The food is solid, first time having Ethiopian food. Personally really enjoyed the greens and the…read morebeef / lamb parts of the dish. Service is great too, they were super friendly and the place was lively when I was there. I know you're supposed to eat with your hands but we did ask for spoons 3 times that never came for some people in our group . ALSO THE FOOD Portions was massive it said 3-4 people and we order more food. We over ordered. The family dish was definitely more like 5-6 people.

It's been over a decade since I've been here…read more.. 3.5 *** rounded to 3 *** They were out of several items on the menu. Not sure what's going on. I understand being out off one or two items, bet several? that's a bit discouraging for repeat customers and also hard to recommend Walia to other folks. Not a whole lot has changed. The service has gotten a lot better. It's much more timely, gone is the lengthy arduous wait I experienced in the past. The venue does feel a bit older, slightly more aged than before. Parking can be a bit challenging as there are several new businesses that opened up in the plaza. I don't remember the outdoor seating, a welcome addition. Walia still gets crowded, and the food was still good. #WaliaCombo: ~ Larry Page Combo - 4/5 A healthy amount of food. Initially it doesn't look like a lot, however when you dig in, you start to realize how filling the combo is. Everything was tasty and had a good amount of flavor. The Lamb was our favorite, followed by the Chicken, while the Beef was a bit overcooked. ~ Bethe Honey Wine - 3/5 I can't do the stuff this sweet anymore. It's tasty, but a sip or two is all I can do. Tastes exactly as described See you again in a decade or so Walia...lol

Tasty food , excellent ambience, friendly staff. We tried Chicken and lamb options which are pretty…read morenice

Lamb seems like a popular option among the reviews here. However, my friend and I don't eat lamb so…read morewe skipped it. It was a bit hard for us to choose what to order despite there being descriptions in the menu. It'd be great if they add a star or something for the most recommended orders. We ended up choosing sambussa, qeiy wat, and kikil kitfo. The sauce that came with the sambussa was slightly spicy but very salty. It wasn't bad, I just wish it was less salty. I wouldn't highlight it as a must get though. We were surprised by the amount of injera that came with our order. It's pretty cool they split the orders into two portion. My friend and I were bloated and yet we still have half to save as leftover. The injera was good- as expected. The two beef items we ordered was supposed to be spicy but I didn't taste any spice at all. I liked the kikil kitfo (finely chopped beef) more than the qeiy wat (stewed beef cube) when we were at the restaurant. However, when I reheated the leftovers and mixed the proteins w ayib (cottage cheese), I actually preferred the qeiy wat more.

Went here tonight and had an amazing dinner. We ordered the veggie and meat combo plate and we ate…read morethe plate clean! We were taken care of by the lady working the restaurant and she was so sweet; she gave us extra injera too! We love trying the Ethiopian food around the area and we're glad we got to try this place out tonight! Definitely will come back here soon!

This was a really yummy spot, we got the veggie and meat sampler. The owner was working by himself…read morethis night, and was understandably overwhelmed but it was worth the wait for others. We lucked out and got there first among the clientele. We enjoyed the food,and hope others will too! The njera was perfect, the chicken was well spiced and fall off the bone , and the salad on top crunchy to name a few highlights

Amazing food and ambience. It felt very cozy and intimidate. Prices are reasonable given the area…read more Liya was our server and was very kind!

Amazing experience. Liya was impressive. She acted with all the care and detail that an Owner…read morewould provide. Helped us understand the tradition and way to eat the portions. Food was vibrantly flavored and prepared.

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!

