Ras Dashen

Instead of going to my usual Ethiopian standby Assimba, a friend and I recently decided to branch out a little and try another of the many Ethiopian restaurants on Cherry between 23rd and MLK (I have also reviewed Meskel in the same stretch). Our basis for choosing was more or less gut feeling and curb appeal, which is pretty danged low for almost all of them. When we spotted Ras Dashen, we instantly chose it due to the simple fact that there were no bars on the windows.

And it was a good choice! Though not apparent from the outside, the inside of Ras Dashen was spacious, clean, light and modern. The restaurant smelled wonderful and there were reed curtains over the floor to ceiling windows that let in lovely light but blocked out the street.

We ordered beers, a Harrar and a Hakim Stout, which is my definite new favorite. It was nutty and flavorful without being too bitter. It made the regular Harrar, my usual choice, taste pretty lame.
For dinner we split a veggie combo, which was made with Canola Oil instead of the oft used (and non-vegan) Niter Kibeh. Everything on the combo was delicious: two kinds of lentils, okra, green beans, salad, potatoes, greens and plenty of injera. We added on a side order of Lab, the mild Ethiopian cheese, and we both waddled out of there beyond satisfied.


I might have a new favorite on Cherry Street!

Tagla

The lovely T of Premium-T (and former south-end neighbor) recently suggested a meal at Tagla, AKA the Ethiopian restaurant across from the Walgreens, next door to the tattoo parlor, at the somewhat uninspiring intersection of Genesee and Rainier. Today I had the treat of lunch out with my mother, and we gave it a try.

Something that I love about Ethiopian restaurants, generally speaking, is that they seem to often be family run. Today Tagla was staffed by an older man who is the owner, a beautiful matriarch who was our waitress and also the cook, and a younger man busy working on something at a table in the corner. They were all gracious hosts and treated us like guests.
We split the vegetarian combo, which was $12 and more food than we could finish, and it came with the unexpected delight of 8 different items. There were multiple types of lentils, veggies, curries, salads etc. The greens were especially delicious, and all of the dishes had a variety of spices and flavors that were really fantastic. I appreciated that a couple of the dishes actually had a little heat to them as well. Tagla may well provide my favorite Ethiopian restaurant veggie combo yet.

Something exciting for the vegans is that Tagla's default is to use oil in their vegetarian dishes, and butter in their meat dishes, so it should be easy to get a satisfying vegan meal here.

The location leaves a bit to be desired, but they have been in business for many years so something must be working.

Awash

Had lunch today at Awash, an Eritrean/Ethiopian restaurant across the street from Empire Espresso in Columbia City. The meal was tasty and reasonably priced, and I don't really understand why my dining companion and I were the only patrons in the place. We split the veggie combo, and it came with an additional plate heaped with injera that made us both waddle full.

The veggie platter came with three different types of lentils, curried potatoes, greens, okra and the typical sort of Ethiopian restaurant Romain lettuce salad with the lemon salt dressing I love so much.

The food was good... lots of variety and flavor and not too salty. Again, I wonder, where was everybody?

As the only lunch patrons we were lavished individual service, and were brought a personal space heater for our table region because it was a particularly cold day.

I asked the nice older waitress about the situation with the use of niter kebbeh (clarified butter), and she said that they do indeed (unfortunately for the vegans) use it.

Assimba

Assimba is another of the Ethiopian restaurants on the "Little Ethiopia" stretch on East Cherry Street in the Central District.

Don't be mislead by the window bars: inside the restaurant it is bright and clean and homey

Met some friends who live nearby for dinner, and we started with a vegetarian platter. It came with two types of what first seemed to be lentils/split peas (but were described by the waitress as split garbanzo beans), collard greens, a green salad and a pile of curried cabbage and potatoes. In addition to this, we were served two heaping plates of loosely folded warm injera.

Rollin' up the sleeves!

The food was really good, and was notably not-too-salty. When asked, I couldn't pinpoint either a favorite or a least favorite dish, which means to me that it was all tasty. It was delicious without being too spicy, but there was a shaker of a delectable salty spice on the table that one could shake on to add more salt or heat.

Our first platter wasn't quite enough food to fill us all, so we ordered an entree of garbanzo bean paste, which came out of the kitchen piping hot. The waitress, who was really sweet, ladled it onto the injera and it looked like glossy peanut sauce.

I would definitely go back to Assimba. I am so happy to have found a good Ethiopian restaurant that doesn't overkill with the salt. Even their injera, which was delightfully sour, was reasonably salted.

In honor of one of the ultimate herbivores, one dining companion wore this horse-tooth clip-on man-earring, made by an artist friend from the remains of one of his beloved horses.

As usual with Ethiopian food, it was really easy to eat here as a vegetarian. A large part of the menu is devoted to vegetables and legumes, and it is easy to get a well balanced meal without meat.

Revision regarding vegan food: I just received a comment from The Gastrognome, and she points out something that I didn't know about Ethiopian food, which is that it is often made with nitter kibe, a clarified butter. She also mentions that Saba will cook vegetarian items with olive oil if you request that they do so. Good info!

