Super tasty food, fast service, friendly staff, very reasonable pricing…read more This has become a regular for my wife and myself. We eat here at least three times a month. We prefer to go on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when the crowds are thinner. But don't hesitate for a Friday or Saturday night if we feel like eating their great food. The fare and service is always top notch whether it's hopping or sparse. We almost always get the vegan deluxe. If we feel like some meat, we add another dish and they are all good. I also enjoy their Ethiopian beer, Habesha Cold Gold. It is light, crisp, and refreshing with a clean finish. It has a mild malt sweetness up front, very light bitterness, just enough to balance and is smooth and clean with no heavy aftertaste The Vegan Deluxe is a combination plate that includes everything from a wonderful salad with fresh jalapeños and tomatoes to a wonderful assortment of lentils spiced in different way, also cabbage & carrots, and greens. I always feel good after our meals because the food is so fresh and beautifully done. Our pocketbook is grateful, too. My wife and I can leave with a bill of about $30 including food, a beer and tip. Not many places in Bethesda you can do that. The staff always smile and are helpful whether providing standard service or troubleshooting a challenge. The ambience is not upscale, but it's clean, beautiful, and filled with good people, whether it's the customers who are always having a good time, or the manager, who makes the rounds to ensure everything is going well.

If I could give 10 stars I would. My boyfriend and I took a quick birthday trip to DC from NYC…read more This was a last minute dinner plan after we weren't sure how the rest of the day would look post bottomless brunch. WOWOWOWOW. small space so it gets packed quick. We didn't wait longer than 10 minutes to be seated. Our servers were so delightful and happy. My most pleasant surprise here has been the service !! They gave us great recommendations and even gave us a taste of all four honey wines they had to offer. We went with the house. YOU SHOULD GET THE HOUSE HONEY WINE !!!!!!! Everything we had was absolutely amazing. My vegan bestie got her veggie platter and my boyfriend and I split the beef tibs and were so so full and satisfied. We have been waiting for the opportunity to go back. This was our last restaurant stop during that trip, and it will be the first stop for our next. They play no games here !!!! Serious food, serious flavor, serious service!!!!!! We highly recommend!!!!!

Best date spot I've been to in awhile. Veggie plate 2 with fish was excellent- Delicious,…read moreaffordable, vibrant, this is what all restaurants should strive for. Yes, the fish has bones, that's flavor. I had leftovers with my date and I eat a ton. Service was kind and excellent with water refills. Can't say enough good things about Ethiopic! May they forever be a neighborhood staple

Ethiopic was a solid experience, but did not quite stand out in a city with so many strong…read moreEthiopian options. The vegetable sampler had a decent flavor profile, and I enjoyed the beef tibs the most out of what we ordered. The fried tilapia was fine, but nothing particularly memorable. If you are someone who has Ethiopian food occasionally, I would probably recommend exploring some of the other spots in DC where the portions feel more generous and the flavors hit a bit harder. Service can also be a bit inconsistent, which matched some of the earlier reviews I had seen. We had ordered drinks that were forgotten until we followed up. Overall, not a bad experience, just one that blends into a very competitive dining scene.

We saw a few Ethiopian restaurants in DC and took a shot on Shewa. It's quite a ways from downtown…read moreand when we arrived, it definitely seemed like a rougher part of town. We arrived at 10:10 and the doors were locked. Called the restaurant and an employee said that they'd be open in a few minutes. A few minutes later, a man and an older woman said hi to us and went into a side door. Turns out that was the owner and his mom (the chef). They light incense in the restaurant and the odor is quite strong. I remember on Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsey yelling at someone for having scented candles because it messes with how the food tastes. Luckily, the food had enough flavor to overcome the incense. We ordered two meat combos and asked for them to give us some variety since I had never tried Ethiopian food before. The dishes came out with 16 items, with only one repeat. I can't really tell you what I ate since there were so many items, but I did really like the chicken and lamb. Very flavorful and just a fun experience from eating with our hands and the variety of options. One combo can easily feed two people. For our two adults and two kids, we had enough for leftovers. Honey wine was not my favorite thing, but the rest of the dining experience was very memorable. We were the only customers, so the owner came out and chatted with us for a while. Very friendly.

The owner was super friendly. We ordered two deluxe meat combos and a glass of their homemade honey…read morewine. He gave us sambosas on the house. I loved the spicy meat dishes the most. I had no idea what I was eating but it was all so fun and yummy. The meat stews with jalapeños in them were my favorites. My husband liked the chicken dishes the most. My kids really enjoyed the sambosas and the non spicy dishes. The honey wine was refreshing and interesting, not too sweet and only a hint of honey taste. Overall it was such a fun experience for our family of 4. We ended up with a lot of leftovers.

Food was great but service was terrible. The server ignored me to serve other diners.read more

Went a little out of the way on our tour of the monuments to come here and it was well worth it! I…read morehaven't had much (if any) Ethiopian food and this was an amazing first entry. We got a family platter so we could try a bunch. It said it serves two but between four hungry people, we were actually pleasantly filled by the end. The platter was delicious, I would eat everything on there again. I couldn't tell you exactly what everything is, but the cooked vegetables were one of my favs and the injera was so light and delicious. The shop itself was very cute and we got our food pretty quick!

