11 of us had an excellent Ethiopian family style dinner at hareg and left full and happy…read more Quickly to the pros and cons Pros 1.Injera : soft fluffy fermented delicious injera . One of the best versions I have had in Ottawa 2. The platter , I prefer beef , chicken and goat in that order 3. Parking : they are towards the northern end of banh st hence there is a fair chance to find parking 4. The Ethiopian experience : the shop tries to preserve the authentic Ethiopian experience and they succeeds to an extent 5. Service : efficient and fast Can be improved 1. The coffee ceremony : not so much of a ceremony , they do use the traditional utensils and methods but it's more rustic than ceremonial 2. No dessert : what ?????

This place is a cute little business on bank street. I came with a friend and we both got the…read morevegetarian combo. The prices are really reasonable! It kind of took a long time for the food to come out, and then when people came in after use their food came out what felt like right away, which was a little confusing. Anyway, the food was great! So flavourful-- I reason why I live Ethiopian food so dang much! We asked for more injera and scraped our plates clean! I have been craving Ethiopian for a long time and I'm so glad I could try it in ottawa. 7/10

Highly recommend this restaurant!!! Every single item we tried was delicious unique with different…read moretextures and flavors. Family friendly and staff is happy to explain dishes to people new to Ethiopian cuisine. I definitely recommend getting a platter so you can try more than one thing. Each person can have an individual plate or you can share a large platter to eat communally (our group of 7 asked to eat together and we were given two large platters). We just said we wanted to try a variety of meat and vegetarian dishes and asked to add on the special stewed lamb that isn't usually included on the Habesha Platter. It was the best lamb I've ever had and my daughter still talks about it months later! I don't know the name but it was super tender small cubes of lamb meat stewed in a very spicy red sauce. Even as a meat lover, many of the vegetarian dishes like the cabbage, green beans, and yellow split peas were among my favorite bites of the meal. We will definitely go back next time we're anywhere near Ottawa.

Right now, I think this is the best Ethiopian option in the city…read moreIt has a homey, casual feel to it and I keep coming back This is the restaurant I pick for first-timers to Ethiopian food Its an easy go - to pick for me generally

My husband and I had lunch at Safia Restaurant recently and overall we loved it!…read more My husband was going to a Hobby Show nearby, so we were in the area. We had been to the restaurant at this location when it was called Far Jano, and I found out from the staff at Safia that the owner of Far Jano sold her business 2 years ago and they believe she went back to Somalia. So Safia took over the place. They also sell Somali food. We got a few dishes to share. We got the Liver with Anjeero ($14), which comes with Somali Ginger Milk Tea. We also got the beef and chicken mixed suquaar plate with rice ($17). The liver dish is called "Beer." It comes with your choice of malawah, chapati or anjeero. Since I've already had the 2 former breads, I really wanted to try the anjeero. The man taking my order advised me it's a bit sour. I had heard it's similar to Ethiopian injera, which I like, so I told him I was good with that. The anjeero was delicious! It's less sour than injera. The best I can describe it as is if a crepe, a crumpet and some sour dough starter got together and had a magical baby, it would be anjeero, lol. I dream of anjeero now. I need more anjeero! Lol. The Somali Ginger Milk Tea is also so good. It was a bit too sweet for my tastes, but I still enjoyed it. It's creamy and full of ginger flavour. I would get this again. The liver was also good, but too oily for my tastes. It's fried with lots of onions, tomatoes, and some bell peppers. I would love it if they used less oil. The spices were amazing though. It masked the "liver flavour" well. I don't really like the taste of liver, but I eat it to boost my iron levels, so I like it when it's prepared in a way that it doesn't really taste like liver, haha. The beef and chicken suquaar with rice was also a hit. The chicken is slightly spicy, while the the beef is not spicy at all. The chicken was so tasty. It was moist and tender and full of flavour. The beef was also full of flavour, but it was tougher and not as tender, but still good. The rice was soft and fluffy and rich with warm aromatic spices. There were lots of onions in this dish, but also some peas and bell peppers. This dish came with a side salad. The salad was really boring with just romaine lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, but the vegetables were fresh. It came with a ranch dressing on the side which I did not use. We also got 2 sauces. A red one which was mild and a brown one which was spicer, but I would describe as mild-medium. Since I dislike ranch dressing, I actually used the red sauce on the salad. Service was really friendly and welcoming. The restaurant is right next to a mosque and it appeared that all customers other than us were members of the mosque. So even though we obviously stuck out, the staff did not make us feel out of place at all. The dining area inside is small, but they have this nice more private area where you need to remove your shoes to enter and it's furnished nicely and is somewhat separated from the rest of the restaurant. There's also 2 tables outside, which is where we ate. It's covered with an awning and is well shaded, which is great when it's hot and sunny out, like it was on the day of our visit. Lots of free parking in the plaza. The parking lot is also shared with the mosque. It's a pity that this place is far from me and is in an area that I no longer frequent. Although they have another location on Cobden out near the Ikea, which is not close to me either, but a bit more convenient. I'll have to give that location a try sometime ;)

