The food and injera at Zeni Ethiopian are absolutely DELICIOUS! Highly recommend this place, the…read morefood is so tasty, the atmosphere is cute and cozy and the staff are some of the nicest people. I especially loved the ground beef and the lentils from our veggie and meat order. Everything was flavorful and the injera was heavenly. My friend and I were so caught up eating and chatting that we didn't realize they had actually been closed for almost half an hour! The staff were incredibly kind and courteous, they just continued cleaning around us without making us feel rushed or asking us to leave. That level of hospitality really stood out to me. I'll definitely be coming back.

First time trying Ethiopian food and everything was packed with flavor, and I loved eating with…read moreinjera, it made the whole experience feel so authentic. Every bite was delicious, and the portions were great for sharing. I also tried Ethiopian coffee for the first time, and wow... it was so good! Rich, smooth, and definitely worth ordering if you've never had it before, ended it with their delicious pastry. Great food, friendly service, and such a unique dining experience. I'll definitely be back!

Sentayhu Is very sweet and caring to her customers! Food is amazing and will try again. her other…read moreemployees are very sweet as well!

we had the doro wot and meat combo the water tasted great…read moreand was in a aesthetic jug prefrozen and thawed a bit best Ethiopian restaurant in the city

tldr: flavorful and filling eats, friendly staff, homey ambiance. great for sharing with friends!…read more I've been to Kategna a handful of times, and it is consistently spectacular! San Jose has a lot of solid Ethiopian restaurants, but Kategna is the best in my opinion. It's tucked into a quiet strip mall with plenty of parking. Once you step inside, you're immediately welcomed by a colorful, cozy space. The staff is super friendly and gives great recommendations. This is definitely a sharing spot. If you're a party of 4, I'd recommend picking 3-4 mains to split. They offer injera refills, but don't underestimate how filling it is. You can't go wrong with any of the tibs dishes. They're solid and well-seasoned, with that rich, savory spice blend that makes every bite so satisfying. My personal favorite dish is the shiro wat, a flavorful chickpea dish that's comforting, creamy, and packed with flavor. I also recommend the doro wat (chicken stew). The stew is deeply spiced and rich. It has a nice level of heat, but not one that it wholly overwhelming. Reservations don't seem to be necessary, unless you're coming with a party of 6+. They tend to have plenty of tables open, even on weekend nights. The food is also very vegan-friendly!

Restaurant It is…read moreinside a non descript strip mall. I traveled here from Fairfield. There are 8 booths and 10 sets of tables and 3 areas where it appears you would experience the authentic ethiopion coffee service. They were in the back preparing an order when we arrived so we waited short of 5 minutes for them to know we were there. When the waiter arrives she warmly greeted us and instructed us to sit anywhere. She quickly returned and provided us menus. Shortly thereafter our order was placed and we were provided water. We ordered our favorite no matter what ethiopian restaurant we go to and that is Gored gored Veggie platter Sambusas, the lentils inside were a bit hard and there wasn't much seasoning. I also ordered a cup of tea as I still had a cough from a cold Food The cabbage and greens were luke warm. The lentils were somewhat hot. The salad was fine and the gored gored was delicious. I wish their injera had more of a sour taste too it but overall food was good, service was good. I give them a 4 star review. Minus 1 point for the lukewarm food.

Saturday around 7pm and there were 3 other parties but overall not too busy which was great because…read morethe food came out so quickly. We ordered the Ethiopian Feast that comes with six vegan dishes of our choosing. We chose the: - Shiro (chickpeas) - Atkilt (cabbage, carrots, potatoes) - Sigo (berbere and tomato sauce) - Misir Wot (red lentil) - Key Sir (beets) - Difin Misir (brown lentils) Everything was delicious but the stand outs for me were the Sigo and Key sir. The Sigo was so spicy but so rich and the beets were sweet, earthy and savory. I also really enjoyed the injera, it wasn't as sour as other places.

