A Delicious Oxymoron

Blue Nile

Most people don’t think of food when they think of Ethiopia. In fact, to many people, the whole concept seems a bit of a contradiction, as starving Ethiopians were the poster children for global relief in the 1980s. However, this country, an ancient one with a rich cultural tradition, has really, really good food.

I’d had Ethiopian cuisine before my recent trip to Blue Nile at (address), and I really liked it. And prior to ever setting foot through the doors of this African restaurant, I knew I was in for a treat. Everything I had ever heard or read about the place was positive, something that’s virtually impossible in this cyber-age in which we live.


We had been out and about on Sunday; Natasha was shooting photos for her photography class. As luck (or my cleverly designed plans) would have it, we just so happened to be in the River Market area at lunchtime. While my lovely wife insisted she wasn’t really hungry, at my insistent urging, we headed to Blue Nile.

The interior of the restaurant was quite a bit smaller than I had anticipated, with only one server for the dozen or so tables in the place, which was decorated with paintings and artifact, which I’m assuming came from Ethiopia. In the far corner, vacuum pots of truly amazing Ethiopian coffee brewed in a row, and an eclectic crowd filled out most of the tables.

The menu offered roughly eight vegetarian dishes and six carnivorous entrees, as well as a pair of combination platters was small, but in my experience, an accurate representation of the country’s fare. Wanting to try everything, we opted for the large combination platter that featured all of vegetarian entrees, and one each of lamb, chicken and beef. So we had eleven things in all, the eight vegetarian dishes consisting of two lentil items, and one each of potato, greens, mixed veg, bean, cabbage and eggplant.


Served on flat a sweet, porous Ethiopian flat bread called injera, you aren’t provided with utensils, but rather tear strips of the bread and use that to pick up the food, making this meal both delicious and fun to eat.


Overall we were pleased with most everything, with our particular favorites being the two lentil dishes and the beef. One of the lentil dishes was sweet, while the other was savory with mushrooms. The beef tasted almost like barbeque in the flavor profile and was very good. The chicken we had was similar to the beef, while the lamb was curried. The potatoes, cabbage and eggplant dishes all had good flavor, and the greens and mixed vegetables were okay. In fact, the only item I didn’t really like was the beans.

With a huge amount of food (really the platter could easily have fed three, four if they weren’t too hungry), we ate far more than we intended, but I don’t regret it. And the coffee was fantastic as an end to the meal. Rich and flavorful, Natasha is now searching for a vacuum pot of our own.

The service was great, though a bit slow, and the atmosphere, from the photo of Haile Sellaisse on the door, to the authentic artwork only added to the charm of this place. Prices were quite in-line with what I expected, at around $10-12 for most entrees, and well worth the price considering the amount of food. Overall, I liked just about everything about the place. In fact, I’m quite sure we’ll be making the trek to the River Market sometime soon to feast upon this delicious cuisine again.

Scorecard
Food: 4.8
Atmosphere: 4.5
Service: 4.25
Menu: 4.5
Price: 4.5
Total: 22.55
Average: 4.51