Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant
San Jose, CA 95129 (408) 615-8282
- Hours:
Tue-Thu 11:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Fri 11:30 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sat 12:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sun 12:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: Full Bar
161 Reviews for Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant
This place made me fall in love with Ethiopian food!
Ethiopian food can be loved by all. It is a bit spicy, but not overly so. Food is shared on the table, and makes for a great group experience. Order the vegetarian or non-vegetarian combination plates. Each is enough for two or three to share.
Go here for the food. The staff is friendly, but slow. The restaurant is clean and well decorated, but will not be known for its ambiance.
I honestly didn't have that great of an experience when I went here two weeks ago.
We came in a party of 9, so the nice thing was that we already had a table waiting for us so we individually filed in as we arrived. But the service that we received was really, really slow that night. We had to ask for extra bread a few times from the waitress, and it took a really long time for the food to come out as well.
It was my first time trying out this place and I can conclude that I'm personally not a huge fan of Ethiopian food. You will need to develop the taste for their bread (which was too sour for me) as well as the different spices they use in their food.
We came on a Tuesday night and the restaurant did steadily fill itself up with customers, but no one had to wait to get seated.
Definitely worth the experience to try it out once if you've never had Ethiopian food before!
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Food - 3.5
Service - 3
Ambience - 3
Wishing I could give half stars on Yelp, because I would give this place a 3.5. Have only ever been here with my coworker who is Erytrian, I have no idea what is ordered, but it's all quite good and she swears by the place. I will admit that I don't like Injera bread, but I like all the various dishes that she orders to go on top of the bread.
Today, we came for a team lunch and since there were six of us, my coworker decided to double the order of some things and for others, asked if we could split the order between the two giant "plates" (for lack of a better word). The waitress kind of gave her a hard time about it and said that she will see what she can do. Since the food seems to be prepared separate from this plate lined with Injera, it didn't seem like such a big deal to me to split the order, but what do I know.
Our first plate arrived with various items on top of the Injera. The second plate arrived with nothing on the Injera, which just seemed odd. They brought out the other food we ordered and started spooning it onto each plate. In the end, the second plate never seemed to have as much food as the first.
The decor is a typical family-owned restaurant. The restaurant is split into two different areas - the front side has regular tables and chairs and the side room has a fireplace and more traditional seating. The service is slow and not all that friendly, but since our coworker always speaks to them in their native tongue, I think we get decent service.
No doubt Zeni's is one of the better Ethiopian places in the area, but I gotta go against the crowd and say that I prefer the food at Gojo's over Zeni's. However, if you're a first timer looking for a great experience and ambiance definitely check out Zeni's (Gojo's is kind of a hole in the wall).
Here's what to order:
If you're hard core and meat eaters (like us) you'll order the Keyet Kitfo served raw, which is basically raw ground beef rubbed with spices and butter. Seriously it sounds gross, but it's delicious. However, I wish they rubbed in a bit more spice and butter (like Gojo's). It's also served with Gomen Kitfo (collard greens) which was a little on the gritty side.
If you're a Vegetarian you gotta try the Atakilt Wot, which consists of cabbage, potato, carrots simmered with onion, butter and other spices. YUMMY. The Atakilt Wot is really good here but I wished they used larger chunks of carrot and potato.
Tip: Get there early because if you arrive around 7-8pm on a weekend you'll have to wait. Also, if you're looking for a quick meal, go elsewhere. I believe they prepare the food fresh, so you usually have to wait a while for your food (most Ethiopian restaurants are like this).
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Decided to be adventurous again and try Ethopian cuisine with the other half on a Thursday night.
We ordered the ground chicken and the mild beef stew with a South African red bottle of wine.
The spices are fine, the cumin can definitely stain your clothes if you're not careful.
The service can be slow on busy nights, but the waitresses are friendly, so if you do not mind the wait, it it not that bad.
Bill was $39 for two, including a bottle of wine, excluding tip. That is a deal.
We live down the street, so will return.
