This place is absolutely gorgeous, there was live improvised chill jazzy music, not much staff but very friendly and was surprisingly not too busy. Food was smaller on the portions size (especially the Samsara), the taste of the meat was spectacular, and the injera (Ethiopian flatbread) was a miss for us (as well as the lentil salad). Overall highly recommend trying this place out once. Dolowot and other main entrees look solid enough! read more

The food was delicious and we enjoyed every dish. And we even had a lovely lentil salad as a starter. The restaurant is pretty and my family loved it. We will be back! read more

I live in DC the US home to many Ethiopian restaurants, but nothing beats the home cooking at Buraka!

Really incredible Ethiopian food. I didn't realize how much I absolutely love this type of food until I came here!! The decor around the restaurant adds to the authentic vibe, and I like how small and intimate it feels. The service was decent, the only thing that was not amazing. Food/drinks came out a bit slow and our server could have been a bit more friendly. Not terrible and would not stop me from returning! read more

I took out dinner from here on a weekday. On a weekday evening, street parking was not a problem. Dorowat was my favorite item. It was very flavorful. Chicken peanut stew was slightly less in flavor. Overall I found the food was slightly less authentic. read more

Buraka - Chicken peanut stew dinner - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

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I have no idea why I was the only person in this place. This was my first time trying Ethiopian food and the darowat was incredible with the soft, crepelike injira. Service was polite and attentive, yet subtle. And the restaurant is clean and decorated with African art. Will be coming back for sure! read more

Buraka - Darowat with injera - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

The food was AMAZING! I recently went here for my graduation dinner and I could not have been happier. I have only had Ethiopian food once before and was recently craving it. So, I thought why not make a reservation there to celebrate graduating law school. I LOVED the injera and the combinations of meat that came with it. There was a really nicely seasoned and spiced curry as well as amazing beef tips. I will 100% be coming back and highly recommend this place. The food we ordered was served family style, which made it a really nice experience as well. read more

A truly authentic fun experience to eat here. It used to be Jolly Bobs for you old timers, across the street from Star liquor. Lots of choices with plenty of spice and good service. A full bar but street parking only. Outdoor seating behind the restaurant but if you have trouble with stairs you'll want to avoid that. A fair amount of tables inside so it's your choice. Check out the menu and give it a try for something different. read more

They lost my pick up order, but I'm glad I stayed and waited. Service was slow, but maybe that had more to do with it being a Saturday evening. I got the lamb tibs and the doro wat, and it was spectacular. Will definitely be going back. read more

As a home chef, I've cooked and been to many different Ethiopian restaurants and this is BY FAR the worst. The gap between this and the second worst would be astronomically large. Not only that, it's the worst restaurant I've ever eaten at - period. The mesir has no flavor, and super watery. Wrong color and texture. Using potatoes and carrots to add to the dish which aren't authentic to mask small, cheap and unsavory portions. It tastes like they don't even use the correct and base ingredient Kibbeh (spiced butter). Small portions, and the cold lentil salad dish they give is just screaming F you to their own culture. DO NOT eat at this place. It's a straight disappointment and a bad representation of Ethiopian food... I seriously can't believe my taste buds were this disrespected. Flavor: 1/10 Portion: 1/10 Presentation: 1/10 read more

Buraka - Begwot Misirwot - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

We had Negronis, the Begwot and mango passion fruit cheesecake! Great service and a table by the window for some added enjoyment! Will definitely be back! read more

We love eating at Buraka! The food is delicious, filling, and at a good price. They also offer a variety of drink options, including cocktails. We came here with someone who was gluten free and vegan, and they had 4 options she could eat. Some reviews say their service is slow-- this was true the first time we went, in June of 2023. However, in recent times we've gone the service has been great and not slow. read more

I got the combo meal with injera. It was absolutely delicious - like a sourdough crepe. I was very pleased with the cocktails as well. Decently strong, and delicious. The portion size of the entrees is generous and the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed. Definitely a hidden gem of Willy St.! read more

