Etete Ethiopean Cuisine, Washington, D.C.

Saturday, Robert wanted to get together for a late dinner, so we wandered over to U Street, originally thinking we'd go to Ben's Chili Bowl, but there was a huge crowd there, so we walked on down the street and selected a new-to-us place, Etete Ethiopean Cuisine. Etete has been listed on several top restaurant lists, so we thought it would be a safe choice.

They have an attractive restaurant that seats only about three dozen in a long, very narrow dining room painted in warm gold tones. It looks like pretty much any contemporary restaurant in D.C., down to the big bar in the back end. On one wall, there was a little bit of small, framed, Ethiopean art, but the rest of that wall and all of the other wall was lined with all kinds of reviews and awards. There is a club room upstairs (we didn't go up) that featured live music; we saw a lot of very well-dressed Ethiopean-Americans coming and going up there.

As is typical for Ethiopean restaurants, both of our food was served on the same injera bread-lined platter. Injera is like a very large, round, spongey, sourdough tortilla made from teff flour (an African grain). I ordered the Special Etete kitfo, a dish of minced beef with hot pepper spices and herbed Ethiopean butter. It's often eaten raw, but I asked for it to be cooked; it was, but it was definitely very rare. The "special" meant that the dish was accompanied by three different types of fresh-made cheese. Robert, not being terribly adventurous that night, ordered just the regular kitfo, so that's why we have two piles of the same thing on the platter. The kitfo had a nice, fresh flavor, though I would have preferred less oiliness from all the butter poured over the meat. The meal also came with a little green salad, some nicely flavored chopped, stewed collard greens, and some yellow lentils (all served on the platter), plus a basketful of rolled up injera that is used in place of flatware to grasp and eat the food.

We inquired about dessert (many Ethiopean places serve Italian-style desserts, since Italy once occupied neighboring Eritrea), but they don't have desserts at Etete.

Etete offered us a pleasant dining experience with lots of attending staff and decent food at reasonable prices. Our evening was marred only by a table of four drunk women—business colleagues—who were having some kind of party and being very, very loud. Unfortunately, the waitresses continued to serve the women cocktails, and they were still there when Robert and I left.