Having dined at Zeni on Friday night, I am now dangerously addicted to Ethiopian cuisine. I have no idea what I ate (my friend ordered everything for me), but I do know that I'll have to make a trip down to San Jose on a weekly basis to dine here. The service is fantastic. Due to the long wait, we sat down at the bar for a drink prior to eating. I ordered a gin and tonic, and the (new) waitress actually served me my drink without the gin! I couldn't get mad - she was so apologetic and giggly, and the food to come was so amazing..
I didn't have quite an experience as the other reviewers did. I love the ambiance and the lovely waitresses. But the food is not phenomenal. We ordered veggie combo and a beef tip dish. The portion is small and the food is cold. :( Nonetheless, I am still willing to go back there again and order something different...
I had never eaten Ethiopian food before, but when a group of my friends assured me that it was delicious and that Zeni was amazing, I decided to give it a try. We had some chicken, cabbage, and lentils, which were all very yummy. And the desert was delicious. I was definetly happy that I made the lunch.
But there was a downside to Zeni.:
Location: Yuck
Service: Slow, Not Very Friendly
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The meat combo is usually what I order...Thankfully, they serve the chicken on the bone, as well as the lamb....very tender and expertly seasoned.
Zeni is my favorite Ethiopian restaurant.
The service is laid back...good honey wine.-EFK
Its been a while since i went but its one of my favourite places in the Bay Area and a 'must take to ' for all visitors (especially vegetarians, and Indian Aunts and Uncles who aren't that adventurous). Which is the strangest thing coz' the meats there are AWESOME and the food is sufficiently familiar but totally different.
If you've been to an Ethopian place place before, you'll know that the food is family style with a venegence. You order your dishes (we always get one veggie platter, which is enough food for 2-3, and then add a coupla meat dishes), and they get you a large basket/plate with Injera (the steamed bread/pancake type base) and then scoop the dishes right on top. The juices soak through the fluffy yummyness that is Injera and you're in heaven.
I wish I could remember which meat dishes are my fave.. but the names get all muddled in my head .. aah.. will just have to go again.
Btw.. their salad with the cheese(goat?) is simple and delicious.. and one of my favourite dishes (which also comes as a part of the vege platter) is the salad with chopped up Injera
Go there for a totally new and wonderful experience and I'll bet you'll return again.. and again..
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I came around after lunch and the atmosphere and food was fantastic. I'd give it 5 stars, but I am accounting for different tastes to those who are new to Ethiopian food because the taste is just different from what some people can accept if they aren't up to adventure. Definitely worth the try!
I moved to California from Denver, and I was sad that I could not find an Ethiopian restaurant.
I expressed my sadness to my fellow classmates and they told me about Zeni, and I thought...there is hope.
Stopped by a few weeks ago, and I will say that the food was great. The injera wasn't too bitter, as it can be sometimes. Some of the dishes had just a bit of heat, but for my palette not enough. (I like it to be a little spicier --- mwhahahaaaa!!)
Good news is that Ethiopians actually eat there, so that is a good sign. They have mesobs (the stray tables), and the food is good.
Bad news, if you are in a hurry you may be a bit disappointed. I have found that Ethiopian food takes time. Another bit is that sometimes it can get a little crowded on weekends, so you may have a short wait. Get some beer or honey wine to ease the nerves :-).
I will continue my adventures and seek out more Ethiopian food in the bay area.
Go on an adventure and try it --- come on --- try it :-)
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4.5 - this place only has one thing lacking, and thus making is SO close to 5 stars: The Wait.
This place does NOT take reservations on the weekend nights. Thus the wait and crammed group of people by the door are annoying. They took our name and said it would be 25 minutes. We were smart enough to make our way to the bar standing area and got Ethiopian beer - not bad.
The wait was actually longer more like 40 minutes but the bar and beer helped time go by - and I recommend doing that and not waiting around with the flock of people crammed by the door like cattle. The atmosphere is nice, interesting decorations, cute tiki-type bar, and a themed sitting room with funky stool chairs that look horribly uncomfortable and luckily we avoided sitting there.
Once seated the our waitress helped us order the favorites and the owner had given us some great suggestions and info while we were standing near the bar. For our group of 4 he suggested one of each type of dish - a chicken, lamb, beef and veggie. It was the perfect amount of food for us.
