Denver is a great city to enjoy some authentic Ethiopian cuisine, as the Mile High is home to approximately 30,000 people hailing from the African nation. Among the many Ethiopian eateries in the area, Nile Ethiopian Restaurant stands out as a long-time favorite.
A typical Ethiopian food spread featuring various stews and injera.
A Culinary Journey: From East Colfax to Havana Street
Back when Ethiopian eateries started popping up on East Colfax Avenue, these spots were often serving an ignorant, albeit curious, crowd. Like the Queen of Sheba, the Ethiopian Restaurant (yes, that is the name) is a small affair - a few people carefully prepare the food with the pacing of a home kitchen.
Over a decade ago, former Westword food editor Mark Antonation began his food-writing career by eating his way up Federal Boulevard. The four-plus-mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. Eat at enough restaurants along Aurora’s Havana Street and a few patterns start to emerge.
Nile has proven a perennial favorite of the Denver metro area for nearly twenty years. But what many don’t know is that the restaurant changed hands about two years ago.
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Patient diners will be rewarded, however, with rich, slow-cooked flavors, like the lamb tibs awaze, a robust stew of fried lamb cubes simmered in a spicy sauce infused with a hint of rosemary. If trying a great deal of dishes all at once is your style, the Nile is the place.
The Nile combination ($14.99) bills itself as a sampling of all the items on the menu - a fairly audacious claim considering the thirty-nine listed dishes. The platter arrived sporting 21 different delicacies - each four to five bites strong. Served with injera, spicy mustard, hot sauce and chili powder the meal can be enjoyed as hot as you desire.
Upon visiting, it became clear that this lively, well-lit eatery caters to the local Ethiopian community, large parties of which you’ll often find squeezed into long tables with plenty of food and drink. Accordingly, the pace of service here tends to be quite relaxed, so don’t expect to get in and out within an hour.
Nile Ethiopian Restaurant has been around for six and a half years, which is about six years longer than any other Ethiopian restaurants lasted in the area.
The Nile Experience: Food, Culture, and Community
“The moment you order, we start cooking,” Haile says. “It’s not like other food you can warm up and serve. It takes a little longer compared to other places, but it’s worth it."
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The walls feature framed photos of Ethiopian landmarks and monuments. One corner of the space is reserved in the style of mesob wicker tables, chairs and cushions, with traditional serving and cooking utensils on the walls. Overall, it’s a place you’ll find yourself lingering in to enjoy both the food and the people. It’s not designed to turn tables quickly.
“Everything here we cook from scratch and we serve with love,” says Haile, who declines to highlight a specific best seller or special to promote. “My mom taught us, all of us. It’s her legacy,” Haile says. “She loved cooking, and she taught us when I was maybe six years old. It became my passion. That’s immediately obvious to anyone fortunate enough to meet her.
Haile immigrated to the United States in 2004, working as a mom, a translator, and in real estate.
Fantastic food, great atmosphere, and kind, sincere service. Had a chance to meet the owners and they were incredibly kind. I love this place and have been going for years. Best Ethiopian food in town in my opinion.
It's been remodeled in the last year and the design is beautiful. This was my first time trying Ethiopian food. They explained all the food and culture to me, which was amazing and so informational. We tried veggie combo and beef tibs and they were delicious!! Dare I say, the best restaurant in Denver.
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The apparent differences as to how the meal is consumed can be daunting for the uninitiated. When eaten in the traditional fashion, a meal is consumed not with silverware, but with the delicious foundation of the food at large, injera bread.
How to eat Ethiopian Food (with one hand) - Edible Education - KING 5 Evening
In lieu of using silverware, the idea is to tear a piece of bread and use it to scoop up the various family-style dishes you’ve ordered. This is no mere gimmick meant to attract diners seeking an “exotic” experience. The spongy texture of the injera is ideal for absorbing the flavorful sauces and stews. The sourness of the fermented bread offers a welcome contrast to the richly spiced foods.
Using injera to scoop up Ethiopian dishes.
That means no utensils. None. They’re just not provided. Instead, you eat the saucy wats and other delicacies with your hands. Actually, you might consider the injera, the spongy bread made with teff, to be a utensil. Grab a piece of injera and pinch some wat with it and bring it to your mouth.
