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.

Good food and a casual ambiance, but the service was quite slow. Our dishes didn't arrive together,…read moreand by the time the last person got their food, the first person had already finished and packed up their leftovers. We weren't even a large party, so I'd keep this in mind if you're dining with a bigger group. Family-style dining might work better here, but individual orders can be challenging when dishes arrive so far apart. The salad could also have been fresher and better cleaned. On the positive side, all the cooked dishes we ordered were flavorful.

I've been to Zeni a few times now, and it's definitely one of my favorite places for Ethiopian…read morefood. The food is delicious, with really good quality and flavor, and eating Ethiopian food is such a fun experience--especially sharing the dishes and eating together with your hands. The restaurant is also nicely decorated and has a warm, inviting atmosphere. I've tried Ethiopian restaurants in different parts of the Bay Area as well as in other parts of the country, and Zeni really stands out. The quality here is consistently excellent. I always look forward to coming back for Ethiopian food. Highly recommended!

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.

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

This is a cute hole-in-the-wall place with a good portion size (veggie combo serves 2 and was…read moreextremely filling) and a kind lady running the business, cooking the food, and serving the customers.

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

Tried LeYou after seeing this on the Michelin guide and had a decent experience. This spot is…read morelocated in an unassuming plaza with plenty of parking. When we came for lunch it was relatively open so we were promptly seated which was nice. Service was very nice and fast here as well. The ambiance here is really pretty with lots of decour and paintings/photos. For food we tried: * Chicken Sambusa - these were crispy with a ground chicken filling and came piping hot. We enjoyed eating these a lot * tuna kitfo - this came with injera chips and kind of like a tuna poke ethiopian style. This was my favorite and so flavorful * Lamb doro tibs - these were flavorful succulent pieces of lamb * Chicken doro tibs - succulent pieces of chicken which we would scoop up with injera bread * Fish curry - i forgot the name but I liked this, the curry soaks up the injera bread which is nice and flavorful. I wish we ordered more curries! * We also tried the collard greens side and a few others but nothing was a particular standout for me Overall food was not bad but Found the main dish a little lacking in flavor from what I was expecting. Nice place to check out though!

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.

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.

Vegetarian platter and spiced tea were excellent, restaurant clean with attractive decor and booths…read moreas well as smaller tables.

Absolutely delicious and my new go to for Ethiopian food! I ordered the vegetarian medley / platter…read more(not sure what it was called exactly) & the meat combo, which was pork, beef, and chicken! Bursting with flavor and an incredible amount of food. I LOVED the vegetable combo, although I wish there was more lentils in there! The collard greens were delicious as well!!!! The meat combo was packed with flavor and truly soooo good with the injera! I am so coming back here and highly highly recommend Kategna to anyone who frequents or wants to try Ethiopian food! Delicious!! I ordered pick up, but I had the best customer service at Kategna picking up my order :) Thank you

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 .

I was craving Ethiopian food and was looking for a place that was open during COVID-19. Usually I…read morestick with Zeni, but I wasn't close to the area. Found this place and was excited to order their Meat Combo which was $18 and came with Doro Wot, Ye Begin Wot, and Kitfo (beef), and a veggie entrée of choice along with some Injera bread. I ordered the Kitfo to be raw and spicy with my choice of vegetarian entree to be lentils. The total came out to about $25 with tax and everything. When I took the food out of the package. I got a tiny portion of one of their stews in two small sections in the to-go box which honestly both tasted the same despite them listing two different wots/stews, and the Kitfo seemed to be in the main part of my box and it WAS FULLY COOKED and DRENCHED IN SALT AND OIL. Even though I ordered the kitfo to not be cooked, which is an option, they still managed to cook it by dumping a gallon of hot oil over it (see picture). 70% of the dish was old oil rather than food. I got no vegetarian entrée as promised and the Kitfo was WAY oversalted and not edible. The two stews were okay, but besides this I felt cheated. I would not recommend anyone order pickup or delivery from this place. You have many other options around you as Ethiopian restaurants have increased in the area. The one review that comes before mine was not factored into the review of this place and is obviously the owner or one of the employees writing the review. There is only one review from that person ever in their Yelp history, and it is obviously promoting this business. Don't be fooled. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

The food here is absolutely delicious! The veggie combo…read moreplatter is very filling and so soft as well. I brought my dad here since he has a hard time biting so I wanted to find something that is soft and nutritious at the same time. He absolutely loves it and said this is exactly what he needs. Service is great! They came to checkin on us and were super friendly. Ambiance is nice. There are a few seats inside if you choose to dine in. But not as many. Defini a to go spot.

Homey local spot with great food ^_^ My bf is a huge fan of Ethiopian food. Exciting to find a spot…read morewhile we were out running errands in Fremont! Located in a small strip mall. Quiet and tidy. We were welcomed warmly and seated immediately on a Wednesday evening. The staff almost seemed surprised that we wanted to dine in, perhaps we were different than the average regulars ^^; VEGGIE COMBO PLATTER: My bf and I split this-- it's huge! My favorite was the red lentil stew. Their injera is less tart than other places I've been to-- I actually liked it more this way. ETHIOPIAN STYLE EGG: Delicious!! I've rarely met an egg dish I didn't like. This was my first time trying one Ethiopian-style. Savory and flavorful. Went great with the injera and salad. As we dined, the staff were very attentive, continually checking on us and our water. Great hospitality.