But again - THE WAIT, our food seemed to take FOREVER, maybe 30 minutes and by that time we had been at this place A LONG TIME. Our clothes had locked in the great aroma but we needed to EAT.
We ordered the veggie combo in order to sample different things - it came with FIVE items: spicy lentils, YUMMY cabbage, buttery collard greens, some injera with jalapenos and lime juice marinade, and a yellow split pea thing that was great.
We got the mild beef stew stuff - it was yellow and I liked it.
The chicken was in a red sauce and they brought us hot sauces and powder for them. The lamb was excellent and served with green peppers and onion. They give you plenty of bread/injera for our group and are pretty good about the water refills - which I needed.
There is a CORKAGE FEE (Yelp is WRONG) - its $7.
Overall a great place, wonderful food at a great price (4 people, $70), filling and cute inside. They do take out which is probably a good idea on the busy, wait-filled weekends. But definitely check this place out - its a hidden gem.
They cater too!
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I love Ethiopian food. In the San Jose area, I've eaten at Gojo, Shebele, Red Sea, and the new Rehoboth cafe, and I think Zeni is my personal favorite (although Gojo comes in 2nd). I don't eat meat, so I always order the veggie combo, and all of the standard offerings included are excellent. Everything is just really flavorful and full of spice. I've never had a bad food experience, but I agree with lots of the other reviews, though...It loses a star for the service, which can be incredibly slow. Oh well, I like the food enough that it's worth the wait for me, and I'll keep going back.
Tried both the meat combination and vegetarian combination dishes last night. Wouldn't order the dish where they cook the injera with lamb (Alitcha Fitfit?) which had too mild and sort of odd lemony taste that clashed with the other parts of the combination, but the kitfo and doro wat dishes were very good. The beef kitfo was well savory with just the right amount of spiciness. The Ye Doro Wat dish had a sauce that was earthy and deep - sort of like a really good mole sauce. My wife enjoyed the vegetarian platter, with Ye-Timatim Fitfit her favorite, while I favored the collard greens dish from her part of the platter.
The Ethiopian tea was mild with hints of ginger. I preferred the intense Ethiopian coffee, which was like espresso but with more fruitiness.
For those worried about the wait, I recommend arriving at or before 6 p.m. on Saturdays. My wife and I had about a ten minute wait. Those arriving after 6:30 p.m., however had what appeared to be 30 minute plus waits.
It took awhile for our entrees to arrive, so those who are extremely hungry should order an appetizer. Although if you can hold out, the main courses - with the endless supply of injera bread - should more than satisfy the most hungry diner.
For those conscious of their budgets, a couple an entree apiece with tea/coffee should have a bill with tip of less than $40. A bargain for a unique dining experience.
The food was great! The wait is long, but it's worth it. It's a family owned and run place, and the owner's husband is very talkative. He gave us a lesson on how the bread (teff) is made and insights on Ethiopian cuisine in the area.
I've only been here once, and their Kikil Kitfo was ok. I'm not quite sure why I ordered it when other dishes on the menu sound so much better...AND I already knew I liked them at other Ethiopian places. I guess I was just wanting to try something different?? I've had better sambussas at other places too, but their cottage cheese and injera are really good. Although the service was pretty slow, the staff was friendly. I will definitely come back to try their other dishes.
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This place doesn't look that impressive from the outside, especially considering that its located in a strip mall, but once you walk through Zeni's door you feel you are immediately transported to Ethiopia, with its elaborate, yet cozy decor. You can tell that the owners have put in a lot of time and energy into their restaurant's appearance, and in ensuring a good first impression- which is a great thing! Zeni, by far, has the best ambiance out of all the Ethiopian restauarants I have ever been to.
The service at Zeni's is great. It's a family run restaurant, so it can take a while before you get what you ordered, but the service is attentive and friendly. If you are one of those impatient people, I definitely suggest ordering a beer or a glass of tej (Ethiopian honey wine) while you wait, and perhaps some appetizers as well. We ordered sambossas, which were a cross between empanadas (similar crusts) and Samosas (similar filling) and were quite good.
