Oooh we just love the Reader’s thematic review roundups. This week: Ethiopian! Fun fact: Our Boyfriend does not like Ethiopian food, and we totally do not grok that. How is it possible to not like it? The yeasty flatbread, injera, is so sticky! The greens are so flavorful! But we digress. On with the show:
• First up, Green Village (5848 N. Broadway, 773 275 5677), which was formerly the middle-eastern restaurant Paradise. It’s now an appealing hybrid of middle eastern and Ethiopian food (retaining all the “eye-popping, idiosyncratic” art and decor that made Paradise so much fun), and the food is handled competently — a slightly dry falafel is offset by an ideally fragrant Jerusalem salad, slightly dry beef tips are overshadowed by a lamb kebab so good that it draws passersby off the street. [Schmidt, Reader]
• Not too far from Green Village is Lalibela (5631 N. Ashland Ave, 773 944 0585), which is straight-up Ethiopian. Their well-executed dishes are apparently going underappreciated — the restaurant is uncannily devoid of customers — but there’s plenty to draw in a crowd. Vegetarians will be happy with the usual lineup of spiced stewed vegetables, but carnivores are the real winners: lamb seasoned with onion, rosemary, and jalapeño knocks it out of the park. [Schmidt, Reader]
• And finally, site of our own personal first Ethiopian restaurant experience, Blue Nile. It’s a solid, florid winner: the end of the meal saw “comically high stack of boxed-up leftovers” measured against a “comically small bill,” and that’s after our dear reviewer ate her weight in mouthwatering-sounding preparations of lentils, meat, and vegetables. [Paghdiwala, Reader]
[Photo: Ethiopian platter at Blue Nile, via Andrew Huff’s Flickr]