Amazing experience at Walia, which is a cozy Ethiopian place! Kindness goes a long way in service…read moreand the staff were some of the kindest I've ever met. We went as a group of 6 and the staff were incredibly accommodating, including adjusting portion sizing for appetizers and giving us extra injera. The lentil sambussa was very tasty, crispy and surprisingly very savory. We got the Larry Page + Zuckerburg combo and it was more than enough to fill our stomachs. The lamb is FIRE. Everything was well spiced. We ended the night with their tiramisu, which was perfection. Kudos to the chef and this place is definitely a must try. There were a couple things on the menu that they were out of by the time we got there, but that just means we'll have to make another visit!

Modern vibes with traditional touches characterize this cozy restaurant. First time experiencing…read moreEthiopian cuisine, so our party of 2 put ourselves in the capable hands of our friendly server Liya! She did *not* steer us wrong in suggesting the Ethiopian Spiced Tea (unsweetened black tea leaves brewed with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, served hot or iced) and the following combination platters-- Two Meat Stew Items: Doro (chicken drumstick) Key Wot Stew (mildly spiced, slow-cooked in red sauce with caramelized onions, garlic, ginger, cardamom, and berbere--spiced chili powder) Asa (white fish) Alicha Stew (non-spicy, slow-cooked mild sauce base with caramelized onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, jalapeño peppers, basil, and cumin) Four Vegetarian Sampler: Atakilt (cabbage, carrots, and potatoes sautéed with onions, turmeric, tomatoes, garlic, & ginger) Miser (red lentils) Key Wot Shiro (roasted chickpea flower simmered with basil and jalapeños) Key Wot Kik (split peas) Alicha

Came shortly after evening opening time on a Wednesday night. No wait and not crowded. Ambiance is…read morebeautiful. Interior is decorated well and the vibes are immaculate with soft, soothing music. Service was 5/5. Liya was helpful with recommendations and super friendly! We shared the Ethiopian spiced tea, sambusa (spiced chicken), and LeYou Special. Ethiopian spiced tea was good and piping hot, it also came with honey and sugar which I appreciated. Sambusas were fantastic - the spiced chicken was flavorful, and puff pastry had a light fluffy crispy texture. LeYou Special was pretty good. My favorites were the fish, chicken, cabbage, and lentils. I do wish it were a bit hotter in temperature as many of them were lukewarm, especially the fish. For dessert we shared the brownie sundae and baklava. Both were pretty small. Not mindblowing but tasty sweet treats to satisfy the sweet tooth if you don't want to go elsewhere for dessert. Glad I got to try LeYou!

I was keen to try Mudai because they open a little earlier than other Ethiopian restaurants, and…read moreserve North African breakfast items like ful and scrambled eggs. I mean, what sounds better than Ethiopian breakfast? It's a little out of the way, in an industrial corner of downtown San Jose, but it's a sweet spot, worth seeking out. The place is charming. I like the open layout and the excellent service. There's a hangout kinda vibe. Soft, jazzy music makes it a relaxing space. I paired tomatoey scrambled eggs with a velvety, rich shiro hotpot, and brown injera, for a divine breakfast. On another occasion, I tried the veggie combo. The food is hot, wholesome, homey, fresh, tasty. Misir wot and shiro were my favorite dishes. Portions are ample. Food was served fast, which I appreciate.

3.5 stars. Delicious Ethiopian platter. This was shared between our party of 4. It also came with…read moreadditional injera (we also dug into the sauce soaked injera under the food, yum!). I think it would have been plenty even if we had one more adult. The restaurant space is clean, plenty of seating, and street parking was not too hard to find. Service could be a little more attentive, but I would say still worth the visit.

This is a little hole in the roll restaurant in a strip mall. It is clearly frequented by members…read moreof the Ethiopian community as a hangout. We were seated at a table in the corner. Our server identified that at least one of us was vegetarian. My wife had the vegetarian combo and I had a meat combo. In my case of meat combo consists of lamb, a chicken leg, and the dryish beef. As others had noted, it can take a little while to place your order. We enjoyed our food and look forward to coming back.

