Meski

Mimi's food is absolutely amazing! The homemade, delicious, healthy food is always incredible- truly 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!

This review is for the food truck. Love the concept - a modern take on Ethiopian food. Food is delicious and I wish the truck came round my office more often. One of my favorite DC food trucks...

Meski is now open in Tastemakers food hall in Brookland. I stumbled upon them today, and will surely be back. The famous food truck now has a brick and mortar stall.

I have eaten quite a bit of Ethiopian food, and really enjoyed these flavors. The ground beef berbere stew with potatoes with the homemade injera was perfect. I can't wait to try some more of their dishes. Thanks for the great conversation Mimi!

3.25 stars. From a pure flavor standpoint, Meski is actually quite good. Unfortunately, the Meski experience 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.

When I started working in Friendship Heights, I tweeted that we needed Ethiopian food. Meski's truck magically showed up. And I am happy she did. This is as close as you can get to restaurant-style Ethiopian food without the restaurant. I'm a huge fan of the doro tibs and miser wot (chicken and spicy lentil stew). And while the wait is often a few minutes, this is a smaller family operation without the glitz and marketing fanfare that the other trucks enjoy. They have a hand-written sign daily, limited quantity and while that might limit their availability, it also means that you don't get yesterday's food today.

Yet, the food is flavorful but not Ethiopian-grade spicy and as a truck that sports "Ethiopia With A Twist," the twist is salad, less spice but still an authentic Ethiopian flavor experience. Meski loves her food too but is customer-focused. I've chatted with her about items I didn't like and she's listened. Most of her customers aren't Ethiopian, they're mostly white people so she has to find a balance (note: this happens at most Ethiopian restaurants).

Ethiopian food is healthier than most American food but Ethiopians do use a lot of "niter kibbeh" butter in their meals (still healthier than McDonalds). And while I'm not a fan of the extra oil in the food from time to time, there's a reason. Keeping wot moist without the oil is nearly impossible (yes, I've cooked a few dishes at home and messed up many because they were too dry).

At the end of the day, Meski is the highlight of my week and it makes me happy that an entrepreneurial Ethiopian saw my Tweet and delivered great food. I've eaten there every week since. And I know my food, I've been to Ethiopia three times and eaten the food of many regions. Meski's portions are massive and nothing like I got in Ethiopia. For $10-12, I get two meals. One for me and one for my Ethiopian-born daughter who knows Meski in name but loves her meal each week. That makes two of us thankful.

Today Meski did what my mother has failed at for the past 30+ years - got me to eat mushrooms. Portabellas, to be specific. The wonderful woman (owner, I think) convinced me to take a sample of their special along with my spicy lentils. It was fantastic. I still have issues with mushroom consistency, but these were delicious.

Since my first review I've had the cabbage, spicy lentils, chickpeas, and now the mushrooms. It's all been amazing. One of these days I'm going to get the beef tibs, but it's hard to make that decision when the veggies are SO GOOD!

I love Ethiopian food, and while other Ethiopian trucks have impressed me before, none have impressed me like this one.

As a person trying to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle, just the name of this truck really appealed to me. They live up to their name! I had the vegetarian combo with spicy lentils and the portobello mushrooms with spinach, which were both amazing. I am not usually a fan of mushrooms, but have been trying them more lately. These were delicious! They were perfectly cooked and seasoned, and tasted great with the spinach, onions, and peppers.

With a vegetarian combo, you get your choice of 2 veggie entrees, complete with a delicious, fresh salad and the perfect portion of injera. I finished my lunch feeling satisfied and nourished. Other Ethiopian trucks will sometimes cook with too much oil and give you a lot of injera, which leaves me with a heavy feeling. Probably because the spongy bread soaked up all the oil and expanded in my stomach. Just a theory.

I will definitely be back again to try the other dishes, vegetarian and otherwise. :)

Just had the chickpeas with rice and salad and it was incredible. Couldn't tear myself away... The flavor is so full but not spicy, great for someone like me. And they were just the nicest people, eager to share their delicious food. Try the cabbage as well, it's to die for!

Delicious Ethiopian and continental food. We are lucky to have Meski catering almost every day at our offices - it's delicious, healthy, and family-run. The women who run Meski are extremely professional and are amazing cooks - in addition to great Ethiopian food, they also make wonderful soups, pastas, and rice/vegetables/meats that they cater. I really cannot recommend Meski highly enough!

We are lucky enough to have Meski catering our office cafeteria. Best Ethiopian in DC -- I don't go out for it any more!