Great vegan food. Lentils were excellent…read more Great friendly service. I'll definitely go back

I think it's a decent choice for Ethiopian food in the area, but not my favorite. The restaurant is…read moremore like a night lounge, but that is because they do have hookah and are open late. The food comes out slow and the servers are nice. We got the 6 item veggie plate and mushroom tibs. I thought the lentils and salad were great. The string beans, shiro, and collard greens were cooked well but a bit bland. I also was not the impressed with the mushroom tibs, they were not seasoned but cooked well with the rosemary. The spiced tea was okay. The injera tasted authentic.

Amazing Ethiopian food! Glad I made it even with all the snow everywhere…read more Service is very friendly. Ordered the meat platter, large serving size with many different meat dishes. Recommended to try them all.

This is a great local Ethiopian spot in the heart of H Street. I was surprised to see an empty…read morerestaurant when I first walked in. However, the owner was present and she gave us a ton of recommendations on what to order. I ended up ordering the meat special with the veggie platter. While waiting for our food, I observed the interior... there's an emphasis on Hungarian and Australian landscape videos (which I personally found pretty cool). I will also say this place was very clean. After 10 minutes of waiting, the platter came out. Everything tasted fresh and it was the perfect amount of food. It was also not that expensive relative to other Ethiopian places in the neighborhood. Overall, I will definitely come back again and would encourage everyone to check this place out.

This place was great. It was my first time to eat Ethiopian cuisine. My friend and I shared a…read moredinner for two. The food took a while to arrive to the table but it was very good. We also tried an Ethiopian lager which was good. The portion was large for two. The server was efficient and friendly. Four stars only because there were some gnats flying around and the bathroom was kind of dirty. Otherwise Highly recommend for the food.

I can't help but love this place. Last night I wandered in alone and had the combination platter…read morefrom one, as I've always gotten. It never changes. It's absolutely fantastic, it's very good pricing, and everyone is always so very kind. They make the food with such care, it always comes out tender and warm and delicious. The lounge upstairs is a great place to hang out. This is above, by far, the best Ethiopian restaurant in town.

I had not had the privilege of trying Ethiopian Cuisine before this experience. Gursha was…read moreabsolutely phenomenal. The yellow lentils were one of the best things I have ever had on my tastebuds. The tomatoes were super great. I am pescatarian but we got chicken too and it was super shareable. There was plenty of injera. It was one man working the whole place, he made sure we had a charming visit. Great vibe. I would love to bring my friends back. Thank you so much.

I've been on an Ethiopian kick and have been trying different spots in the area. This really…read moredidn't hit the spot for me. I ordered the seven veggie combo and found it to be extremely small for the price. I also ordered a side of ayob, but it was forgotten. I also didn't order beets as one of my seven (not a fan), and somehow ended up with what looked like two servings of beets--my guess is they replaced it for the cabbage. It was a bit of a letdown to just not eat a large portion of the meal because I was given food I didn't order and didn't want to eat--it's not pictured, but there was a larger portion of beets below the collar greens and green beans. Very disappointing. Also, it took me a while to realize the kale was actually collard greens. I'm used to it being cooked a bit more and having a smoother bite. Everything else (except for the shiro, collards, and beets) was about a two or three tablespoons worth of food. It was very odd as typically ordering a larger vegetarian platter would leave you with leftovers for a few meals. I'm glad I ordered an extra piece of injera. Maybe it's a different experience going in, but I would not venture in delivery again given their replacement with something I don't eat.

Mimi's food is absolutely amazing! The homemade, delicious, healthy food is always incredible-…read moretruly unique and amazing! The flavors and spices are so tasty ... her food is truly mouth watering! She and her team are such lovely special people. It is always so special to see them and to eat her delicious food!

3.25 stars. From a pure flavor standpoint, Meski is actually quite good. Unfortunately, the Meski…read moreexperience is balanced out by a number of flaws. Foe example, while the people who work at Meski are super friendly, the service is painstakingly slow. Furthermore, they were out of 1/2 their veggie menu, and the brown rice they advertised as an alternative to injera bread was unavailable. From a purely vegetarian standpoint, the selection was rather limited. Also, they don't give you numbers so you really need to pay attention to your order. The whole experience is really unsettling, and it's confusing enough that I almost parted with someone else's order multiple times. To the people who are saying this is a healthy experience, you have got to be kidding me. Sure, the board contains some vegetarian options, but all of the items I ordered were absolutely drenched in either oil (cabbage, spicy lentils) or salad dressing (salad). At least one item was heavily salted (spicy lentils). I get that they provide a salad option and a brown rice option, but let's not get carried away here and pretend this is super healthy. In fact, I would say it's borderline unhealthy, but at least you are getting a solid amount of vegetarian food. Basically, if you are vegetarian for religious/spiritual reasons, this is definitely a good truck to visit. If you are vegetarian for health reasons, not so much. Overall, I like their food, but I feel some of the positive reviews are the result of being misled that the customer is eating healthy food. Having said that, if they fix their service issues, this would likely be a 4 star review.

The best chai latte in the DMV! The owner is really friendly and always a smile. Great for getting…read morea chai and go for a walk by the Mall or around DC. Highly recommend!

This is a fun place in a book store to enjoy Ethiopian food and coffee. People seem to love the…read morecoffee. I had a veggie platter- it was delicious and fresh. Plenty of well-cooked veggies and injera for a good price. And the people who work here are very nice!