Teff Luck A…read morefamily-owned and run restaurant that's been serving up fresh, housemade Ethiopian cuisine for nearly twenty years in SJ's Westside. It's also been featured in the SF Chronicle's list of "Best Ethiopian Restaurants," which is a miracle unto itself since the Chronicle barely acknowledges anything outside of The City™. The Good: * Large shared parking lot * Outdoor dog-friendly seating * If you're sharing, make sure they plate it up family-style so everything is all on one plate. * Service was, well, serviceable. Not fantastic but not awful. * Injera was delicious and copious * Vegan, Vegetarian, and gluten-free friendly dishes * Great prices and large portions; we were able to get three meals out of two dishes and that's for less than $50! That's practically unheard of in this day and age. * If this is your first time eating Ethiopian--and if so, what took you so long??--then I recommend getting the veggie and meat samplers to get a true taste of Ethiopian cuisine. The Meh: * Their spicy isn't really that spicy. * They were out of Sambusas on our visit. I think they hadn't made them yet for the day as we were there pretty soon after opening. The Ugly: * The location is a little grungy and not an ideal date night location, but good enough for a casual lunch or suppah. Conclusion: We're blessed here in SJ with some fantastic Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurants and Selam is certainly one of the better ones. https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/best-ethiopian-restaurants-sf-bay-area/

Made a stop at this place after a long hiatus, and I would say the place looks a lot different than…read morethe deli-style place that I recall. I was not totally surprised by the change, and I have driven by multiple times, so I have seen the change from the outside. The interior looks like beautifully decorated bar that serves food. Service was pretty good and fast, and prices are still very reasonable. I had a quinoa plate with Jamaican Jerk and Red Curry. The quinoa was well-cooked without being too soggy or undercooked. For the Jamaican Jerk, the potato was not too soft, and the veggie cutlets were flavorful. For the Red Curry, the sweet potato, fried tofu, and bell pepper were well also.

This was my first time ever here at this bar and honestly, it was great!!…read more As my friend and I were leaving dinner, we walk home and I heard jazz music and I stopped to listen!! Somebody outside said we could come in and I realized it was a bar, but my friend and I were meeting up with some other people down the street first. The spot we went to meet them it was dead, so we actually walked back three blocks to good karma!! We were lucky that jazz band was still playing and apparently they play every Sunday from 7 PM through 9:30 PM!! They had a number of different beers on top as well as some bottled beers. I really want to come back and eat lunch here!! Sadly, they only had two red wines and no white wines. The red cab I had was tasty and worked fine for the evening, but mainly the live jazz band was my favorite part!! Great environment, good sound system, and amazing live jazz!! Not to mention the one bartender, a young lady who was running the whole joint by herself!! She kept everything clean and organized, and she was very patient with each customer that came up when they wanted to sample different beers! I will definitely be back!!

Loved the food, and the prices were from 10 years ago... $5.50 for a glass of red wine! wow. I had…read morea mild lamb dish and gomen wat - both were delicious! The spice was mild, as I had requested, but still very flavorful. generous portions, and lots of injera to accompany. The family was very friendly and the owner checked on us a few times. We are definitely going back to this lovely, family owned restaurant!

Very friendly service, tasty food, and generous portions. I've been to many of the other East…read moreAfrican restaurants in San Jose, and many have declined in quality, become much more expensive, or just closed. I'm happy to have found the Lunch Box!

My family's first time eating Ethiopian food and we were not dissapointed! It was great. We had the…read morevegeterian combo for two, lamb stew and a side of rice. Great tasting spices and really enjoyed the injera. Worth trying out if ever in Fremont area. Also shout out to the server who was really patient with us and my daughter. Very friendly guy

Very disappointed and confused about the raving reviews. I am not new to Ethiopian/Eritrean…read morecuisine, so as far as the food and flavors go, it was satisfactory at best. I ordered the meat combo. The injera doesn't have the sour flavor I was expecting, so I suspect it's blended and not made with all teff. The best part for me is to finish the left over stew-soaked injera at the end, but this experience was robbed from me when I discovered that they rinsed my plate and placed the injera on the plate while it was still wet, leaving it extra soggy and cold from the water. The service was good as the owner was attentive & made sure I was good. He gave me extra injera to remedy my complaint about my food being served on a cold, wet plate. I've never had a bad experience with Ethiopian food before, but this was what honestly killed it for me and literally left a bad taste in my mouth. Ambiance is good, the place was clean, it was quiet & peaceful when I came in on a Friday evening right before sunset. I probably would not visit again due to me having much better food & experience at other locations.