We ended up ordering the veggie combo and the meat combo as our entrees. My veggie combo was great. I don't remember the names of the things that came with it, but it was all very good, especially the serving of spicy red lentils- that was the best! he injera was really good too, and they give you a nice amount of salad too. The meat combo, from what I hear, (I am vegetarian... again) was really tasty- especially the chicken.
There are some really interesting things about this restaurant, including their traditional Ethiopian dining room, which is a separate little room with really low, straw tables and small wooden chairs with engravings on them. The floors are covered in cow hides... they also have a separate, curtained little room that is somewhat elevated with chairs and a small table with tea cups. I think this might be for the $35 traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony I saw in the menu. I am really curious about this, so next time I go to Zeni I am definitely going to see what that's all about.
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This was my first time trying Ethiopian.
It was... well... I mean it's Ethiopian food. If you have a very westernized palette, then it may not be for you.
the bread tasted a lot like a very hoppy, bitter, sour beer. The meat dishes were extremely spicy while the veggie dish my friend got had no spice to it at all.
I'll be honest, there was nothing I really liked about it. Again though, I blame my palette more than I blame the restaurant.
The atmosphere was nice despite the location. The service was not so hot (getting drink refills while my mouth was on fire was a nightmare), and I found the prices to actually be a little on the high side considering that this food is, by definition, supposed to be cheap.
I'd be willing to give this place another try some day to see if I'm just doing it wrong :-P
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I came here once before a couple years ago on an Ethiopian friend's suggestion. I remember not liking the injera because of its sourness but liking the meat. Tonight we came with 8 people for a birthday dinner. For a Sunday night, the place was packed. They don't take reservations anymore, but we were seated in about 45 minutes, which I suppose is decent considering how small the restaurant is.
Agreed that the service here leaves you a bit wanting. They're quite friendly - the owner came and chatted with us, giving us suggestions, hot sauce, etc. But everything was pretty slow, and I felt like they didn't anticipate our needs. Not that I expect people to fawn all over me, but we had to keep asking for our water to be refilled and for napkins. When we asked for plates and utensils (yeah yeah we were THOSE people), not enough plates and utensils were brought out for everybody.
Other than that, the food was pretty good. Echoing other yelpers, the zilzil tibs, ye doro tibs were all very good. Some of the veggie combo was yummy - the potatos and the beans were delish. I got more used to the injera this time - tastes great with the food.
And I was amused that the owner's daughter walked around with a name tag saying "Owner's Daughter." Haha.
I think I might prefer other types of food to Ethiopian, but I definitely did have a good experience here.
Fucking delicious. My newest favorite food--we'll see how long it lasts.
I read mixed reactions about the injera bread. I guess it's either an acquired taste or just a personal preference, but I think it's delicious. Their meat dishes are good--I would stick with lamb or zilzil tibs (kind of like Ethiopian fajitas)--but their vegetables ones are even better. I never thought I'd come to crave collard greens and lentils, but apparently clarified butter fixed that.
They also had really good Ethiopian beer; I tried something called Harar, but they have several other kinds.
I'll agree weekends have long wait times, and the service is a little slow, but the food is worth the wait!
A once in a year meal in my opinion.
The restaurant is pretty cool and very traditional.
Choice of regular table dining or at the traditional tables which is basically a huge round wicker coffee table sorta thing. Little assorted stools surround this community bowl stand.
I don't know what the sponge bread is called but it smelled. I think it is supposed to smell but that doesn't mean it doesn't smell! Very sour and spongy. They are wrapped up like napkins on a plate.
The meat and veggies are sizzling and on the flat bowl table which is lined with the smelly sponge bread. I love meat so I would recommend ordering some beef or lamb. It is chopped up and grilled or sauteed with sauce.
No utensils! You just wrap up the meat or veggies with your sponge bread and eat.
Warning: You will smell after this and so will your fingers.
I love introducing my friends to this place. Every time I go it's a festival! You walk in and it feels like you are transported to Africa. All the workers are ethiopian, the owners are super friendly and the waitress' are gorgeous! If you come on a Friday or Saturday expect at least an hour wait, it's unfortunate but they don't take reservations.