Buraka - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

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Overall, this restaurant is one I would recommend for the experience. The food itself seems to be fairly representative of authentic Ethiopian food in the flavors and the way that it is prepared. The service has been quite sub par during my few visits, however. The wait staff is not very attentive, and my table was forgotten about a number of times on several occasions, despite the restaurant being quite empty. The food itself is good, and extremely flavorful. Personally, the Minchet abish was a little heavily salted when compared to other Ethiopian renditions I have tried in the past. read more

Buraka - Lentil Soup - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

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My favorite restaurant in Madison! Authentic, good food. Good people. Easy location. I go whenever I'm in town! read more

Buraka - Lentils with the meal - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

Yum! My wife and I ordered Buraka's fish fry take out and it was delish! The sweet potato fries were cooked perfectly, the rice fully seasoned, the batter and cod were tasty. It's a little sad because of not that many stars on Yelp --I had never tried it. I'm glad we finally did. We will def be eating there again. read more

Easily one of my favorite restaurants in Madison. A+ food, variety, and service. A Madison staple. read more

The ambiance was very chill w/ bar thts wht i should've ordered however i ordered their I "peanut butter soup omg the most disrespectful imitation of the West Gambians Survival Meal it cost me almost 50 usd the service was very nice and good but we gone need y'all to get it together. We need good food. We also need good services and we also need a good atmosphere. and if you can't do all three, the number one thing you should be focused on is the food. I will not be returning and it's very disheartening because we got a couple of foreign restaurants for food in Wisconsin and they don't pretty much turn western. I gave one star for Services and one star for atmosphere zero stars for food. read more

Fantastic service and food! Many traditional options with portions that any family should appreciate. read more

Buraka - Family platter of various dishes and gluten free injera - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

I was super excited to try this place out for Black Restaurant Week, as I'd always heard that they had great food and my friends loved them when they were on state street. So, maybe I built up my expectations too high, or it was an off night for them, but I wasn't super impressed. Given this was more due to the service than the food, but still. We got there around 7:40 and the place didn't seem all too full, so we figured it would be a good place for a group of 5. Our waitress came and took drink orders and the beverages were back pretty quick. Then she took our food orders and we waited, and waited, and waited until finally about 40 minutes later we got the salads. Once we were finished, we waited about 15 minutes more to get our entrees. Now I dont know if this is normal or not, but it seemed like wayyy to long of time to wait for food. Also, my friend and I ordered a combo plate together of dorowot and vegetarian peanut stew, but what came out was definitely not the vegetarian peanut stew as there was chicken in it. Also, we weren't sure if it was the chicken peanut stew because it looked different than the other friend's dish who ordered that. We weren't going to send it back because we weren't sure how long it would take to get our food back at that point and we were also very hungry. The food tasted pretty good, but I would have liked to try what we actually ordered. One of our friends also ordered tostones as an appetizer, which was completely forgotten about. We got them after we were done with our meals. There was also a lack of checking in to see how the food was and if we needed anything, also checking back to give us our bill, until one gentleman, who may have been a manager, could clearly see we were a little frustrated and asked how we were and if he could get us our bill. It was 9:30 by the time we left! A lot longer dinner than I was planning that night. Overall, I'd say that the food was good, but seemed a little overpriced for the portion size. Also, if this is what service is normally like I would say order ahead unless you have time to spend here. read more

Buraka - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

This is the worst Ethiopian food I have ever had....in addition to not being spicy at all....the meat was overcooked and dry. The menu lacks many traditional lentil and vegetable options. It was gross. Go somewhere else. read more

