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Category: Ethiopian
Neighborhood: Inner SunsetMon-Thu. 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat. 5:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Sun. 5:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
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My best friends and I had dinner there last week. Super yummy. The dining room have a large skylight which made the room very airy. Service was good and the place was well lit and clean. I loved the vegetarian combo and cubed lamb. We had our meal family style ; my favorite! I am thankful the favors were strong and not 'watered down' for the masses.
Definitely will go back with more friends. Parking might be tricky, so i suggest carpooling.
I love these guys..always very friendly, nice atmosphere inside.
The food is cheaper and has much better value than Assab (not to mention NERB hasn't gotten me sick *grumble*).
Love the lentils, love the injera, love the kelwa.
This place is definitely vegan friendly! Everything under their vegetarian section of their menu is labeled 100% Vegan and it includes over 7 options!
I was super excited to get Ethiopian food because i had it a long time ago and thought it was awesome! It was definitely as good as i remembered! The staff was also very friendly and had some great suggestions.
My roommate and i ordered the House sampler - Vegetarian combo (platter for 2 for $23.50). It is served on a large platter and has a little bit of everything. I'm not quite sure of the name of the sponge-like flat bread but it is amazing! We finished every last bit of it!
We asked our server which beer was his favorite and he was happy to give us suggestions. My roommate and I both had an Ethiopian beer called Meta Lager ($4) and enjoyed it! I am definitely going back very soon! I have been craving it all week!
First time trying Ethiopian food, loved it.
Shrimp Kilwa, Shrimp sauteed with onion, tomatoes, garlic seasoned red pepper sauce and olive oil & injera.
Not bland at all and had just the right amount of spicy heat. I hate food so spicy you can't enjoy it. I'm not a big salad guy but the dressing coupled with the main course had great taste to it.
I must say the staff is VERY friendly, probably one of the friendliest staff I have met. After dinner the owner (I believe) asked how my meal was and we spent a few minutes talking about travelling. When was the last time you received this type attention at a restaurant??
Customer service is a lost art these days and other places should pick up some tips from this establishment.
BTW they do have utensils, just have to ask.
Warning - go with an appetite, the food is plenty and filling.
Enjoy!
I just dined at New Eritrea for the first time, so I'll limit myself to 4 stars for now. Also, it has been years since I've eaten at an Eritrean/Ethiopian restaurant, so I cannot compare the food to other Horn of Africa restaurants. For the same reason, finding New Eritrea was a blessing; this is a wonderful cuisine that deserves more popularity.
I've been meaning to come here for a while. Finally I didn't have something that had to be used or go bad, and so I gave Puffle (my Labrador) her bowl of food and slipped out while she wasn't paying attention to anything but chowing down.
The menu has six vegan dishes, plus a combination of the first four. I had the combination, and it was very tasty. The four were served on top of injera (a spongy, moist, tangy bread made of teff flour), with an extra piece of injera served on the side. There are no utensils, so you scoop up the stew-like dishes with pieces of injera. I was out of practice, and had to order an extra bit of injera to finish my plate, and I used three napkins. Presumably one gets better at this with practice. But when I was done, my plate looked as if Puffle had been there to lick it.
Unfortunately New Eritrea is only open for dinner, and they have no outdoor seating, which is why Puffle had to stay at home. Still, it is fun to have this African cuisine so nearby. I'll go again.
I needed a good low-key dinner location for a friend's last evening in town before she returned home to NYC. As you might know, Manhattanites are notoriously hard to impress food-wise; I opted for New Eritrea b/c of the consistently good reviews here on Yelp and ... to be honest ... its convenient access from MUNI's N-Judah and 44-O'Shaughnessy transit lines.
I went to college at Cal-Berkeley and lived just down the street for 2 years from Blue Nile, which will forever dominate my expectations of good Ethiopian & Eritrean food. I must say, New Eritrea did *not* disappoint. The portions were perfectly sized, and the staff were very accommodating with the amazingly high amount of water I consume with food ... as well as the amazingly high amount of injera I require when inhaling full plates of family style dinner. (For the uninitiated, INJERA is the unleaven sour-bread that forms the traditional vehicle for consumption of meals in northeastern Africa.)
My buddy and I split an appetizer; she had two glasses of merlot, I had one glass of tej [honey wine... think mead but lighter], and we each had one entree. Total cost, including my *three* extra pieces of injera, plus generous tip, was $60.
