The food was amazing, unfortunately the service not so good! The parking situation is bad, due to all the construction. We parked a few blocks away, and walked in the cold. We walked in and were seated promptly with menus. This is not an upscale place. We waited for a few minutes and the waitress came over, and asked whether we would like any drinks. My friend had the honey wine, which she didn't even care much for. We ordered family style meat and veggie meal. I'm pescatarian and my friend has a severe shelfish allergy. We ordered the two tilapia portions, a beets portion, spinach, and another spicy vegetable portion. The food was brought within a moderate time frame. They brought a basket of injera, and we went to town on the food. I love spicy food, but the food can be spicy for some. All the food was very tasty, and tasted amazing. We had to flag our waitress down for more injera, because she never came back. The place was not busy. The problem came when we were looking for our waitress to ask for the check. She was no where to be found. I noticed many customers were looking around for the waitress, as well. They seem to huddle by the kitchen entrance to to talk to each other or the bar area, to do the same. We waited 12 minutes to get the check. It took another good 15 for them to come back and pick it up and charge the card. I don't think I will be returning, due to the service. The food was great! read more

Came here on a week night with a few friends. Was a little nervous about trying Ethiopian food for the first time, but the staff at Demera made my experience unforgettable. The ambiance was relaxing, drinks delicious and the food incredible. The manager even greeted our table to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. Such a genuine nice man with an incredible, friendly staff. I am so glad I got to experience Ethiopian food for the first time at Demera. If you're looking for exceptional service and amazing food, come here...you will not regret it! read more

A group of friends and I decided to go out for Ethiopian. Demera was an obvious choice because the food here is fantastic. My friend made a reservation for our party of seven; however, when I arrived, they couldn't locate it. We wanted to sit outside because it was a beautiful night, but they couldn't accommodate us outside because their tables have weak legs, so they refused to put them together. We headed inside, and they were able to seat us right away. We began our meal with the beef and spinach sambussa. The spinach sambussa was delicious, and I love the sauce that comes with it. We ordered seven different dishes, and all of the ones I tried were fantastic. My favorites were the tickel gomen and ye-shimbra. The staff was friendly, and the service was fast. They were more than willing to bring out more injera upon request. Any time I have a craving for Ethiopian, Demera is where I end up. read more

We had the massive sampler platter, which was perfect and delicious. I admit, I was a little confused ordering at first, but the staff was kind and patient. The sour dough pancakes were like an edible utensil, except I didn't plan ahead, so by the time most of the piles of food were gone, my partner and I were too full to eat the bread that had soaked up everything. read more

So delicious. We got the meat & veggie messob, GF injera, honey wine, and tea. I've been having periodic cravings ever since. Few caveats: Service was quick but a little bizarre. They brought us the wrong table's food and seemed off-put when we asked to have it replaced with what we had ordered. The honey wine is distinctive and extremely sweet--we definitely should have tried a glass before ordering a bottle; it's not like mead or dessert wine at all. You will smell like Ethiopian food for a few days. The taste makes it all worth it. read more

This place has solid Ethiopian food. We had a lentil appetizer, as well as the doro alicha (chicken entree) with some sides. The service was very friendly, and nice clean restaurant, but I have had these Ethiopian dishes in restaurants that I prefer to this place. I think it's like comparing one grandma's cooking to another's - sometimes it is just a taste preference. The injera was cold, and I think that made the warm food less tasty. But still good food in general. read more

I had recently tried Ethiopian food for the first time on business in D.C. and fell in love. Once I returned back to Chicago I was on a mission to find a well respected Ethiopian place in the city! I was recommended Demera by a number of friends, Chicagoans and was extremely excited to go! The food itself was good, not great. I ordered a mix of 3 vegetable and 3 meat dishes and enjoyed the majority of them (minus the spinach, which I usually love!) The biggest set back for me was the Injera bread. Unlike the resteraunt I went to in D.C. the Injera was extremely sour and overpowered the taste of the 6 dishes I ordered. I have only had Ethopian twice so this might just be the correct way for it to taste, but it was not my cup of tea. I prefered to just eat the dishes I ordered without the Injera so I could taste all those wonderful flavors. read more

This was our first time eating Ethiopian and it was awesome. The service was wonderful. Tigist was a great server. Check it out.