When the meal is ready, the proprietor will bring out a platter lined with injera, accompanied by another tray topped with each tantalizing item in its own dish. He then ceremoniously pours each stew onto the plate with a method and grace that indicate a great deal of appreciation for the history and cultural significance of the cuisine.
Menu Highlights: From Tibs to Coffee Ceremony
As for what you’re scooping up with this spongy bread, look for a mix of vegetables, stews and meats. Of the meat-focused fare, a few highlights include the lamb derek tibs, which are cubed pieces of lamb fried almost like chicharróns and sauteed with onions, tomatoes and peppers. There are also several types of wot (basically stews), such as a chicken wot marinated in lemon, sauteed in butter, then stewed with a deeply flavored red pepper sauce. And finally, don’t shy away from the kitfo, an Ethiopian steak tartare.
Injera is spongy sourdough-like flatbread that lines the bottom of the plate on which the meal is presented, with more rolled up and served on the side. Diners tear off pieces to scoop up the various meat and vegetable stews served side by side in one massive and enticing spread. The process is simple, satisfying and delicious.
The restaurants all share a fair amount of traditional menu items, each offering platters that allow guests to sample a variety of dishes at once. Berbere, turmeric and a wide array of other spices contribute to making the meal a filling and flavorful feast for meat eaters and vegetarians alike.
The entrees are served on large round platters with a big piece of injera splayed out on it, looking sort of like a super-sized pancake. My guest and I started with an order of sambusa, little triangular pastries similar to the Indian samosa. For our entree we ordered both a beef and a lamb wat (wat is the term for the stews that make the base of Ethiopian cuisine). They looked similar spread across the injera platform, but they had distinctively different tastes. I like them both, but I think I preferred the lamb a bit more. The meat was super tender, and the sauce was just a bit spicy, an indication of the berbere inside.
Whether your dining choices lean more towards vegan or carnivorous options, a can’t-miss way to end the meal is with the traditional coffee ceremony, or buna. The coffee beans are roasted in a pot in the restaurant and brought to your table so you can breathe in the aroma (a process that often sets off the fire alarm). Traditionally, the coffee is served in three rounds, and there’s certainly enough brewed for each table to take your time and enjoy the almost espresso-like richness of the coffee.
All of this was just leading up to the coffee ceremony that is a specialty of Nile, performed by owner Abeba Gonesse. Coffee was “invented” in Ethiopia, not Colombia, as some people would want you to think (I’m talking to you, Juan Valdez!). Sitting on a platform at the front of the restaurant, Gonesse roasts the coffee beans in a small pan, shaking it to keep the beans from burning. The beans are then taken to the back for grinding and brewing, and the rich, dark liquid is served by Gonesse from a special wooden stand.
Menu Examples from Other Ethiopian Restaurants in Denver:
| Restaurant | Dish | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Queen of Sheba | Meat Combo for Two | Seasoned chicken, key yesiga wot (stewed beef), keye tibbs (beef shish kabob), yatakelt wot (cabbage, potato, carrot stew), and miser wot (spicy red lentils). |
| The Ethiopian Restaurant | Vegetarian Special | Miser wot, yater alicha (yellow split peas), and tekel gomen (collard greens). |
| The Ethiopian Restaurant | Special Tibs | Beef sautéed with onions, jalapeños, and spiced butter. |
| Abyssinia | Ayib bemitmita | House-made cottage cheese mixed with chili powder and clarified butter, served with injera. |
| Axum | Gored Gored | Tender cubed beef with spicy awaze sauce, cardamom, red wine, and herbal butter. |
A Lasting Impression
I had not been back to Nile since it had first opened. Since that time, the restaurant space has doubled. The walls are a sunburn orange and hold various gewgaws of African culture. Tables are covered with white cloths and topped with a sheet of glass. For more authentic dining, a few traditional dining tables, or mesobs, woven baskets with stools for seating.
For many, this is no secret. Sometimes those diners are fellow expats searching for a little slice of home in a foreign land. Others are their second-generation children seeking a connection to their ancestral cuisine.
I’m so glad that Nile has lasted and thrived. It’s a restaurant I recommend often to visitors confined to the International Drive area. It’s an exotic and welcome respite from the garish and soulless chains. I’m also happy to recommend it to locals. Nile is a great example of the diversity of Central Florida’s dining scene. If you haven’t been, you really must go.
