I discovered this Ethiopian restaurant that is veg friendly. I was wondering if there are hidden ingredients I should watch out for, like in Asian dishes where foods labeled "vegetarian" possible contain fish sauce or eggs.



I'd really like to take advantage of their lunch buffet, but I wanted to see if there are Ethiopian food enthusiasts here that could give me some recs. Thanks.

I like Ethiopian food, but I just had it for the first time with Anthony11 a few weeks ago in Seattle, so I'm not exactly an experienced guide. But anthony is vegan, and when we ordered the veggie plate there, we didn't have to make any special requests. Everything was already vegan, and it wasn't a special veg-friendly restaurant either. It seemed to be a fairly omni place overall. FWIW, every Ethiopian restaurant I've looked up here in Houston also has a vegetarian plate, so it seems to be a fairly veg-friendly cuisine.

I *love* Ethiopian food.



I've only been to one restaurant in Toronto called Addis Ababa. And MAN is it good.



But five trips there in the last two years hardly makes me an expert.



I tend not to look at the non-veg*n options on a menu, but it doesn't strike me that there is anything fishy of eggy going on in Ethiopian cuisine. So it would surprise me if there was anything hidden. I was told there wasn't when I asked, and I guess I'm just trusting that way.



Mostly it's spiced lentily, potatoy, carroty, cabbagey type things all served on injera (it's like a giant crepe) so it's pretty out in the open.



But, yeah. My advice is go in and ask.



Oh, and the coffee is to die for. They serve it alongside some burning frankincense. It's a real kick in the teeth.



Cheers!

TJ

I love Ethiopian food and the restaurants around here have plenty of vegetarian offerings. I've never asked whether they dishes are vegan, but I would guess that most if not all of them are. Of course you should be sure to ask if you're concerned.

That's strange. The only time I ever had Ethiopian was with Anthony in Seattle too. I loved it, but would have to go practically to another state to find any.

I feel so fortunate now, because it turns out there are 4 or 5 Ethiopian restaurants in Houston! I feel like the girl with diamonds on the soles of her shoes.

I love Ethiopian cuisine!!! We have a handful of Ethiopian restaurants in L.A., including one that's 100% vegan.



A lot of Ethiopian recipes call for seasoned butter (nit'r qibe), so they're not ordinarily vegan. However, I do know that a large percent of the population is Eastern Orthodox (the same as the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches), whose followers observe very strict fasting rules on as many as 1/3 of the days in the year, abstaining from all animal products during many fasting periods. So their cuisine includes plenty of creative vegetarian and vegan dishes and substitutions. I'm hungry just thinking about it!

I planned one of my most recent veggie dine-outs at an Ethiopian restaurant in Minneapolis. It was my first time having Ethiopian food, and I really liked it. 1/4 of the menu was sectioned off for just vegan items. There are other types of ethic foods that I like a lot more though, so I probably won't eat there very often.

Oh man... I LOVE Ethiopian food.

(Hey! I've gone to Ethiopian with Anthony, and Froggy too - but not Tess )

At every Ethiopian place I've ever been, the "vegetarian" option was completely vegan. Some places do use butter, as noted above, but most do not, due to their religious and cultural dietary restrictions re: fasting, abstaining from animal products, etc.



If they say the choices are vegan and free of animal products, it's probably VERY likely they truely are vegan, as they take their dietary restrictions very seriously.

I loved Ethiopian food the half dozen times I had it, it was sorta bland to my palate, yet very satisfying. A "good bland," I guess, lol. It was in Houston where I had it, Tesseract, a buffet place there. Wish I could remember the name or exactly where it was for you. I think it might've been on the east end of Westheimer, but it's been 5+ years....

I've only had Ethiopian once but I LOVED it. It was a little like Middle Eastern and a little like Indian but still so different than anything I'd ever eaten. The Ethiopian food I had was in Austin on my honeymoon so I looked up Ethiopian in Dallas, and a lot of restaurant reviews I read said that they had 7 to 10 vegetarian dishes, or a vegetarian friendly menu and staff.

I looked up the Ethiopian places in Houston, and none of them are on Westheimer, so it may have closed. That's the general part of town where you find most of the more unusual ethnic restaurants, though.

One more thing about Ethiopian food... I'm not really a pancake fan, but if you warm up a piece of injera (Ethiopian fermented teff crepe), top it with Earth Balance and maple syrup, you'll have the most amazing sourdough pancake! Full of sourdough flavor, light, airy and spongy -- not wet, pasty and doughy like regular pancakes with syrup.

I've been once (in Wisconsin, oddly enough). It was yummy.



ebola

Wow, that's interesting, because most places have the option of ordering some of the items very hot. Ethiopian traditionally uses lots of spices.

I was thinking the same thing, because my dinner at Queen Sheba seemed to have a nice moderate spiciness, but you know how palates differ when it comes to heat. I wouldn't say it's necessarily a "hot" cuisine, but it definitely seemed heavily seasoned.

Hey, are there any Ethiopian Restaurants in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area?

I've eaten Ethiopian in a number of cities, and it has always been awesome.



I took my daughter down to ASU in Tempe, AZ last year, and we visited an Ethiopian Restaurant near campus. We ordered the vegetarian sampler, and it was great! There weren't many people in the restaurant, so the proprietor took special interest in us. He brought us out three more vegetarian sample dishes that weren't on the menu. He said they were new recipes they were thinking of adding. "Add away", I say!

I've only eaten Ethiopian twice, both times in D.C., and I ADORED it. I didn't ask about whether their dishes were vegan (I should have, but that's a personal hurdle I've not gotten over yet ), but they were definitely vegetarian and listed as such.

I love ethiopean food - not as much as I love indian food, but its wonderfully exotic and different. I love the way food is presented, on that spongey bread. The place in Boston (addis red sea) has a vegetarian menu which is completely vegan. Very tasty. I took a friend there once, who now proclaims Ethiopean food to be one of her favorite foods, even though she's only had it once ;-)

love it, love it, love it!



I've been told that even meat-eating Ethiopians (and Eritrians) eat veg for many days of the year and are therefore very veg friendly.

BTW, I found this helpful link about Ehtiopian food. There is a "For Vegetarians" link on the left side.



http://www.ethiopianrestaurant.com/

Ethiopian is my #1 favorite ethnic food

Vegetarian Ethiopian food in resteraunts is for the most part vegan and I have long since stopped asking if it was. The only thing that might be non vegan is if the chef were to use a special spice clarified butter but I've never encountered that as most use vegetable oil. Also there is a cultural awareness of what vegan means because the orthodox church in Ethiopia has over 200 "fasting" days which are completly vegan.



Btw that resteraunt in Tempe, Arizona, the Blue Nile Cafe, is the best ethiopian I've had out of seven places I've eaten at in Arizona, Washington DC and Maryland.

Actually I was thinking about the spicy-hot thing when I wrote that -- that calling it bland would sound weird because there definitely is heat! I guess I was trying to get at the lack of a lot of other flavors that I'm used to, like garlic, or basil or whatever.

Hey,

Ethiopian food was my favorite (along with Indian) before i went raw. However, I vowed that if ever I found a vegan ethiopian spot I would do it again. My prayers were answered. There's a great restaurant in L.A. on Fairfax called Rahel's. It's delicious. I almost had an orgasm the first night I went there. LOL