Final note: the staff working here typifies exactly what I have experienced in every Ethiopian or Eritrean restaurant from Berkeley to Oakland to SF to San Diego: flawlessly courteous, genuinely concerned for the patron's enjoyment of the dining experience, more than willing to check in on the progress of your meal but un-intrusive overall, and -- most importantly -- genuinely appreciative of your business. Coming from a part of the world which has suffered so much, I am continually amazed by the generosity of spirit in people who have come to America from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. Kudos.
My only concern -- and it's a minor one since I travel with hand-sanitizer wherever I go -- is that I'd've appreciated a kleenwipe with the check; I recognize that this is my American obsession with germs so I don't penalize the restaurant for not offering it... this is just a "word to the wise" for any germaphobes who try food from this part of the world: wash your hands before you order dinner!
Trying a new cuisine for the first time always complicates reviewing a new restaurant. How does one distinguish the "cuisine" from the "place"? Turned out this wasn't a problem with New Eritrea Restaurant & Bar, because both were great.
Ethiopian food is most distinctive not by what goes into your mouth, but how you get it there. There are no utensils (something my fellow diner could have warned me about before I asked where the forks were...), instead you use a thin spongy flat bread to scoop up delightful bits of meat and vegetable, and then eat the whole mess. Sort of like making dozens of tiny wraps.
My party split one vegi-combo and one-meat combo, which the staff was nice enough to put on a single large plate for a family style experience. More than enough food for the two of us and allowed for the sampling of four different vegi dishes and three meat dishes. I was a bit nervous, during the experience, that I would run out of bread -- and thus be forced to use my bare hands to eat -- but it turned out we left bread on the plate, so don't worry about it. Just be conscience of your bread to food ratio and you'll do fine.
As a final note, the ambiance of the location was really lovely. Extensive wood paneling, local art and music, and a very friendly waiter really made the place comfortable with a bit of a post-colonial vibe (as my fellow diner described it). Total bill, with tip, came to just under $30 without drinks, so it's not exactly cheep eats, but still very good value.
I decided a while back that New Eritrea is my favorite restaurant in San Francisco. I stand by that statement and am openly declaring it, on the internet. Here's why: consistently delicious food, vegan options galore, relaxed and comfortable atmosphere and genuinely friendly and efficient service. I always look forward to coming here and I always have a great experience.
Such a sweet, sweet restaurant - consistently good food, always amiable service, nice atmosphere… Read more »
I've had Eritrean food before. I enjoy eating Eritrean food, but I wouldn't eat it every day. My dining companion didn't like it so much... so I say, it's probably an acquired taste...
We ordered some Sambusas. They came out nice and crispy with a spicy sauce on the side. We also ordered 3 different entrees that all came out on the same plate. One was spinach, one had chicken, and one with potatoes. I liked that each one was flavored in different spices. I mostly enjoy the tart crepe like pancake, which tastes tart like sourdough bread!
While I was on my way to the restroom, I noticed something on the wall. It goes something like this...
"I told my brother,
to have my brother go to my sister's,
to have my sister tell my mom,
that dad forgot the keys to the restaurant."
...Cute.
A couple days later, I found out that my co-worker's older brother, who used to work where we work now ...whose sister still works with us and whose younger brother that works in a different department, opened this restaurant couple years ago after he quit. Now that I think about it... They sure do have a BIG family!
New Eritrea is a great spot to go with a group. Ethiopian food was made for sharing!
My friends and I shared two platters: one vegetarian and one meat. Our server, who was also the chef, put together an assortment for us that was fantastic. However, out of the meats the Zebhi Doro was my favorite. It's chicken drumsticks with a ton of flavor. The Hamli was my favorite vegetable which was a very flavorful mix of sauteed greens. The bread is really yummy but be careful not to eat to much because it tends to expand in your tummy.
If you like spicy food, Ethiopian is the right cuisine. We ordered everything spicy, but the spices totally did not take over the flavor. Also, it's not the kind of spicy that burns your mouth for 3 hours, it's more like a quick spiciness that gives just the right amount of kick :)
Service was very friendly, but also slow. Don't go here with a group if you are in a hurry. They could have been understaffed that night and fortunately the friendliness made up for the long stretches of no server.