I'm a fan. Great food. Price is reasonable and the food is fresh. They have been doing some remodling so it's nice to see more space and the upgrade to the bathrooms. Demera is solid in my books. I like their customer service definitely better than Diamond. I am not sure why people rave about Diamond, Yes Diamond has been around the longest but customer service is lacking among their servers and their food is inconsistent. read more

Best Ethiopian food I have had in Chicago. Ive been to Ras Dashen and Ethiopian Diamond and neither were as flavorful as Demera. Ras Dashen had some nice vegan/vegetarian options but their food was bland. Ethiopian Diamond was a little on the bland side as well. The mystery to me was that both Ras Dashen and Ethiopian Diamond had more customers and Ethiopian Diamond was packed. Go figure. That saying a line out the door means the food is good in the kitchen doesn't apply as much in this case. If you want flavor, go to Demera. The manager was also really nice. However, be careful when parking on the streets. I got a ticket for parking in a taxi cab stand and honestly never saw the sign. read more

Went a couple of weeks ago. The food is good, but the service poor, which almost ruins the experience. I have no idea why the manager or owner don't address this issue. It is so annoying when you are with friends and you have to look for the "vanishing waitress." Come on, now! read more

delicious authentic food, close to public transportation, great service

FINALLY got around to trying this place out. I literally have been wanting to go for YEARS but something always came up or we always ended up going somewhere else. Tried the vegetarian and meat messob sampler with the ye-misir wot (spicy red lentils), ye-shimbra assa (spicy chickpea cakes), gomen (collard greens), ye-beg wot (bone-in chunks of lamb), dorot wot (chicken), spicy michetabish (ground beef). They serve the various stewed meats and vegetables on a large platter (on top of a large flat piece of injera) with a light salad in the middle. My dining mate and I also split an order of spinach sambussa (essentially a fried empanada-like appetizer filled with spinach). Everything we had tasted really good, although the injera was pretty sour and at times actually overpowered the taste of the various meats and veggies that we were sampling. The sambussa was a little pocket of tasty spinach goodness. Favorite items from the sampler was the gomen, the ye-beg wot, and the michetabish. Our server was awesome - she took care of our every need without making us feel rushed, and was great about explaining all the different aspects of the menu. Highly recommended trying this place out if you are up for a different type of cuisine and eating style (everything is eaten with your hands, using the injera to scoop up the various stews). read more

I love this restaurant. The staff and warm and welcoming and always generous. The food is well spiced and delicious.

My first time having Ethiopian food. Great experience. Tried the mead which was very sweet. Interesting flavors. Will visit again soon.

I came here with a party of 18. The food, service, and live music was exquisite for my birthday. All my friends loved the experience.

I absolutely loved the carrot potato dish - I highly recommend the 2 person-3 dish each for 28 bucks, it was well worth it. Although my server wasn't very attentive (and I saw her smoking in the corner by the bar, how lazy to not even go outside) she was brutally honest as to what was good and bad, and she was right about them. She told me all the good desserts were sold out, so I could not get one. It was a little sad, being my birthday dinner and all. So I decided to let go of the the smoking thing, because at least I had good food to eat. I don't blame the servers, but more the floor manager, who seemed to be a little too laid back when he should be monitoring the servers.There was some guy who kept checking up on us, he was very nice but I have no idea who he was, he was dressed as a busboy but wasn't serving water? He made up for everyone else being so laid back, however, it was sort of strange as I didn't know if I could tip him, but would have liked to. The music was a little too loud, being an electric keyboard, it sounded a little tacky. All in all, it was an interesting experience. read more

I have visited several of the Ethiopian restaurants in Chicago and have always enjoyed the cuisine. Tonight my boyfriend and I were thus excited to use our Groupon at Demera, however we didn't have the best experience. We had reservations at 830 and were promptly seated by a friendly hostess. The restaurant was buzzing still, but not overly crowded. 10 min later when no one had come to take our order we flagged down the hostess and asked her to send over our server. She apologized, offered a few suggestions and took our order of drinks and an app and said she'd give us a few min to decide our dinner combination. Fast forward to 20 min later, we have finished our apps, though no one has returned to take our dinner order. Once again we flag down the nearest person and ask for a waitress. The hostess once again returns, apologies and promises to rush our dinner order. I will give her credit, she did have our food rushed out. 90% of our dinner was quite tasty. One of our meat dishes though had bone shards mixed in it. I'm not talking about large discernible chucks that could be easily picked out, but literal tiny fragments which made it virtually impossible to eat. We left that portion alone, which was fine as we couldn't even finish the rest since it was such a huge portion. Our Groupon also offered dessert. Once again guess who had to flag down a server even though it was quite obvious we had been done eating for a while. This time the hostess must has packed up and left because a different server came over. We ordered our dessert, it wasn't anything special, but honestly I was so stuffed at this point I didn't want more than a bite. At this point the restaurant is pretty cleared out, AGAIN we had to ask for out check. Apparently tax wasn't included in the groupon, so we had a $6 bill. Weird, I've never had to do that before but whatever, not a big deal. AGAIN we had to flag someone down to take our groupon number and pay the rest if the bill. I was a server for many years and can sympathize to a point, but this was truly ridiculous. To sum up my wordiness, good food, terrible service. Don't plan on getting out until 2 hours later. read more