Assimba Ethiopian Cuisine
(206) 322-1019

2722 E Cherry St
Seattle, WA 98122

Meskel

2605 E Cherry St
Seattle, WA 98122
(206) 860-1724

Meskel is one of a large handful of Ethiopian restaurants on the stretch of Cherry between MLK and 23rd, and is quite possibly one of the most aesthetically pleasing of the bunch. It sits high off of Cherry, and is separated from the street by a raised terrace patiently hibernating until summer.

Inside, the restaurant is clean and intimate with rich colors and African art. Water was served in a wine glass with a slice of lime. We sat against the bank of windows looking out onto Cherry, and it felt cozy and homey and entirely lacking the dinginess that many Ethiopian restaurants sometimes have.

The vegetarian combo makes it easy for a vegetarian to eat here. The combo consists of a big round platter lined with a piece of moist, spongy, sour injera bread that is covered in colorful blobs of vegetarian delights... red lentils, yellow lentils, greens, potatoes, salad, tomato fitfit... each of which was deliciously spiced (though none were spicy in a hot way) and gave the impression of slow cooking. A basket of extra injera and a bowl of mild white cheese came along side the main platter.
It all tasted good, but I found the entire meal to be too salty. Certain elements were more salty than others (the greens were exceptionally salty while the tomato fit fit was less so). Even the injera, which was perfect in every other way, tasted like it was packed with salt. It felt a shame in this cuisine of fragrant and pungent spices to fall so heavily on the salt.

Ethiopian food tends to be entertaining and easy for a vegetarian, and aside from the saltiness, I enjoyed the atmosphere and experience of this particular restaurant.

Morning After Update:
All three of us developed unpleasant stomach symptoms. Not serious, but not fun. Maybe it was a coincidence, but probably something good to consider when choosing a restaurant before an important or inflexible day.

Fana's Cuisine

3621 33rd Ave. S.
Suites C5 and C6
Seattle, WA 98144
Phone: 206-708-7417

PART 1:
Just north of the Rainier Court Safeway complex on Rainier ave is a huge new apartment complex with retail space on the bottom. One day I saw a banner for a restaurant called "Fana's Cuisine" that advertised "spicy spaghetti" strung out to face Rainier. I wasn't sure what this meant, but it reminded me of the spectacular spicy sauced spaghetti I'd eaten in the Caribbean (nothing at all like the Italian version...), and I was totally intrigued. Took a while to remember to actually go there though... it is more or less out of view while driving down Rainier (it is located on the S. Side of the Courtland Place at Rainier Court apartments), and I tend to be reminded too late when I catch a glimpse of a sign.

But I went today, and had a wonderful experience even considering I didn't really eat. The restaurant is roomy and clean with natural light streaming into big plate glass windows. It was empty aside from one man at the counter ordering food to go, and I was greeted sweetly by the girl at the cash register in her beautiful rolling accent. A quick glance through the menu showed some interesting dishes... some delicious looking Ethiopian/Eritrean standards, but also a sort of out-of-place section of pizzas and Italian style pasta. It turned out that the sign I'd seen was advertising two separate items... Spicy food, and Spaghetti. I asked the girl behind the counter what she'd recommend for a vegetarian, and thus began the really remarkable part of the encounter: She was really friendly and kind and asked me whether I was a strict vegetarian (IE, no chicken broth) and proceeded to tell me that just about all of their "vegetarian" dishes currently contain chicken stock BUT that they want to go truly vegetarian and are in the process of experimenting with various vegetarian broths and stocks to find one that they feel meets their expectations for taste in the various dishes. She says that they should have a variety of truly vegetarian specialties in a week or two.

As we talked I came to understand a little bit about who was who... the woman in the kitchen was actually Fana (Isn't it wonderful when the namesake of a restaurant actually exists and cooks there?), and the girl at the counter her daughter. The man ordering food to go was Fana's husband.

The place smelled delicious, and as I stood there Fana put forth a tray of steaming hot pastries filled with some sort of savory filling.

I think this is another restaurant suffering from a difficult location... it's hard to notice from the street, and probably doesn't see many walk in visitors (hopefully people from the apartments above know about it...). It sounds like they will soon be starting live music on certain days, in hopes of bringing in more of a crowd.

The owners and their daughter are the sort of people you just want to succeed... they were so kind and engaging and seem really passionate about their food. They sent me on my way with a symbolic sampling of the true vegetarian things they have right now: a green salad with small cut Romain, tomatoes, onion, some kind of really pleasing and extremely mild white cheese, and a tasty vinaigrette, a pile of buttery yellow rice, and a pile of seasoned Bulgar wheat, and I left them with an eager promise to come back hungry in a couple of weeks.

This review is premature, I know... I haven't really tasted much of what they have to offer, but I left the restaurant feeling so good... refreshed on the goodness of people in general that I wanted to write about it. I am really excited about re-visting again in a little while and being able to put tongue to the fantastic smelling dishes cooking away in the kitchen.

(to be cont.)