The prices are pretty cheap. We had leftovers and ordered wine. The total was about $24/person with tip.
Notch above the rest.
This is the birth place where I broke free and started traveling the food path less traveled, and it has made all the difference. One of my cousins took me here over 15 years ago and I had no idea what to expect. It was my first time eating Eritrean/Ethiopian. After all these years of having had it all over the country, this is by far one of my favorites.
The proportions here are great and vegetarian friendly. It's a place that lets the food speak for itself. I owe a lot to this place and to my cousin for taking me here, because I've been branching out towards other ethnic foods ever since. Had I had a bad experience here, I still would be eating at the Olive Garden or something.
The in-JER-ah here is denser than I prefer but still good. You can order the mushroom dish spicy and it's very flavorful, my favorite dish here.
Portions at New Eritrea are huge, I suggest going family style or at least bringing a friend to split a single dish with.
The traditional coffee (which is close to espresso, recommended!) takes forever to be made so you may as well order it along with your food even if you're planning to drink it after the meal. Unless you're aiming to extend a date and WANT to wait around forever for the hyper stuff to show up =)
4.5/4 stars. I've had Ethiopian food before - Merkato in Little Ethiopia in LA and once somewhere in Oakland / Berkeley - and I can say quite honestly that New Eritrea is the best of the bunch.
My friend and I both ordered the meat combination (chicken, beef, lamb) for about $11; the sauces and spices weren't overpowering for my palette - just right to preserve the richness of the Ethiopian flavor. I think my favorite from the combo was the beef, but the chicken and lamb were also very tasty.
I would recommend to anyone who's coming here for the first time to get a combo plate just to sample the variety on the menu.
We also ordered the honey wine, which was potent but lacked the sweetness that I was expecting...I suppose I was expecting a dessert-wine richness to it. Didn't bother me as I got a quick buzz, which makes eating Ethiopian food with that sponge bread and your hands even more interesting...
One of my instant favorite restaurants in the Inner Sunset. Would come back in a heartbeat - great food, friendly service, and there was no wait for us on a Friday evening at 7:30 PM.
Good for groups of people who don't mind using their hands to eat.
You use the spongy flat bread (sort of like a crepe) to scoop individual bites from the large serving platter, which is generally filled with pureed dishes of lentils, chickpeas, chard, etc. Each bite comes out a little messy; it's like dipping floppy bread into a liquefied dip.
This is a great choice for vegetarians and close friends who aren't shy about potentially messy meals. It is a bit more expensive than it ought to me; I think there's an Ethiopian spot in the Mission with cheaper prices and equally tasty food. Here, it was $20 per person (party of 6, 1 tray vegetarian, 1 tray meat, 1 bottle sweet white wine).
I've had Ethiopian before, but not Eritrean. I'd spent a week long vacation roadtripping through northern CA and we'd had Ethiopian on the first night. We decided this would be an excellent way to bookend our vacation on our last night in San Francisco. We went for dinner and shared the House Special Vegetarian Combo, featuring all 6 vegetarian dishes for 2 people for $23.50. It was delicious! We both ended up too full but thoroughly satisfied.
I also recommend the Tusker beer from Kenya which I'd never seen anywhere else.
We did notice that they advertise being open until 10:30pm but had their closed sign out when we left at 9:50pm, so if it's getting late, I'd call ahead.
I love this place. The staff is very nice and the food is great. I really like the atmosphere. This was the first time I had Eritrian/Ethiopian food and I havent found better yet. I've noticed that ordering vegitarian dishes is always a better idea. They're more flavorful and have a nicer texture.
So on our way back from the Yelp Elite event in Yountville, my favorite "plus one" and I were craving something really filling and substantial. I am a huge lover of small plates and little bites, but driving all the way there from Hayward really takes a lot out of a girl.
We decided to go to my usual favorite, Asaab Eritrean restaurant - but somehow, my date entered the wrong address into the GPS and we wound up here instead.
But thank goodness for that, because not only did we find out (after re-consulting Yelp) that Asaab is closed on Sundays, we inadvertently discovered an awesome new favorite place for Eritrean food!
Upon entering, it looks just like a dark dive bar, until you walk towards the back and there is a dining room situated right under a skylight, flooding the area with brightness. We chose to eat in that dining room rather than in the darker area.