I like bread. And I like bread even more when they're stuffed with other stuff. Did this place meet…read moremy standards? Hmmm somewhat. LOCATION: So the store is part of a shared kitchen located in a commercial park. I saw a drug deal go down right in front of me. And by drug deal, I actually mean a Door Dasher picking up his precious cargo. But who knows...there might be drugs hidden in his Door Dash bag instead of food. ORDERING: It is online only. So order before you get there. Or be like me and wait 10-15 minutes for your food at the spot. At least they have comfortable chairs. 10/10. Would smash again. There are 3 different meat-filled sambusas on the menu and I ordered 1 of each type. Oh yeah, the lady running the store gave me an extra sambusa for me having to wait. Very nice of her. Great service. BEEF (Wannabeef): There's seasoned ground beef and bean in the filling. HOWEVER!...the beans almost completely overpowers the taste of the beef. Overall, I liked this, but I would prefer a stronger beef flavor. CHICKEN (Flustercluck, but I call it clusterfuck): There's roasted chicken, corn, and red peppers in the filling. I like the texture of the chicken, but the filling flavor was kinda bland. SHRIMP (Aquatarian): Cot' damn. For only $4.25, this thing packed full of shrimp. By itself, the shrimp has a slightly sweet, caramelized taste, but is way too salty. The acid from the califa or kandake sauce complements this sambusa by balancing out the saltiness. BREAD: I like bread so much that I dedicated a section just for it. The outside was fried and the inside was soft, slightly chewy, and moist. It was very thin. THE 3 SAUCES: (Btw, they're 50 cents a piece. I postponed laundry day so I could use my quarters to pay for the sauces.) CALIFA SAUCE - Similar to Asian sweet and sour sauce, but more watery and more acidic. Has some heat to it. Califa is Arabic for "religious leader" or maybe "king". (That's right...you also get random knowledge in this food review. You're welcome.) KANDAKE SAUCE - I think Kandake means "queen". And just like most women, this sauce is hard to describe and understand. Just kidding #feminism. This is a watery, orange-colored sauce that vinegary and salty. There's some herbs in here. I want to guess dried parsley/oregano, dried peppers, and sumac. ISIS SAUCE - Just by writing about this sauce, I risk getting wire-tapped by the Feds. But I'm doing it for the Yelpers (...and the ratchets). I got ch'yall. This is similar to Greek Tzatziki sauce. It's a white sauce with tart yogurt as the base. I'm gonna guess that Isis means "princess" just to keep with the theme here. Or maybe it's a reference to Egyptian Goddess Isis.

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.

Authentic Ethiopian flavors and generous, shareable platters. Food was flavorful injera and hearty…read morestews along with vegan/gluten-free options. The staff were very welcoming and attentive. Very clean and spacious. Ordered: meat combo, vegetarian combo, honey wine, and lamb Derek tibs. Free parking lot next door.

stopped by for dinner on thursday night. ordered the meat combo, veggie combo, and a glass of the…read morehouse wine. the veggie combo comes with yesimer wot (split red lentils), kik alitcha (split chickpeas), gomen wot (collard greens) and atakilt wot (cabbage/potato/corn). the cabbage mix was the least spicy so it was a good palette cleanser while the the lentils and chickpeas were my favorite. the meat combo comes with doro wot (chicken drumstrick), key wot (prime beef), alicha wot (beef stew), ayib (cheese) and salad. the key wot was very buttery. my favorite from this combo was the alicha wot. the combo is a good choice if you would like a little bit of everything. everything was so saucy, flavorful and fragrant. i enjoyed every bite! the food was good, the service was great and the ambiance was nice. i would recommend and even come back again.

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.

Here is my two cents on the quality quantity and price of my order... it was delivered by GrubHub…read morein a timely matter. what I don't like about GrubHub is you cannot just add a tip you have to talk to customer service.. which is a stupid and ridiculous. hoop. You have to jump through to give the driver extra money... Unto the lunchbox food If you never had Ethiopian food, it's not meant or utensils .. they give you their soft bread and you dip it in sauce and you add the items of what you're going to eat. It is more of a communal situation .. I found the food to be quite good though not as big of a portion as I would like.. I did ask for it to be extra hot and spicy And while it was the most spiciest and hottest hot sauce, I have ever tasted almost in my life . It was good, but you had to drink a beer or milk to cool your mouth off. If you're looking for something spicy, this is the place beware .

Very homey! Absolutely fantastic comfort food. And rather large portions…read more Friendly atmosphere. The chef cares for the quality of food and service. A must visit destination for authentic tasting Ethiopian food.

ORDER Meat Combo Platter (2 persons)…read moreVeggie Combo Platter (2 persons) Lamb Tibs Fish Goulash STARS (stand out qualities) -Food (5/5 stars) - everything was tasty and I especially liked the fish goulash dish; most veggies were not spicy some meat or spicy; fish was sweet and sour and lamb tibs juicy -Service (4/5 stars) - very friendly and attentive service, even when they are busy and understaffed -Ambiance (4/5 stars) - small, very warm and clean restaurant; the bathroom was super clean and smelled good (above average compared to other restaurants) STAIRS (areas of growth) -Add napkin dispensers at each table -ideally get napkins that are a little thicker; I felt like I was wasting the thin napkins TIPS -the bigger tables can fit about 4-5 people and smaller tables can fit about 2 to 3 people -there are about 2-3 big tables and about 3-4 smaller tables -pay at the counter -call ahead to order. if you want to save time

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.