In a city where the number of Ethiopian restaurants might be counted on one hand, discovering a quality establishment to relish injera bread with fiery wot is a remarkable find. This article explores the history and cultural significance of Ethiopian restaurants, focusing on Abyssinia and its impact in various communities.
An array of Ethiopian dishes served on injera bread.
Abyssinia: A Taste of Ethiopia in Phoenix, Arizona
Abyssinia Restaurant and Cafe is a small Ethiopian Restaurant located in Phoenix Arizona. As you walk in the door there is the aroma of incense. The atmosphere is slightly disco-like with some colorful lights and it almost loud with energetic music.
For those familiar with Ethiopian dining, many items on the Abyssinia menu are recognizable, with injera as a staple. The spongy bread made of teff grass and barley acts as an edible canvas for colorful mounds of food, from brick-red wots to sizzling tibs.
The Abyssinia dining room is small, studiously neat, and dimly lit, with a bright orange accent wall adorned with portraits of Ethiopian royalty and sunny travel posters of smiling young women in traditional Ethiopian dress.
Read also: Ethiopian Food and Music at Yod Abyssinia
The Abyssinia menu is divided between vegetarian and meat dishes, and you can mix and match from both sides of the menu to compose a platter suitable to your liking.
Popular Dishes at Abyssinia
Here's a closer look at some of the popular dishes you might find at Abyssinia:
- Doro Wat: Ethiopian National Dish of Chicken with an egg in a berbera based stew. The chicken is cooked to perfection (moist juicy tasty) and the spicy sauce to me is the most delicious.
- Ageleel: a veggie sampler plate with 3 meats.
- Bayenetu: A collection of meat-free dishes listed simply on the menu as the veggie sampler plate. On a recent visit, the veggie selection included misir wot (red lentils), misir alicha (green lentils), shiro (a smooth chickpea curry), ye’abasha gomen (stewed mustard greens), and tikel gomen (stewed cabbage, carrots, and potatoes).
- Awaze Tibs: Tibs can refer to many types of sautéed meats, and this one features cubes of sautéed beef smothered in the restaurant’s red-hot awaze sauce, which uses a traditional red chile berbere spice rub to build flavor and complexity.
- Zil Zil Tibs: juicy nubs of beef, lightly marinated in red wine and then sautéed in lavish amounts of ghee. The beef arrives still-simmering in a clay pot, the meat soaking luxuriously in a small lake of butter and garnished with fresh rosemary and jalapeño.
- Yebeg Alicha: a mild lamb curry, is another worthy addition to your platter.
At Abyssinia, asking your server for a meat recommendation will most likely result in the decision to order awaze tibs. For the more spice-averse, there’s the excellent zil zil tibs, juicy nubs of beef, lightly marinated in red wine and then sautéed in lavish amounts of ghee.
Then there’s doro wot, a chicken stew that has come to epitomize the mystery and earthiness of Ethiopian cooking. The Abyssinia version is a thick red curry that glistens with clarified butter.
Almost everything on the platter sang with notes of onions, ginger, and red pepper, all gorgeously buttered up and so intricately spiced, you’ll wonder how someone figured out how to make veggies and legumes so beguilingly good.
Read also: Ethiopian Cuisine: Philadelphia Guide
We ordered the #3 Doro Wat ($15.99) Ethiopian National Dish of Chicken with an egg in a berbera based stew and the #9 Ageleel $19.99 described as a veggie sampler plate with 3 meats. In the middle of the plate is the doro wat. All the food is delicious. My favorite is the doro wat. The chicken is cooked to perfection (moist juicy tasty) and the spicy sauce to me is the most delicious. This one is the hardest to eat and share without silverware. My only complaint is that it is a very small portion of chicken for $15.99 The lentils are interesting. They all taste different and they all have a different texture. The 2 entree platter was more than we could eat.
You don’t get silverware here. You pull off a piece of injera bread and help yourself that way. I will start at around 5:00 on the plate. I think we got a curried cabbage with carrots, red lentils, green lentils and yellow lentils, collards, lamb stew, beef stew and a chewier beef with onions.
The food was very good and the service was warm and informative. Worth a Fork!