The food was fantastic and perfectly portioned. It looks like small servings upon first glance but it turned out to be the perfect amount of food. We effed up that plate and an extra order of injera like no other, along with lager and a glass of honey wine. Make sure you ask for a side of yogurt to balance out all the spices!
Service was good and fast, and the guy at the front who doubles as bartender was attentive and helpful with suggestions. I will totally come back again! I loved it.
If you have a hankering for Eritrean or Ethiopian, or you THINK you have a hankering, but have never tried it and want something new--then this is your place. I say this because New Eritrea is a great restaurant to ease a newbie into this bold culinary realm. Thats not to say that New Eritrea lacks authenticity, like one of those places that falls between what it should be and what the owners think people would want. Like P.F. Changs or something. This is NOT the case here.
Whether you have a favorite Eretrian dish, or know nothing about it, getting the vegetable AND meat combo dishes is really the best way to sample the plethora of their offerings. Everything I have sampled has had good, deep, rounded flavor, and their injerea bread is just perfectly tart and springy. I am especially fond of that pureed squash dish and cubed lamb stew, of course.
I'll be back again.
Oh man! I came here 4 years ago with my buddies yearning to try something "exotic" and "adventurous." At New Eritrea we got exactly what we wanted.
The food was exciting and a brand new experience for all of us, as we were supposed to use our hands to eat all of the ingredients, both wet and dry. To make it a little less messy, they give you these pieces of bread that feel as fluffy as thin pancakes with a flavor similar to a subtle sourdough bread which you can use to scoop up the saucy meats and vegetables.
It was a fresh experience 1) eating with our hands and 2) having everyone constantly fishing around in the same plate at the middle of the table. It's a really nice, intimate way of sharing food that truly puts the focus of the conversation on appreciating the meal and sharing it with each other. It's like a more intimate spin on our Western concept of "family style."
Anywho, everything tasted great and wasn't overly spiced or bland. The ingredients tasted fresh, from the lamb, chicken, and beef (do they have all of that in Eritrea?) to the vegetables and bread that came with it.
All in all, I think New Eritrea is the perfect, safe place for the curious American to dive into more exotic flavors and styles of eating without diving straight into anything too extremely foreign.
This place is yum. I was nervous when I walked in and we were the only people there. But by the time we were 1/2 way through dinner, there were hardly any seats left in the restaurant. I can see why. It's quality food and the staff is great.
Delicious and the price is just right.
We go here often and really enjoy the food. The service is great and the staff is always very friendly. The restaurant is large enough that you never have to wait for a table and they can accommodate large groups.
If you enjoy a good beer, I recommend the Hakim Stout. It is excellent and very difficult to find.
I love their Kilwa (beef)...spicy and full of onion, tomatoes, garlic. for $11. I get some bread and a small salad. Omnomnom. I had enough for two meals. Seriously. I'm eating the second portion right now for lunch. (I like Zigni as well...omnomnom, not as spicy but great flavors.)
As always, service is super friendly!! I love it here, and I always feel at home. Music rocks too! Trust me, it makes you feel so relaxed and happy to be here.
I'm going to have to try their honey wine....some day.
I hadn't had Ethiopian food in like 7 years...so I was excited to find this amongst all of the… Read more »
Five-star experience all-around. Veggie combo has five options of mixed flavored-goodness for 11 dollars. Get the 6-item combo if you take more than two people: it saves you monies. Wicked good, and a friendly server who keeps Eritrean music rockin' your inside with the food while your check, food, water get to you quite timely, keeping you feeling right all over. Definitely eat in the outside portion in the middle of the restaurant, definitely come back
DISCLAIMER: "I have never had ethiopian food before, so the perspective of this review is from someone very traditional. think hamburgers and hot dogs."
I'm a hamburgers and hot dogs kind of guy, what can i say? It's just how I was raised. I like my food simple, tasty, and common....very...very...common. So when I was told that some friends are getting together one evening to eat some Ethiopian food, the first thing I thought was, "What is Ethiopian food?".
We sit down and take a gander at the menu, yeah I was lost. I didn't even attempt to make a failed attempt to seem cultured, I was just straight up lost. And this is with an english translation underneath each menu item describing the contents, I seriously had never imagined some of the combination they had. And as much as I hate to say it, I was skeptical.