Now on to the food! I usually go for the meat combination with another dish added on, alicha wot, doro wot and beef kitfo are my favorites. The food is spicy so be prepared. It comes out on a big dish and actually doesn't look like a lot of food, but trust me the bread FILLS you up.
Go for a bottle of Tej or the Ethiopian Lager as a good compliment to the food.
My boyfriend and I have been dating for about 4 months, and I'm always looking for ways to show him how cool I am, so I suggested we try Ethiopian food for dinner. For this he thinks I'm "awesome" and he loves that I like to try new things. His words.
Anyways, Zeni lives up to the awesome and cool expectations. The decor rocks,the food tastes really good, and you get a good amount of food for the price. My bf had the vegetarian combo (as he is a vegetarian), and I had the meat combo (as I am a ravenous meatetarian-- at least compared to him.) FYI: In the spirit of community love, all dishes are served on the same large platter, so stick-to-the-rules vegetarians might have a problem with this, although I'm sure arrangements can be made.
I tasted everything from the meat and veggie combos. While all the dishes were yummy (except I didn't care for the doro wat), I have to say that overall I enjoyed the flavors of the veggie dishes more. We also had ourselves some Tej Ethiopian honey wine, which is delicious.
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Interesting..we were newbies at ordering Ethiopian and the waitress wasn't too helpful. Since we thought we were pretty adventurous already for even trying Ethiopian, we decided just to be boring and typical and order the meat and veggie combo.
Didn't like the lamb but everything else on the meat and veggie combos were delicious. The injera was definitely something new (grey, spongy pancake-like wrap) and it was fun to just grab and eat with your fingers.
tip: If you want to go on a low-budget date, take your sweetie here and you can "accidentally" graze fingers while grabbing for the food. ;) hehe.
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This was my first time eating ethiopian food. It's really good, but their injera bread was something I didn't like much. Their spice tea is really good and served with some sugar. When our food came I thought there would be more, but it all comes in one bigass round plate on top of the bread. The bread has a weird taste to it..like...a bit sour like sourdough bread and the texture is like cake, but it's not. Your food is in little piles around your big plate. Spoons and forks are not automatically at your table because with Ethiopian food, you eat with your hands, but you can ask for one if you prefer to eat with utensils. When you get your order it's served with a straw hat/lid, but the waiter/waitress takes it away for the other orders. The place itself has photos, ethiopian art and stuffs all over the place and a drinking bar. The bathroom is a one person at a time thing and it's located at the very back of the restaurant. I got sick of the food pretty fast, but maybe it's because I wasn't that hungry. For anyone who can't live without rice like me, there is NO rice or noodles on the menu :(
The wait is WAY too long, but the food and ambience is very good. When we were waiting, the people who worked there saw us and ignored us. It was probably because they knew that they had nothing to tell us and that we would have to just wait until a group had finished eating. After waiting about 15 minutes awkwardly in the doorway (with about 9 other people crammed into the tiny space) they finally "noticed" us and told us 25 minutes. We then waited outside for about 40 minutes. It seems like the default time they tell everyone is about 25 minutes. This restaurant should really move to a larger location, or expand. They should also take reservations, especially on busy friday nights. The crowd seemed to either be indian (probably because of the availability of vegetarian food) or the young hipster college types (since the restaurant seems to be an underground hit)
It is better to sit in the second room, with the stools and round table in the middle instead of the tables in the front. There is no waiting area so everyone is crammed in a little area in front of the door, or they have to wait outside. The vegetarian platter was very filling and tasty. The waitress was also very helpful and friendly, offering us vegetarian recommendations. The service is only good once you are seated though.
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I ate the whole meal with my fingers!!!!!!!!!
The next day, I tried to convince my parents to eat Chinese without utensils/chopsticks and got yelled at. Boo.
Tried the veggie and meat combo and both were really good. Obviously we were unexperienced and cheated by ordering two combos, haha! I guess a staple in Ethiopian food is this fluffy pancake bread thing called Teff which is really amazing and contains all these cool amino acids and is high in protein. Our waitress was a cutie and showed us the grain Teff is made out of and even told us a little bit of history about the bread. yay for learning.