Navigating the Menu
Ordering at Abyssinia can be tricky if you stray from the restaurant’s popular combo platters. Trying to put together your own platter of à la carte tibs and wots might take more gumption than you’re used to displaying during the average dinner service.
Take kitfo, for instance, widely considered the unofficial national dish of Ethiopia. It’s a spicy, raw beef dish, minced and traditionally served slightly warm. But if you care to try kitfo at Abyssinia, you may have to first convince your server.
Read also: Authentic Ethiopian Cuisine
Ethiopia is famous for its coffee tradition, and Abyssinia offers an end-of-meal coffee service modeled on the country’s traditional coffee ceremony. It’s a short and sweet ritual, best enjoyed by a small party of three or four, that involves roasting the green beans until they are smoldering black nubs.
Once brewed, the coffee is brought to the table in a traditional clay pot, where it steeps for a few minutes before being poured into small porcelain cups. The final product is a potent cup of coffee, designed to be enjoyed slowly and in good company. It takes only one short sip to make you wonder why you haven’t been drinking Ethiopian coffee all along.
Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant and Bar in Denver
Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant and Bar is a delightful gem nestled in South Park Hill, offering a warm and inviting atmosphere perfect for exploring the rich flavors of Ethiopian cuisine. This family-owned establishment prides itself on serving authentic dishes that cater to various dietary preferences, including vegan options.
Why you should go:
- Experience authentic Ethiopian cuisine with flavorful dishes like doro wot (chicken stew) or misir wot (spicy lentils).
- Enjoy unique offerings such as honey wine samplers served in cool glasses.
- Try traditional injera bread including gluten-free options.
West Philly's Ethiopian Food Scene: A Historical Overview
If you live west of the Schuylkill River, you’ve (hopefully) heard of Abyssinia, the Ethiopian restaurant on 45th and Walnut streets. In the late 1970s and '80s, West Philly witnessed a diaspora of Ethiopian and modern-day Eritrean immigrants following the 1974 Ethiopian coup d’état. On Sept. 12, 1974, Ethiopian military junta overthrew the Ethiopian Empire and Emperor Haile Selassie, establishing Ethiopia as a Marxist-Leninist state.
Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.
In 1983, Red Sea, named after the Indian Ocean inlet separating Eritrea from Saudi Arabia and Yemen, became the first Eri-Ethiopian restaurant to exist in Philadelphia. Twenty years later, Ethiopian immigrant Tedla Abraham took over the restaurant with his former business partner. Abraham’s decision to move to Philly and eventually own Abyssinia did not happen by chance.
Before Alif, the Eri-Ethiopian restaurants in West Philly were very “old-school.” Alif and Doro Bet serve as fast and accessible spots to eat delicious Ethiopian food.
My Baltimore stroll only scratched the surface of the Eri-Ethiopian enclave in West Philly. I spent hours in restaurants that are much more than places to have a meal; they hold community, power, pride, and, most importantly, a culture that accepts everybody with open arms. When I had to move on to my next destination, I wasn’t quite ready for my conversations to be over.
On my way back to campus, I stopped by Clark Park to visit the bench donning Amare Solomon’s name, a testament to his legacy and the life he brought to West Philadelphia.
Doro Bet: A Modern Take on Ethiopian Cuisine
I begin my journey of West Philly Ethiopian food history at Doro Bet, one of the more recent additions to the Eri-Ethiopian enclave. Doro Bet, Amharic for “chicken house,” is one of three Ethiopian restaurants, including Alif Brew & Mini Mart and Salam Cafe, owned by sisters Hayat Ali and Mebruka Kane.
When Kane returns, we sit across from each other in the empty dining room. Customers tend to take out from Doro Bet, and it’s a Sunday morning. She immediately begins to share about her childhood in Addis Ababa.
In 2020, Kane was given an opportunity she could not pass up. “When [Ali] wants to do something, she just does it. It was the pandemic, and we were all bored. She saw a sign [on 45th and Baltimore] for a lease. She took it, and was like ‘Well, I did it. It’s now or never.’” That empty storefront on the corner became Alif, the first Ethiopian restaurant of the Ali family. Ali and Kane opened Salam Cafe in Germantown in 2021 and Doro Bet on Baltimore Avenue in 2022.