We ordered a ton of different things, ranging from brown mush to spicy beef. This way whoever wanted what, would have an opportunity to try something new. This is when I was thrown off, like way off. The food came in a fairly large platter (think large pizza pan) and it was spread out in sections (beef, green mush, brown mush, chicken, lettuce, yellow mush) underneath was a spongey material (like a pizza). Then came a separate order of spongey material, then some napkins. I wondered to myself "hey, where are the utensils" yeah, nothing. You had to use the sponge to pick up the food and make little "taco's" as i called them to myself as part of my inner monologue. And this was dinner.
The food had a unique yet somewhat familiar flavor to it, but what I didn't really like was how incredibly greasy the beef was. Seriously, grease city. The experience itself is deserving of the 3 stars i'm giving it, but the food, yeah it just doesn't sit well with me. Like i said before, give me a hamburger or a hot dog and i'm set.
Tips and Pointers:
-Come with a big group of Ethiopian food virgins, it's funny
-Try the honey wine
-Try everything
[APPROVED] (for the adventurous)
Not terrible but nothing to write home about either. I had the vegetarian combo dinner. It comes with 4 items and tiff bread. Very small portions and the tif was white instead of the normal wheat. Will not be going back.
We had:
House Sampler-Vegetarian Combo $23.50 (includes salad)
Tumtumo: Lentils pureed and simmered with tomatoes, onion, and herbs
Hamli: Collard greens and spinach
Vegetarian Allicha: Mildly seasoned mixture of potatoes, carrots, and cabbage
Alicha-Ater: Chickpea pureed and simmered in onion, and garlic
Okra: Okra cooked lightly and flavored with fresh tomatoes, and onions
Shiro: A traditional Eritrean dish prepared with split peas, tomatoes, and onions
The first three were our favorites, but everything was absolutely delicious.
Next time we'll try the meat sampler.
A perfect menu would be if they had an offering that included both vegetarian dishes and meat....
This place is fantastic.
And I have to say, two of the most handsome waiters I've seen in a very long time.
Great experience all around!
First time having Ethiopian food. J and I shared the spicy kilwa (beef) and the veggie combo. The kilwas was really yummy, but super oily. Trying to eat it with only a thin piece of injera between my fingers and the oil was difficult. Of the veggies, J and I agreed that the hamli (collard greens) and shiro (split peas) were the best. The potato dish was cold when it was served to us, and the lentil (or was it chickpea) puree was bland and lacked texture.
The injera was definitely something I had never experienced before. Its super thin, spongy, and slightly sour. Overall, I think the meal would've been better if the bread was more like naan than how it was. I'd be willing to give New Eritrea another try-- next time with more meat!
I'm sorry...
I REALLY wanted to like this place... REALLY badly...
We frequent Cafe Ethiopia and always seem to enjoy the food. I've eaten at a great place in Berkeley as well and so I had high hopes...
So... We go in pretty early... Around 5:30 on a Thursday, and we were likely the first table of the day.
The owner seemed very polite and was quick to give us a nice large cold bottle of water... I thought we were off to a great start... We order the Veggie Combo and the Meat Combo... Both of which are supposed to come with a salad.
When the food arrives, there are maybe 9-12 SMALL pieces of lettuce in the middle with a few pieces of tomato... I am assuming that their normal salads are more than 4-6 quarter sized pieces of lettuce, but whatever... I'm more excited about the meat/veggie dishes that are on the plate, than I am concerned that we got shafted in the salad category....
So I start with a veggie one... It's less than luke warm... I move on to the next... hardly luke warm... the next one has COLD spots... COLD SPOTS.... It was luke warm where it wasn't cold... And all of the others followed the same suit.... Except for one...
The lamb dish tasted like it was fresh, and had some VERY good flavors... It was in fact excellent...
Now... I can accept if a dish is supposed to be room temp... but... this was as if the food was all heated up in the microwave, but just not long enough... It could have been heated in a pan, but I have enough experience as a cook to know without question that 5/7 dishes we had were in a refrigerator less than 10 minutes prior to hitting our table...