I have eaten Ethiopian food a few times before at different restaurants and I was very pleased coming here. If you haven't tried Ethiopian before you should educate yourself before you come and hope that you like food that is somewhat spicy. Service was great and the food came quickly (I've had long waits before!) It was a cold Tuesday and there were still a lot of customers. I highly recommend this place! read more

Just had lunch here, since it's in walking distance of my place. Demera offers a well-rounded lunch buffet for about $7. About half meat, half veggie choices, plus salad, fresh fruit and the eating-bread (sorry not to remember the name of it). It was good stuff. I have to echo others on the service though - once I sat down and got a water, the server never returned. I sipped my water veeeeeery slowly so it would last for the whole meal, waited a while for the check and finally went to the bar for it. But for the price, the buffet would be hard to beat. read more

(4.5 stars) While I can't compare Demera to other Ethiopian restaurants in Chicago, it is probably the best I've encountered anywhere else in years. The injera was fantastic and the rest of the vegetarian Messob was outstanding. My friend was completely taken with the beets -- sweet and delectable -- and I couldn't get enough collard greens. The lentils and all of the other veggies on the tray were equally well prepared and unique. Had I been alone, and had the salad (fine, but mundane by comparison) not been anchoring the center of the tray, I might have finished every bit of injera *and* licked the tray. If only I didn't have to fly to get there! read more

I took the whole family to Demera. It was the first time for the kids and my wife and I hadn't had Ethopian food in over 10 years. It was very good. The appetizers were delicious and the main course sampler was also top notch. Nice selection of African beers. The food was spicy, but spicy flavorful versus blow your mouth off spicy. read more

Went here with some friends last night and really had a great time and great meal. We got a variety of things and it was amazing. The staff knows the menu so well which was really helpful. Their recommendations were spot on. Tried some new things like one of the shrimp options and the sweet beets and they were awesome so was the beef and chicken tibs. So so good. Even though we were full we ordered the ethiopian tiramisu which happened to be the best tiramisu we've ever eaten and two of the friends I was with were from Italy. They were floored. We demanded to meet the maker who's apparently a Mexican guy named Carlos who's been cooking since he was 9. We are planning to come back some time when he is there so we can shake his hand. haha Since I'm being totally honest here, this is not the place to go if you're in a rush because service can be a little slow. Staff is so nice but there's just not enough of them especially when the place is packed! read more

I asked my date if we were going to be sitting on the ground and eating with our hands at this place...whoops. This place is dim lights and candles classy, but yes you eat with your hands. We tried a variety of sambussas, which are likened to a samosa or even an empanada. We then got the meat and veggie messob. Everything was good, but my favorites were the ye-shrimp tibs (shrimp with honey wine jalapenos, onion) and the ye-misir wot (spicy lentils). This is a fun date night, with an adventurous eater of course, because of all the sharing. :) read more

The food was very good, once we settled on something actually available (they were out of a few things). Nice decor, pleasant waitress and decent prices. It was summer without a/c so there were gnats and ice-less water. Parking was the usual north side nightmare, even during lunch. read more

Nice environment, and they fit us in on a Friday night even though we didn't have a reservation (we sat at the bar though.) The food was pretty good, but I've had better Ethiopian elsewhere. Be careful because some of the chicken dishes have ground up bits of bone in them. Disconcerting. read more

I wasn't expecting to like Ethiopian food. Spongy, sour bread is what I heard, and it scared me. I couldn't have been more wrong. We started with the chicken/veggie appetizer which reminded me of a samosa, and was extremely flavorful and tasty. The accompanying sauce was amazing - spicy, slightly hot and smoky. Once we tasted that, we knew we'd want to order the spicy dishes, so we split the 2 veggie 2 meat combo with spicy chicken, spicy beef, cabbage and spicy lentils. It was plenty of food for 2 of us. Loved every bite of it and never noticed anything about the bread really - it was secondary to all the great flavors of the food. I gave the Ethiopian beer a try - not so great, stick with the local microbrews on the menu. read more

delicious! went there with a friend for the first time and loved it! we ordered a plate with just a little bit of everything; it was delicious. definitely recommend this place! food is really good and so is bread. read more

As with other Ethiopian restaurants, it's a communal dining experience and best with groups. We had 6 people, which was great. I'm not a big fan of the honey wine, but the African beers go great with he food. The sampler plates are a great way to taste many dishes and you're guaranteed to leave very full. I loved the flavor of the food but wished there was a spicier hot sauce. The ones they have are good but not terribly spicy. read more