Four of us had a lovely dinner prompted by Black Restaurant Week. We failed at connecting with the restaurant via voice, text, or Facebook messenger to make a reservation but on this Friday's night but it didn't matter since there was plenty of room. We got a table on the patio. It's very inviting and warm outside. the service is not speedy but that was perfect for us. We were not in a hurry. We were not overly hungry; a slow-paced relaxed atmosphere was just what we needed for lengthy conversation and laughter. Highlights were ginger martinis, coconut shrimp, duck wonton, lentil salad and our friend loved her fish fry. The only miss was the tiramisu arrived slightly frozen. The main dishes we ate were lamb berwot and coconut curry chicken with big flat squishy Ethiopian bread (choice of bread or rice). The lamb was spiced in a way unfamiliar and the chicken tasted comfortingly familiar. The lamb was about 1/2 carrots - nice. These dishes were good but not something I would crave. Tip if you are eating with a good friend. One of you order the rice, the other order the bread - both are plentiful enough to split. My review would be somewhere between 3-4 stars. If you are in a hurry or want things to go "just so" try this place when you have a different vibe. read more

Buraka - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

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I dream about the food here. Dreams filled with dorowot, misirwot, injera, and chicken samosas. My only qualm is the portion size for the price. If I lived in Madison this would be dangerous. Definitely recommend! read more

COVID review - This was my first time trying Buraka and Ethiopian food. I went inside and ordered takeout. It was a short wait and the staff was helpful to answer questions. I got one of their most popular dishes, Dorowot over rice and a side of injera. Oh my, the dorowot dish is full of flavor and spice! The side lentil salad and injera were delicious too! I took some of the dorowot and put it on top of some of the injera which was tasty. I'm looking forward to experiencing more Ethiopian dishes. read more

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Covid review - excellent service, food that is almost too pretty to eat, and a great selection of drinks.

Love the Doro Wat and Coconut Chicken Curry! We have enjoyed the food everytime we have gone.

The East African cuisine of Buraka is a pleasant change of pace when you're looking for something other than burgers or pizza. It's a wonderful venue - the owners did an amazing job renovating the dilapidated former Jolly Bob's into an inviting space, including an awesome outdoor courtyard behind the restaurant. The burnt orange walls with African prints contract nicely with the white linens on the tables. The reggae music playing in the background helped reinforce the chill vibe. During lunch, the meal pace can move at a glacial pace, making it challenging to get in and out in less than an hour. The servers seem to work hard, but there's too few of them to keep up with all the tables. The menu is vegetarian-friendly but also offers plenty of stews with roasted meats. The lunch menu offers a combination special for $10 that allows you to select two entrees to help sample this unique cuisine. Lunches come with a lentil salad and a choice of rice or injera, an Ethiopian sourdough flatbread. I enjoyed the interplay of sweet and spicy with my coconut curry chicken more than the minchet abish (minced beef, onions, tomatoes and lentils in a rice blend of spices), which was also spicy, was more of a one note dish. Portion sizes were on the small side, given the price point. read more

We got the 2 dinner specials it was very good the flat bread is so filling I would definitely go back.

TL;DR The staff are out of this world, and I would genuinely leave six stars if I could. I've never had an experience like this. My girlfriend and I came in since there were several vegan options and we wanted to try out a new place. I'd had a long day and was in a bad mood. I didn't say anything mean to the staff, but maybe something about my demeanor indicated that I was having a bad day. About five minutes after we sat down, the head chef walks up to our table and says he wanted to buy our dinner. I was shocked! He offered to pay for our entire meal. And I tried to convince him not to and told him it was completely unnecessary, but after about three minutes of back-and-forth, he stuck a $100 bill in our waiter's hand and made our waiter use it for our meal. And you know what he said? He said he just wanted to buy a meal for a young couple because someone had done the same for him when he was a young adult. He spent $32 of his own money to buy two random strangers a meal! I'm still shocked, and this happened over a day ago! You sure as heck won't find folks like this at any restaurant. read more

I really want to rate Buraka higher, especially during the tough time of COVID. I placed a takeout order through EatStreet. I went to Buraka ten minutes before the "ready" time and it was sitting there, ready. Happy to avoid a wait, but it was already lukewarm. Maybe that is just a function of EatStreet and I should order directly next time? Injera was good, but the chicken peanut stew was not plentiful within. Good flavor, but the lukewarm and lack thereof was not ideal. I may try Buraka again, I do want the best for them in these rough times. read more