We didn't wait for the check, we did the quick math to come to $23.50 for the meal, and handed an even $30 to the owner as we walked out the door (he was also our server)... He asked if we were in a hurry, and we replied that the food tasted like it had been microwaved, but not enough, and that it was for the most part, totally inedible... He seemed genuinely hurt by the fact that we had had such a terrible experience, but at no point did he say, "that's impossible, we don't own a microwave" or "all of our dishes are prepared fresh" or anything.... just more like... "$h*t... I really hope you don't tell people about this... and I'm about to go kill the cook..." He did offer to give us our $ back, but I didn't see that as necessary... He has costs to maintain, and me having an extra $30 in my pocket doesn't change anything for me... Having hot food, or at least tolerably warm food does... They failed... It looks like the other reviews are pretty positive... but in my mind, a slip like this is simply unexcusable.
Sorry man....
So, now that we've been here a couple of times, I wanted to ensure that the service and quality were consistent... they were. I am a HUGE fan of kitfo (leb leb (rare))... and I have tried almost every Ethiopian restaurant in the South Bay and now I'm moving my way up the peninsula. I know that Eritrean food isn't necessarily "Ethiopian" food, but it's pretty darn close. The kitfo was a little bit spicier than the others I have tried, but definitely hit the spot. It was great! They did serve it in a bowl, and I would have preferred that they just slid it off onto the injera like they do at other restaurants, but this is no big deal, because I scooped it all myself.
The water bottles that they provide at first are pretty nifty than having to wait for the server each time your glass goes empty. Also, the service was great! We had the same server twice and he was very friendly and definitely checked up on us. One thing I did notice was that the injera wasn't as thick as I'm used to. It was almost crepe like.. even perhaps a little bit thinner and it tore pretty easily when scooping up food, but if you're watching your carbs, you might actually consider the thinner injera a blessing... but come on, who really goes out for Ethiopian/Eritrean when you're on a diet?
There is a fixed "meat combo" of 3 items, so you get the same things over and over... I would prefer the "pick 3", but... overall things were great. As Ah-nold says, "I'll be back!"
Bottom line: good food, great atmosphere, great service.
I wouldn't call myself experienced in Ethiopian, but I have been to other places and this one is just...nicer. It is very inviting and cozy, although when I went it wasn't busy at all (but it was a Monday night and apparently that is a new addition to their schedule). They have a full bar, if that is what you want, and the atmosphere is friendly. They leave you water in a fun jug and the staff don't seem to begrudge your presence. There is quite a lot of space, so I wouldn't worry about coming on a busy night.
Their injara was delicious, the Kilwa [beef/tomatoes] was delicious, and the vegetarian Alicha was fab. My friends had a lamb dish that looked and smelled yummy, but I don't eat lamb and I forget what it was called...so try some lamb!
Overall, great place. I'll definitely be going back!
This place was...interesting. It was my first time trying Ethiopian food and I was ready to get down and dirty with the food. I called earlier to reserve a table for 4 and when our party expanded to 6, the waiter was very generous and gave us the round table near the front.
We ordered the Zigni (beef), the "all-time favorite" Zebhi Dorho (chicken), Kilwa Begee (lamb), another meat and the Vegetarian combo, and a bottle of Honey Wine. We each got our own basket of injera to eat with our meal. Our whole order came out on this HUGE platter to share. It was amazing! We were hesitant to eat without utensils...but we didn't want to offend the waiter by asking for some...so we dug in!
-The injera tasted too sour to me...almost as if it was going bad. I sucked it up and ate it anyway.
-Honey wine...once you put it in your mouth it tastes like pure honey, then you swallow and it tastes like pure alcohol. It sounded so delightful on the menu...but definitely not on the tongue.
-Out of all the dishes we ordered, the lamb was the best. (It even beat the "all time favorite" chicken).
We each paid $15/person and left reasonably full. (We had three guys, three girls.) Overall, it was an interesting experience...but I guess my palate is not sophisticated enough for Ethiopian food. During the whole meal, I was craving Indian food...so maybe next time, I'll just do that...
Awesome. Fabulous. I shared the veggie platter with a friend, and it was so good that I was inspired to learn to cook Ethiopian food. My efforts, alas, fell far short of New Eritrea. This place is damn good.
Went there for drinks at the bar to try the great variety of African beer (Tuskers from Kenya!)...while we were there, we had the lentil Samboas (aka Samosas) which I thought were pretty weak...more of a pancake than anything else (I have had many Samosas in my life!).
Friendly service - good vibe.