The food was good, very tasty, excellent spices, however, I feel like we were completely ripped off - we had a groupon (2 groupons with value of $70 total) for pre fixe dinner, however, our bill was still $257 without ordering anything special. We were overcharged for desert which was suppose to be included, we were charged double cork fee for a Tequila bottle (without being notified ahead of time). Although our total bill ended up being $97 after groupon was applied, we paid taxes and gratuity on $257. Although the food was good, I would not come back. read more

I was not impressed. I've never had Ethiopian food previously...but I did not like the food. The bread...was very sour. Not what I expected. Good service and friendly staff that didn't judge me for not knowing how to say things on the menu! read more

I know 5 stars means "as good as it gets" and since I'm still not an expert after only my 2nd attempt at Ethiopian, take this one with a grain of salt. Demera definitely blew my first experience in DC way out of the water. I'm pretty sure I haven't been as happy as I was every bit as I was tonight. YUM! Tender meat, perfectly seasoned everything, great Groupon deal, ridiculously nice and helpful staff. We had the spinach, potato, and lentil (spicy, but still flavorful, not burn your tastebuds off) veggie options and the lamb, chicken, and beef which were soooo tender and flavorful. Going to be hard not to go back there every time I'm hungry. Definitely go with a friend or 2 so you can try lots of dishes! read more

Not an expert on Ethiopian cuisine, but really enjoyed dinner at this restaurant. This is a really charming, bright restaurant. Our group of four began with the Appertizer Messob which offered a variety of appetizers; my favorite was the beef sambussa, but there was something for everyone. We then had the family style chef's platter which had everything from beef to beets on it. I'm not a fan of the spongy pancake-like bread that you use to pick up the food because of the sour dough quality, but everyone else enjoyed it. We had cocktails to begin and then had a bottle of wine to accompany the meal. Finished with coffee and individual desserts -- the basil lime sorbet, the tiramisu, and the sambussa turnovers. Cost per person was about $50 each including tax and tip. We will definitely go back. read more

I went to Demera after work with some friends and it was empty and the waiter asked if we made reservations and we said no and he gave us a little bit of a hard time about it. However, the servers were real friendly and polite when we asked for their opinion on what to order since it was our first time trying Ethiopian food. We went with the family style meat and veggie kessob plate which was huge for 3 people and had a pitcher of honey wine. Overall, the food was okay, I thought it tasted very similar to Indian food so I wasn't blown away. The honey wine was delicious, you can't taste the alcohol. The best curries in the dish in my opinion were the red lentils, lamb, beef, and split pea. Overall, it was a one time experience. read more

I am very pleased to have had such a great first experience with Ethiopian cuisine. We had a group of 6 and ordered chef's choice served family style. Everything I tried was excellent. We had a variety of meats and vegetables with different spices and seasonings. If you haven't ever tried Ethiopian food this is the way to go! An overall great experience. read more

Nice place with really kind servers. Good food, amazing wines, reasonable prices.

Wow! Honestly so amazing and I cannot wait to go back. The service was awesome, the food was delicious and there was such a great vibe and energy in the entire restaurant. My family from Ohio was in town last weekend and my boyfriend and I took them there- the first time they've ever had this type of cuisine. I was a little nervous but really wanted to wow them and it worked! The no utensil part was a bit of an obstacle for them at first but the food was all so good that it just turned into a really fun night trying new things! Demera hit a home run! read more

My visit to Demera was my first experience with Ethiopian food and I was not disappointed! My friend and I dined here last night and it was a great meal even though neither of us really knew what Ethiopian food is. I ordered the Shai tea to start and it was very good. For a meal I ordered the Ye-wot Messob with the Shimbra Assa (ground chickpeas), Gomen (collard greens), Doro Wot (chicken), and Asa Wot (Alaskan Pollock). It came on a big platter and a side of a lot of Injera. Everything was so flavorful and satisfying. The bread was sour and fluffy, which was unexpected but delicious. I had only wished that there was more chicken in my portion of the meal and the Pollock tasted a little overly fishy. But no really big complaints. My friend and I split the turnovers and they were good but I wished there had been more filling. Overall the experience was great and I have a newfound love for Ethiopian food. The servers were attentive and even for a Wednesday night they were fairly packed. If you're questioning whether you should try Demera or not, just do it! read more

How do you decide if a restaurant served you good food? Everyone agrees ro visit again. Definitely a good place to dine well with family and friends. Ask for 'salted caramel cheesecake' as dessert. read more

i could have sworn i loved ethiopian food. until, i ate at this flop. The place is located on the coprener of my work street, yet they still called back to ask how to spell the street name. an hour and a half we waited and when the food arrived i was super disapointed. small portain bland food and over priced. heed, my warning skip this spot. read more