The food is a must try ! The samosas are delicious , I bought them 2 days in a row!…read moreGood food and great service ! Prices are good too ! Will definitely recommended

If you're craving a hole in the way dining experience of delicious Ethiopian cuisine, D'Afrique is…read morethe place to be! The highlight of the evening was definitely the lamb--succulent, flavorful, and a definite 10/10. The mixed platter we chose was perfect for sampling a variety of dishes. It included a delightful assortment of vegetarian options alongside two chicken dishes and a savory beef dish. Each item was bursting with unique flavors and perfectly complemented the injera bread. We were able to ask for medium spiciness and some extra spice on the side so we weren't overwhelmed. The service was friendly and attentive - our waitress was able to give us great recommendations - adding to the overall enjoyable dining experience. The easy to miss entrance leads you upstairs to a nice dining area with table cloths but comfortable ambiance. Great for your dairy free and pork free friends plus there are gluten free options.

I'm no Ethiopian food conesour, but the food here was 5 stars - absolutly delish and a very…read moredifferent expirience; I love that we get to eat with our hands! We ordered the sharing platter for two and were absoultly stuffed by the end - honestly we could not even finish the whole thing. For the food, I would go back anytime! So why 4 stars? Well, the restaurant could use a little love (maybe a lot of love) - specifically the bathrooms: not clean (really, really not clean), missing toilet paper, the stalls have no locks...not a pleasant expirience at all. The main area of the restaurant has a lot of potnetial but could also use a little attention as well. That said, the gentleman serving us (I'm guessing the owner) was lovely, attentive, and very happy to see us enjoyig the food so much. If we could just imporve the environment, this would be 5 stars for me!

I love Ethiopian food, but admittedly don't know the names of all the different curries, except for…read moreDoro Watt which is the curry with spicy chicken legs and boiled eggs, and happens to be my favourite, lol. This location of D'Afrique Restaurant & Bar is their second location. Their first location is on Laurier Ave. This location has been many restaurants in the past. It was a Peruvian restaurant called Petit Peru and then it was a Mexican restaurant called Los Tacos de Mauro, both of which were excellent, and I'm happy to report that D'Afrique Restaurant keeps the trend going, as it was also excellent. I saw their big sandwich board by their entrance advertising a Special of the Day for $13.99 which consisted of chicken, beef, lamb and vegetable curries with injera and thought this would be a great way to try out a variety of their products. So I got it for takeout. Admittedly, the takeout presentation is not as aesthetically pleasing as the dine-in version, but the taste was good. It came with my favourite Doro Watt, as well as a beef curry, a lamb curry, and some vegetable curries (lentil, cabbage, split peas, and I think ground chickpeas curries). The injera was soft and tasty. The chicken leg in the Doro Watt was so tender and fall off the bone and had a good spicy kick to it. The beef was also tasty, but not as tender. The lamb portion was small and be warned that it's bone-in, but it was good and not too gamey. The vegetable curries were good too. Everything was really flavourful and fragrant. Service was friendly. I did hear the microwave go off a few times in the kitchen though. So I suspect some of the items are reheated when ordered. Also the takeout container was styrofoam, which I don't like. I really hope they didn't microwave anything in styrofoam! Anyway, use of styrofoam and microwave were the only two negatives. I would return for the Special of the Day again. I also want to try the samosas. The restaurant is up a steep flight of stairs on the second floor of the building. The space was at one time a discotheque. It's quite pretty inside and no longer looks like a night club, lol. Street parking only.

They are awfully nice. All smiles! The food is average. I thought the Injarra was rubbery. I wish…read morethey would pay more attention to cleanliness too. The staff was watching a soccer match when I arrived and were very enthusiastic about one of the teams. The tables and floor were dirty from the night before. A little more effort on their part could make this restaurant a standout in the area.

Food wise, it's cheap and large portion. But there's little variety. Everything is big bread with…read moredifferent variations of toppings. For mine, it was soggy where the toppings were placed because of the olive oil. Service was close to non-existent. They forgot my Coke until I reminded them. It also took time for the food to be ready or to get the bill. I only saw one star, so I assume he's the wait staff, the chef and the cashier.

Bad experience. Dirty bathrooms, dirty location, loud tv, couldn't eat the food. Bad experience.read more

Horrible. Not good service at all…read more Delina worst manager ever. two times she lied about wrong items that she sent. they never apologize for their mistakes.