Not quite what I was expecting but still a good experience overall. First I'd like to say that I've never had Ethiopian food in my life, so I think in my mind I had this image of Indian food mixed with various exotic spices and unknown vegetables, but all in all the food reminds me of midwestern dishes mixed with a variety of spices that I've never tasted. When we walked in the door there was plenty of seating and the hostess was quickly there to greet us. The staff was extremely friendly and the waitress came to our table and took our drink orders very rapidly. Basically, the customer service was extremely responsive and kind. We all ordered our appetizers and everything arrived faster than I would have expected. The samosa's were amazing and the drinks were great. The food followed right after and again, the food was just as good as the apps. The only thing that I didn't enjoy as much was the ingera. I like ingera but 2 rolls would be enough. Adding the meal on top of the ingera made it soggy and did not compliment the meal as much. All-in-all I would go back. Nice atmosphere with a good food selection and great staff. read more

Buraka - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

I "wasn't hungry" and so my boyfriend and I shared the dorowat. However, once we got a taste we immediately regretted not getting more! It was so good! Next time I'm in town I'm definitely coming back. Super friendly service and of course delicious food! If you're sharing (which I wouldn't recommend because everything is so delicious) I'd recommend getting more injera! read more

This place has been a standard in Madison for as long as I can recall. The State Street location, the cart, and now the Willie St location...all great! The new vibe is more in keeping with their food and the food was great. read more

I've been wanting to try Buraka's new location for a while. I had eaten at the old State Street location and enjoyed the food. I also heard that Buraka had kept several drinks from the former restaurant, Jolly Bob, and they were always amazing. We came in a Saturday night around 730 and it was dead, this should have been our sign to leave but we didn't. We were the only people sitting at the bar and were greeted right away. We ordered our drinks and they were out of a liquor for my original drink so I choose something else. The bartender was clearly inexperienced, our drinks were incredibly sweet and not made with confidence. We ordered a couple appetizers that were ok but were probably frozen then deep-fried. They did come with a very spicy sauce that I didn't hate. The biggest downfall besides our drinks was the service, it went south fast. I asked for a wifi password and was told they weren't allowed to share it. Which was fine, no big deal. My husband chuckled at me about"getting with the times", we had a laugh. Not sure if the bartender thought were complaining about her/wifi policy but she seemed annoyed and never checked on us even when our drinks were empty. The bartender and one waitress also sat at a table behind us when they weren't "busy". One of them choose to eat a salad behind the bar. They were also discussing when they were going to close and they said they were supposed to close at 11pm but we're gonna try and be done at 10pm.Yelp has there hours till 2 so I'm confused. Staff seemed more concerned about themselves and when they'd be done rather than serving customers. Needless to say we didn't not stay for entrees and will not be coming back to do so, probably ever. We headed over to a nearby restaurant that had an hour wait with excellent service. I doubt that Buraka will be open much longer with the indifferent service we received tonight and that showed in lack of customers on what should be a busy Saturday night. read more

Food was ok but the waitress got an attitude when I pointed out she charged me twice for an item. She claimed she brought out 2 orders but that was not the case. read more

If I could rate this restaurant zero stars... I would. I can't think of one thing that this restaurant did well. (Preface/Background: I've eaten Ethiopian food my entire life and have visited over 15 different Ethiopian restaurants in five different countries) This is the worst Ethiopian restaurant experience I have ever had. Here are the Bullet points of my experience: 1. It took nearly 10 mins to order an order to go. 2. Ordered injera (pre-made) and a couple of samosas (just needs to be fried) to go. It took 30 mins... and there were only three other tables of customers in the restaurant. At the 20 minute mark, I inquired on my order. The server was unsure what was taking so long, and after checking the kitchen... she said it would be 2 mins. 8 mins later, I checked with her again... and she later returned with my food. 3. As you can see from my picture, and the video I will be posting online... there were worms of some kind in my water. When the server FINALLY came back, all she did was get rid of my cup and attempt to fill up a different cup from the same source. Smh. 4. I tried to discuss the situation with the server, who went and grabbed some man from the kitchen. He explained that orders are filled as they come in. That I should call ahead if I want to get my food faster. Needless to say, I will not be returning to this restaurant... nor should you. I'll let you know if I unknowingly swallowed a worm and it's now growing in me. (Oh, and the injera they sell for $1/each is half the size that it should be.) read more

