to shiro (chickpea stew, $12.99); fir-fir, synonymous with fit-fit, prepared with shredded pieces of injera ($10.99-14.99 each); special entrees from dulet (lamb tripe and liver, $14.99) to gored gored (a raw beef dish, marinated and spiced, $13.99); sandwiches ($7.99-9.99 each), and desserts like Napoleons and tiramisu ($4.70 each).
Here's what I tried:
Apps
* Kitfo rolls ($7.99) - rolls of injera filled with kitfo, ayib, and jalapeno
Tibs
* Derek tibs ($13.99) - slowly fried pieces of beef grilled with onion, tomato, jalapeno, and rosemary
* Tenderloin tibs ($15.99) - cubes of filet mignon cooked with onion, tomato, jalapeno, and Abol spices
Vegetarian
* Veggie combo ($13.99) - red lentils, collard greens, yellow split peas, cabbage, green lentils, and salad
Specials
* Kikil ($10.99) - lamb meat, bone-on, flavored with onion, herbal butter, mustard powder, and Ethiopian spices
* Gomen with meat ($11.99) - collard greens mixed with beef tibs and seasoned with Abol spices
These dishes were a great sampling of what Abol has to offer and, with the exception of the kikil, I thought everything was delicious and I recommend each dish. What Abol describes as "herbal butter" on the menu is most likely referring to niter kibbeh or Ethiopian seasoned and clarified butter.
The kitfo rolls were yummy. Kitfo is like the Ethiopian version of beef tartare. The meat is finely minced and nicely seasoned with good umami flavor. Ayib is an Ethiopian cheese, white in color, and very soft and mild in flavor like cottage cheese. The kitfo and small, delicate clumps of ayib were rolled up into injera (springy, spongy Ethiopian sourdough flatbread).
Injera was served on the side with the tibs, vegetarian, and special entrees listed above. Abol offers both regular injera and a gluten-free version. I preferred the regular version, but the gluten-free version wasn't bad. If you've never had Ethiopian food before, you eat with your hands, using pieces of injera to pick up pieces of food. Abol has an extra sink, located just outside the single unisex restroom, that you can use to wash your hands.
I thought the derek tibs were excellent and the tenderloin tibs were very good. I loved the bit of rosemary in the derek tibs, adding an extra hint of flavor. Both meats were decently tender and satisfying.
The veggie combo is terrific because it's basically a vegetarian sampler platter. Each of the combo's components are cooked a little differently with ingredients like onion, garlic, ginger, red pepper, oil, and other spices. The red and green lentils, yellow split peas, cabbage and salad made for a colorful plate. I thought the temperature of this dish could have been warmer (collectively, the veggies were cool or lukewarm), but otherwise this was a flavorful and gratifying plate of food.
I wasn't a fan of the kikil. Lamb is often hit or miss with me and this one missed the mark. First, there wasn't a whole lot of lamb meat. There was some, but not a substantial portion. Second, the meat was significantly gamey. That strong gamey taste bled into the salty yellow broth. The kikil came with rolls of injera which you chop up with a spoon and let soak into the broth. You then eat the kikil sort like a stew, using your hands to pick up the lamb bones for bites of chewy meat.
The gomen (collard greens) with beef tibs was fantastic. If you like collard greens, then you won't be disappointed with Abol's version. They give you lots and it's tasty. The greens tasted fresh and were nicely flavored. The beef tibs were on par with the derek and tenderloin tibs -- tender and savory. Yum.
This isn't a very big place. The interior can seat roughly 30-40 customers, comfortably, at most. It's fairly no-frills. Service was slow because we had a big group. The owners, Yonatan and Saba, and our server, Christy, were very friendly and wonderful. read more