Service in general is slow, though and the food is greasy so stomachs prepare! But not expensive and worth the wait.
I also sat on this really sweet chair with a zebra hide (I hope it's fake..) on it! Basically, dinner was a lot of fun.
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A great place to eat with a fairly large group of friends, that way you can try more dishes! We usually get veggie and meat combos and then a couple other dishes. It's fun to eat without utensils and instead tearing a piece of grey pancake and using it to pinch whatever you want to eat from the enormous communal plate.
The prices are very reasonable. For eight people, it came out to only $60 for five dishes, so we paid $9 each (no drinks). We were seated at a fairly small table, but after the group next to us left, they happily offered to move us to a larger table.
I had not been here in years, but they've changed the menus and now they are these laminated pieces of paper connected by rings. Looked like a third grade art project, I thought the old ones were much nicer. There was a dish I remember having there with some other friends, but we couldn't recall what it was and it wasn't part of the combos. I would recommend to try their specialties if you are feeling adventurous. Everything I've had there so far has been pretty good though, so you really can't go wrong.
One of my favorite Ethiopian places in bay area... Okay, first off, I assume you are an adventurous person (since you are considering an Ethiopian restaurant). So let me start with the seating - try sitting in one of those funny round chairs (no back support) with a table in the middle. They are fun especially if you are in a group! They place the food in the center table. So everyone sits around and grabs a bite of the food from the middle! YES, you eat with your hands! Coming to the food, it is very tasty and full of flavor. I highly recommend their Doro Tibs (both chicken and lamb are good, but beef is okay). Also, their Yedoro Kifto is good (the chicken Kifto). Their Injeras (bread) is good too - it comes free with your food. Try the Ethiopian beer or the Ethiopian tea - it blends real nice with their food. Finally, go there when you are not in a hurry - be it lunch or dinner. Coz they are super laid back when it comes to service!
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I know my Ethiopian food.
Sure, that might sound pompous of me. But I HAVE been to Ethiopia. So I haven't just been around the block, I've been around the globe.
This is as good as it gets people. You aren't going to find much of a better place for Ethiopian anywhere (including most places in Ethiopia). If you've never experienced the cuisine before, go here and get spoiled. Just don't expect the same level of quality at every other place you go to.
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We LOVE this place!! The service can be slow at times and so can the food but its totally worth the wait. We are so happy we found this new food treasure that we enjoy! I take my friends and family so they can experience a unique dinner experience and no one is every dissapointed!
3.5 stars:
Food took quite a while to come out--deducted a star for this reason. Ordered the vegetarian combo platter--great flavors! But the meat dish we ordered was oily and overcooked--deducted another star for this reason. Great injera. I would definitely go back. Overall experience was pleasant and I was super-stuffed afterwards. I definitely recommend this place for their great food. They just need to up the service factor a bit.
Food: decent
Service: poor
Racism?: very possible
I love to try out new restaurants. Living in Bay Area makes it easy to do that.
4 of us (all Asians) walked into Zeni and was pleasantly surprised. We loved the decoration of the restraurant and seeing the Ethiopian food for the first time. Restraurant was half-full and we were seated in the middle area.
After we ordered, we saw a few more customers coming in, comfirming this is a good place to eat.
The problem started here.
People who came later than us started to get their food before us. First time, we were thinking either our waitress mixed up the order or their food was easier to make. But people who order more food than us and came way later than us got their food before us. We didn't get our food until all other customers who came later than us got their food first.
Food was pretty good, but once again, we were starving by the time our food came out so maybe that's why it was good.
Either it was really bad mix up or real bad service. And being only Asian group in the restraurant made us think they were possible being racists.
Have anyone else experienced something similar to mine?
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Yeah, so like it's sort of in a ghetto-ish shopping center, but I didn't feel like I was going to be shot or anything--and I was there on a Sunday evening. I learned of this place through good old Yelp. Drove right past it the first time I went down Saratoga, as it's sort of tucked away from plain view (pay attention to the nearby cross streets when you map this bad boy).
