Ghenet

284 Mulberry St.
New York, NY 10012 (btw Prince & Houston)
212.343.1888
website

Quick note. You have to get used to eating with fingers (something I'm still working on...). Otherwise there's sour pita thing that you can use to scoop up food. Supposedly you can request utencils but I didn't want to seem like the only one who's so helpless with finger food. I don't like saucy stuff on my hands (except maybe bbq sauce when eating hot wings and BBQ?)

Dishes
//Kitfo: beef tartar in the Ethiopian style. Quite spicy and tasty actually.
//Lamb: (name?) Kind of pepper steak style (but with lamb pieces). This one isn't as saucy so if I had ordered it I would not have been so self-concious about messy hands.
//Ghenet Combo: I ordered this one with Siga Wett (beef) and 2 veggie dishes (lentils, spicy beans). The combo came out with more sides, though. Maybe because it's a combo I also got hummus and another type of bean. Hey, for trying out different varieties the combo is worth it.

Drink
//honey wine: well, maybe I'm just used to beer these days. This was good but a bit on the sweet side (well it is honey, after all.)

Decor/Service
//The walk toward this place was...fun. Maybe scaffolding and lack of other stores/businesses nearby was just creating a weird vibe. Close enough to SOHO stores so I figure the shoppers may well find themselves going here. The service was slow. The food took longer than expected and the check took more than half an hour. Usually people in nyc are rushing you out the door but this place really didn't want you to leave (this could be good if you have no plans after dinner I suppose. just hang out for the whole night).

Other Rants
//Haven't tried too many new restaurants that I'd list as a fav lately, so this is a nice discovery/recommendation. Definitely a group place so you could order different items and try them all. I was quite full after they refilled our sour pita once or twice. The main entree portions didn't look that big but apparently they were enough. I'd say probably 3.5 stars? I still haven't figured out what kind of rating scale I want to use. Even if a restaurant gets 5 stars in my book I can't necessarily return to it immediately (need a bit of time to miss the food enough to go again).

Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant

Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant # 2
1100 Maryland Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21201
Tel: 410-385-0318

website

We started with Sambusa with Veggie. Then we had a Dukem combo (forgot which one) and added a Doro Wot (spicy chicken).

The real winner of the night was the drink though. Below info copied from website's menu.

Ethiopian Honey Wine - T'ej
The national drink of Ethiopia is T'ej, a golden sweet honey-wine. T'ej is a mead that is indigenous to Ethiopia with roots going back to the 4th century.

Apparently DC is known for Ethiopian food. This restaurant also has a site in DC. I like eating out of a communal center and trying a bit of everything. Fun for adventurous types.