At Doro Bet, chicken lovers can choose to order a chicken sandwich, half order, or whole order with alicha (mild) or awaze (spicy) seasoning. Non-meat eaters can opt for teff flour fried mushrooms and a side of mac-n-cheese, collard greens, or fries. Kane always suggests awaze chicken with fries. “I just like potatoes,” she laughs.
“I’m not gonna lie, we were like ‘I don’t know how the Ethiopian community will feel about this,’” Kane says.
Dahlak: A Community Hub in West Philly
Just down the street, I visit Dahlak on 47th Street and Baltimore Avenue to meet the general manager, Ephream Amare Seyoum, who also happens to be Kane’s nephew. Unlike Ali and Kane, however, Seyoum’s family has always stuck to the basics.
Seyoum’s parents Neghisti Ghebrehiwot and Amare Solomon both grew up in Eritrea, immigrated to Pennsylvania, and reconnected, by chance, in West Philly in their 20s. Ghebrehiwot dropped out of college to open Dahlak-named after the Eritrean island group-with her sister in 1984.
At Dahlak, Seyoum’s parents made the perfect pair. Ghebrehiwot handled the cooking and Solomon handled the marketing. After working in catering at Penn, Solomon was intent on welcoming students into their Eritrean paradise. “He got excited, and he created a relationship with a lot of Penn students and people from the neighborhood,” Seyoum says.
Stepping into Dahlak is like entering a different dimension. Since the ‘80s, Dahlak has served as a safe space for the West Philly community. At the host’s table, I meet Meenakshi Thirumurti, a part-time student at Bryn Mawr College who despite having only worked at the restaurant for four months, has found solace in Dahlak’s inviting atmosphere.
Dahlak is not your average bar and restaurant, offering evening plans for most days of the week. “Dahlak is one of those places that’s just this community hub,” says Thirumurti.
In 2005, everything changed for Seyoum, his family, and their beloved restaurant. During his last year of high school, his father Solomon passed away. As the eldest of three, he felt an obligation to take over the family business. With the help of his mother and his uncle Berekep Solomon, Seyoum expanded the space and invested in the future of Dahlak.
Today, Seyoum’s mother is still very involved at Dahlak and in “making sure that people get an idea of what an authentic version of [Ethiopian] food is like.” In addition to Ghebrehiwot’s classic dishes, Dahlak serves up Eri-Ethiopian spins on American dishes like their family down the street.
Despite their differences in language and politics, Eritrean and Ethiopian culture are virtually the same. Though Eritrean people were considered to be Ethiopian 30 years ago, Seyoum shares his experience as an Eritrean who manages an Ethiopian restaurant.
“It’s nice for us to try to show the distinction,” he says. “We want to make people aware of the fact that Eritrea is an independent country. Eritrea achieved its independence in 1991, but Seyoum promises that there’s “no beef” between Eritreans and Ethiopians, especially on Baltimore Avenue.
“We still have family that are considered Ethiopian,” he says.
Queen of Sheba: A Place Where People Come Together
In between Alif and Dahlak lies Queen of Sheba, named after the mysterious biblical monarch. Unlike Doro Bet and Dahlak, Queen of Sheba lacks natural light. It is much more reminiscent of your average American sports bar. Queen of Sheba has lived in West Philly for decades.
Andy Kissinger is out front smoking a cigarette, hunched over in a plastic foldable chair. Like my conversation with Kane, I pull over a chair to sit across from Kissinger. When I ask him how long he’s worked at Queen of Sheba, he responds, “I don’t work here. I would never work here.”
He pauses. When I ask him to elaborate, he says, “This is a place where people come together. People from all stripes, people from all colors, people from all creeds. Queen of Sheba has been Kissinger’s place of worship since 2008, a chaotic time for the international economy … and Berks County-bred food service workers.
Kissinger shares that he grew up Pennsylvania Dutch and is the “first man in [his] family in over 250 years who speaks English as the first language.” While he’s worked at bars and restaurants around Greater Philadelphia, Queen of Sheba remains a constant.