Love this place! Always start out with a bottle of honey wine, usually get another. So tasty and perfect for the spicy meat dishes. The veg sampler is a good mild dish to simmer your tongue down. I actually love that when you ask for spicy, you get spicy, unlike at most Indian joints where you order lamb vindaloo for the jalapeno sauce and it's not spicy because you happen to have ass-white coloring.
Service is always sweet and lovely.
This spot is just one of many that make my neighborhood badass.
Good eats. I've had Ethiopian several times before at other good restaurants and this place held its own. We went on a Thursday night around 8 and it wasn't too crowded, but wasn't empty either. Maybe it was the deceptively large and spacious accomodations-much more so than other Ethiopian places I've been to. The atmosphere was nice, with soft lighting. Service was excellent, even with just two staff (that we saw). Our food came out quickly, too.
For four girls and a guy (last time I checked), we ordered the kilwa (beef), asa kilwa (fish), New Eritrea Special (chicken), and Vegetarian Combo for 2, which is a sampler of all six of their vegetarian plates. Given the generous amounts of injera (savory flatbread), we were all quite full at the end. There was even a bit of leftover, sauce-enriched injera ("Injera: The Flavor-Saver") The damages? Only $16/person incl tax and tip (but not drinks). Not bad at all. I will definetely go there again, since it's the closest Ethiopian to my place.
For the newbie:
** You'll want to wash your hands before and after the meal.
** The food is deceptively filling, especially when you consider that you're eating the injera it's sitting on.
** Get extra napkins! (see first tip)
This place is rad and its close to home, excellent!
The interior of the restaurant is unique and relaxing. The music chill and the wait staff attentive and also chill.
The food was delicious. Eat here and you won't be disappointed unless of course you don't like Ethiopian food and hate America.
I love Ethiopian and Eritrean food. I'll admit it. I'm happy to actively search for it. There aren't a whole lot of choices for it near home. So when we spotted this restaurant when driving home from eating in this area, we groaned and made a mental note to remember it for our next trip. We were back this weekend to visit the new Natural History Museum in the park and remembered our mental note. This place is very close to the park and in a neighborhood of restaurants and shops.
The place was busy but not packed fairly early on a Friday night.
New Eritrea is on the edge of the Irving Street food district. Walk until you think you've looked at all your choices and you'll see it about 1/2 a block up. That's too bad because they are quite good.
Someone mentioned issues with parking. We've been to this area twice now and always found street parking quite easily. You may have to walk a couple or three streets. The spots turn over fairly quickly.
The place is fairly large with two dinning areas and a full bar. It's not fancy but it isn't downscale either. Sort of homey, reasonable for a date where you aren't trying to impress with romance. Perfect for talking to your companions.
Food is primarily the typical stuff you see on Ethopian/Eritrean Menus. There were a couple of dishes marked New Eritrean but we didn't try them. We had the smaller of the vegetarian samplers and a meat dish. The veggie sampler came with 4 choices, each quite nice. I don't believe I'd encountered the spinach one before. The potato dish was quite yummy. Everything was good. The meat dish, while not spicy hot, was pepper hot. A nice touch.
The Injera (bread) was a bit more sour than I've had at other restaurants. I quite like this variety.
We ordered the Ethiopian stout. It's the mildest stout I've ever tasted. If you like dark beers but not stout, give this one a try. I'm definitely looking out for it. Water came in a traditional water bottle (think 1920's America) which kept the water very cold.
Service was very prompt and attentive. The bill was a bit more than the normal Ethiopian at $25 for 2, including alcohol. Hardly expensive for a nice and very filling meal.
Delicious.
A nice quiet place to take a date or family, especially when other places are a zoo. It is family owned and operated, with the space being well organized and clean. The service has always been prompt, helpful, and personable.
The food comes out quickly, and is of a consistent quality. I have not tried Ethiopian food elsewhere, so I cannot compare authenticity or flavors, but I enjoyed the sampler of everything and have come back for more.
It can be very filling and rich, so if your looking to go out dancing, etc. after it may not be the right place for you. Try the Ethiopian beers too, they are quiet good and have a distinctive flavor!
Neighborhood: Western Addition/NOPA
Category: Ethiopian
Neighborhood: Lower Haight
Category: Ethiopian
Neighborhood: Haight-Ashbury
Category: Ethiopian
Neighborhood: Western Addition/NOPA
Category: Ethiopian
Neighborhood: Mission
Category: Ethiopian
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