Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant

I've eaten at every top rated Ethiopian Restaurant in the South Bay.  Best one in this area.  Get there early, it is always packed but worth the wait.

I have previously gone to a couple different Ethiopian places in the Santa Clara/San Jose area and I would say there are a couple things that make this place slightly different.

The first thing you'll notice entering is the decor and the different furniture pieces on there. You can either choose to sit in the back where there is traditional Ethiopian seating or in the front where there is the traditional seating.

When it comes to the food, there is a much more variety in offerings than my past experiences. You can either order from different combos or individual curries which is quite neat. We got the veggie and meat combo. The meat combo comes with beef, chicken and lamb. I would say the food is not too spicy for my taste and overall they used a wide variety of spices.

When it comes to the service, one thing to note is we came in on a Friday evening around 7pm, which would be naturally busy. After placing our order, we got it in about 30 mins.

Really nice vibe, tasty tea. For first time in an Ethiopian restaurant we got a bit of everything, and really liked chicken and lamb.
Overall nice experience to share the food with family and chill with some tea.
Wouldn't recommend beef (taste was a bit bland) and getting coffee as it takes awhile to prepare in our experience (~30 mins)

I've had Ethiopian food before, but it wasn't as authentic as Zeni! Just walking in the restaurant gives you an amazing Ethiopian feel and vibe.

We ordered the veggie combo platter (which is pretty popular to order). It had lentils which had a nice little kick, split peas, vegetables with carrots/potatoes, collard greens, on top of the injera. The injera was really interesting! It was a crepe like bread pancake. There was a nice little sour taste to it, but not too sour. We also got one of Zeni's specialties, the Yedoro Kitfo. It is a boneless ground chicken which was perfectly seasoned! I was pretty upset they didn't have sambussa when we went.... It was something I was looking forward to.

Overall, everything tasted good and the meal felt very hearty! Ethiopian food is super intriguing and interesting, I I would come back to try other dishes such as the sambussa!

Was trying out Ethiopian food after ages, almost over 20+ yrs. My father in law wanted to try out Zeni, most popular one in South Bay..and there was wait on a Sunday afternoon- about 15-20 min and we chose the ethnic seating area.
Great service and food was delicious! Highlight was the unique experience of eating from one large plate of enjira with various items. Coming back again to try other items!

These guys are amazing! By far the best Ethiopian food we have tried! They are so nice and warm there and feels like family there
Service is great and the most important everything was delicious!

This is our go to place for Ethiopian food. Our order is also pretty much the same all the time - the vegetarian combo that comes with my absolute fav - carrot, cabbage and potato curry (ataklet wot), miser wot (lenti), kiki alitcha (split peas) , gomen wot (collared greens) and tmatim fitifit (which is injera salad almost with tomatoes and tangy dressing). We usually skip the collard greens and get extra lentils mostly. The combo usually is good for 2 people and we are able to eat it all (almost).

I love that there is also an option to sit on the traditional seats in one section of the restaurant while the other side has a usual table chair set up.

Their Ethiopian honey wine and beer is also good. I am yet to try their coffee though (on my list)

Probably should have checked out Yelp for dishes.

I picked lamb tibs, it didn't taste like lamb, more like stirred fried chicken. Flatbread could have used some flavor, the sauce wasn't tasty enough.

Was really going for the African themed dinner area but it wasn't open. Service was very good.

I'm giving this place a 3 stars and that was a tough call. I'm going to be honest, I'm not a big fan of Ethiopian food but I wanted to try it and give it a fair shot. The reason I say it's decent is because the Sambussa is actually really good. The exterior and interior. Perfect texture and flavor is good. The world famous injera however did not amaze me. This isn't the restaurant, it's just my taste preference. I got the KITFO injera which is beef and herbs butter essentially. It's just way too acidic, salty, and spicy. I mean everything tasted ok if you're into Ethiopian I assume but for me, the flavor is too heavy. The meat is medium raw or rare. I did medium but even then still way too rare. I Togo the leftovers and seared it on a pan to make meat done done so it was pretty good.

If I ever come back, I'll stick with Sambussa.

A coworker recommended this place so we made dinner plans to come try it out together. And it did not disappoint!

We ordered vegetable combo and meat combo. Tried all 7 dishes that way and it was deliccccious!