There was a little bit of a wait. We saw at least one empty table as soon as we walked in, but it took a little while for the waitress to take notice of us (thanks again to Yelp reviews, I mentally prepped myself to be patient). The waitress was nice enough, and I liked her accent. They were pretty quick to take our orders. The wait for our food wasn't painfully long, but maybe a little thumb-twiddling and a smattering of mini-awkward moments passed...
When we finally got our food, it was all served on a large round piece of spongy bread (Injera) with some salad in the center for better digestion. They also provided rolled up pieces of Injera, which looked like they could be used as thick brown napkins--which I guess you could...and then just eat them when you're done. But I have to agree with Yelper Danvin R.'s comment about taking it easy on the bread to get the most out of the actual entrees ordered. We got the Ye Doro Tibs (chicken) and the Kitfo (beef). All delicious. Spicy but not so spicy you can't taste the deliciousness. And if I have to elaborate on the "deliciousness", I would say exotic delicious...sorry, that's all I got. Using the Injera as a "utensil" to eat the main dishes was fun and a nice change of pace from the boring fork-spoon-and-knife routine.
Agreed that attentiveness of the service staff could be improved, but I'd still go back for my next Ethiopian food craving.
I'm not sure what the gushing reviews are all about but we had a pretty disappointing experience at Zeni's tonight. Firstly, for a restaurant that was not packed to capacity, the service was terrible. After being seated pretty promptly, the waitress showed up 10 minutes after we went looking for one. An order of 2 glasses of water and 1 glass of Ethiopian wine (no name on the menu) took another 10 minutes, and finally when the food arrived it was OILY...so much so that even after my sedimentation experiment left the bottom of the Enjera soaked in oil. The spicy chicken dish I ordered had 1 (read ONE) piece of chicken and a boiled egg for $10, the gravy though was decently flavored.
Oh yeah, their staff of 4 was sitting around and chatting while the rest of the patrons were not being served too!
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Thanks J.P for taking me here! I haven't compared it to anything else, but for a first timer, the food was really good. I still haven't gotten used to eating with my hands... I enjoyed everything we ordered... sambussa, ye doro wat, gomen, and I think we got the zilzil tibs, and whatever the cheese is.... yum!
now I have to find people who are willing to try it with me!
The restaurant is pretty popular as ethnic food is becoming more popular.... you may have to wait awhile if you arrive for dinner on a weekend... its worth the wait though!
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I give this place a 4 because the food is REALLY good. I get cravings for this place. Or, for the food I like to order, I should say. I get the zil zil tibs (ethiopian version of fajitas) and alicha wot (green beef stew) every time. I like the berbere sauce ones too. I admit, I stick to the not-so-strange dishes though.
Service can be realllllllly slow. Which is okay, it sort of fits the atmosphere. I have had jokes made by people I've taken here about "now they figured out why africans are starving" though. Bad joke, I know heh heh. I like to go on weeknights when it's not so busy or even order takeout. It's a fun experience with a group though, because of the whole presentation and way you eat everything (with the injera).
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I'll admit it, though the food was cool, new, and exciting, I can't say I'm a fan of ethiopian food though I do enjoy it. It was my friends birthday and she suggested Zeni's, so we had a whole massive plate full of food! I loved how instead of separating everything into it's own plate, we all shared from one massive plate. It was fun, much like the restuarant. It feels very warm and authentic. Their were many interesting new foods with new flavors. The rolled spongy bread they had was really spongy and salty and I found it hard to mix with the other meats and veggies so in the end i just used a fork and skipped the bread. The meat was a bit on the oily side, and all the vegetable dishes we had (veggie combo plate) were served cold. The service though slow, was friendly. Overall I really enjoyed the experience of eating at Zeni's but the food itself was only alright for me.
Once the weather started getting cold, I found myself coming to Zeni more and more. I'm sure I've consumed my weight in clarified butter over the past month, but scooping up spicy, hearty meat stews and slow-cooked vegetables off a giant plate with soft bread is so comforting and warm and social. I also recently discovered the fabulous Hakim Stout, imported from Ethiopia and an excellent complement to the food. Service can be -- how to put it? -- leisurely, but the food is absolutely worth it.
Also, people waiting for a table would do well to keep the front door shut. Brr!
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