Ottawa Foodies

My girlfriend and I absolutely love ethiopian food so we we're thrilled when we discovered Habesha.

We were previously regulars at East African on Rideau. However after a sub-par meal at E.A. on what I expect was an off night we decided to try Habesha for our next visit.

Well we tried Habesha and we absolutely loved it! Even though the Ethiopian restos on rideau are closer for me, Habesha is the only one I'll ever visit again. We've probably returned 6-7 times for dinner in the last 4 months. This place has the best Ethiopian food in the city period! :)

It's all about the food... I agree with the previous poster that the decor is basic. Importantly, however, the place is also very clean and well ventilated; ie. you don't feel like you're walking into the kitchen (important when eating at a restaurant with spicy food)

It's a great place to eat with a friend or as a foursome. The food is served on a large communal platter and you get to eat with your hands, soo fun!

Personal favorites include: the Doro wot (chicken and an egg in the spicy berbere sauce, and the beef in a spicy berbere sauce (can be ordered with beef cubes, or ground beef). The veggie platter seems popular as well but we've prefered the chicken and beef dishes and usually order one of each to share and just ask for salad on the side.

Sorry that I don't have any pics yet, I'll try to get some on my next visit. I wanted to give this place props and I hope some people on this site try it and give their honest opinion. Because in my opinion this place is the perfect example of a hidden gem in the city. Delicious, high quality food made with love a care and oh yeah it's very inexpensive. Although the customer base is still growing, I seem to see many repeat customers during my repeat visits, and that's always a positive sign. Go with an open mind, good friends, and an appetite and leave satisfied and with enough money in your wallet for your next visit.

I ordered the platter which I always order my first time at any Ethiopian restaurant. Came with the usual chicken and egg doro wot, ground beef, lamb (I think - see later), lentils and a few other veggie lumps on injera - a type of flat bread. We also ordered marinated lamb cooked with onions but they were out of lamb so substituted with beef. It was very good but the tiniest bit tough - I would have preferred the lamb. One or both of these dishes came with salad which was piled onto the injera along with the other 2 dishes but it was on a huge serving dish so there was lots of room.

My friend ordered the veggie platter which came with more veggie stews than the other Ethiopian places. But this was the only veggie dish on the menu. One of the veggie stews was green and a slight bit bitter. Refreshing once you got used to it and complemented my meat well - but if you're vegetarian...

I think the food tasted as good (maybe a bit better than) Horn of Africa and East African (although I haven't been there in a while) and almost as good as Blue Nile. Blue Nile is still my favourite.

Habesha is definitely solid. Very good food. Good service. The place is very basic though.