Buraka - Beware! Water with... worms. - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

First off, I rarely write reviews on Yelp, but I was so disappointed with this experience that I couldn't not write one. It's important to understand that the food was really good... what we received of it, at least. A third of our order was just forgotten entirely, and the rest of the food took an hour to get. AN HOUR. Then, we only received small glasses of water with no refills in almost TWO HOURS. I had to go in and ask for water with our empty glasses, and the waitress told me to wait at the table, and she would bring it out to us. THAT DID NOT HAPPEN FOR ANOTHER 20 MINUTES. Also, non-alcoholic drinks are not free refills. Just a heads up. Like I said, food was good, but the service was bad enough to not go back, which is a real shame. read more

I have to say that this is by far one of the best Ethiopian restaurants we have been to. When we travel, we almost always look for an Ethiopian restaurant. The kids and I are on a road trip and thought we'd stop to check out Buraka. Our server Tommy was extremely friendly and personable. We all shared the Minchet Abish, Siga Wot and beef Tibs. Everything was over the top excellent, especially the Tibs. The flavor and spice were dead on. We loved it so much, we ordered two of the Tibs to go, so we could use it for breakfast. Tommy also gave us some of the traditional injera bread (normally they give an Americanized version) which was mind blowing! The texture and sourness was perfect. If you are any where near Madison, you definitely need to stop by and grab some amazing food. You definitely won't be sorry. (Side note: Tommy gave us some sauces (red-Awaze, and green-?) to take with us to try... of everything that is wrong in the world, these sauces make everything right... I'm bummed that we didn't try them before. We definitely would have ordered gallons of them. The green is extremely spicy and tasty, the red is a perfect balance of warm spices. read more

Great experience dining at Buraka! I had heard good things from friends about this restaurant and it did not disappoint. We went at 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, so it was pretty empty but the service was still great. There is ample street parking outside as with most of Willy Street. Upon walking inside, I was surprised at how much space was inside - there was bar seating and an entire back room. Everything was very new and clean, and our waitress was very friendly. Also, the awesome reggae music gave the place a very casual atmosphere. My friend and I both ordered the combination lunch with Dorowot and Begwot served on a plate of rice. It came with a lentil salad and a dollop of sour cream on the side. The food came out very fast and was a comfortable serving size. Everything in the meal went extremely well together - the Dorowot was a very comforting and rich stew, and the lamb in the Begot was cooked tenderly. I was surprised at the lentils because I didn't realize they would be a cold salad instead of hot lentils, but it was a nice contrast. Both were very very mildly spicy but not anything too intense! Overall, really tasty food but lost a star because there was nothing that was extremely out of the ordinary. Really happy to see this Ethiopian restaurant in Madison and would definitely recommend for people in the area to try out! The menu also has nice history of Ethiopian food and the restaurant to help give the food a historical context, which I always feels contributes to the dining experience. Would love to return another time! Food: 8/10 Service: 8/10 Atmosphere: 9/10 Prices: $-$$ read more

Buraka - Combination Lunch for $9.99 - Dorowot and Begwot. Great flavors and meat was perfect texture! - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

Ordered the Friday fish fry and i was glad I did. They have very unique spice blend they use for the batter which was super crispy and tasty plus the fish was tender and flaky. Lentils went great with the rice and the sweet potatoes fries I couldn't even finish I was too full at the end. I'll be back. read more

Buraka - Friday fish fry - Ethiopian Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin