Restaurant Review
Scott Plummer
This month, your faithful restaurant reviewer attempted to review all
the Ethiopian restaurants in town and in the process, he learned
something about women (that makes just 3 things that I now know about
women). Women absolutely
love to eat Ethiopian food! I
kid you not guys, I didn’t have to eat alone this month after I spread
the word that I was on an Ethiopian kick.
I sincerely hope that this kind of response carries over to Thai,
Czech, French, German, etc. I’ll
keep you apprised in my next article…
In the meantime, let me tell you that I had several enjoyable
dinners, both the food and the conversation at 3 of our fair city’s
Ethiopian restaurants. Normally,
I would leave it as an exercise to my readers to find directions to
these restaurants, however, as luck would have it, every one of the
Denver Ethiopian restaurants (there are 5!) is on East Colfax (Arada,
Nyala, Queen of Sheba, and “Ethiopian Restaurant”) or just off East
Colfax (Mesob). I had the
pleasure of reviewing Mesob, Arada, and Ras Kasa, which is just south of
30th and Pearl, in Boulder.
All three restaurants were strikingly similar with regard to
the bill of fare. In fact,
they were so similar that their menus could have been interchangeable.
All three had the same 5-6 dishes, lentils, cabbage &
potatoes, yellow lentils, etc. All
three serve their food without utensils. (That’s right, if you don’t like eating with your hands
you are out of luck.) All
three offered individual dishes or a shared platter, which made for more
interesting conversation as you reach across the plate to grab a smichen
of collard greens. The
dinners always came with a tomato salad called “fit-fit” and a
strange “salad” mixture consisting of lettuce and jalapenos.
The “utensils” consisted of soft bread with swiss-cheese like
holes, allowing diners to rip off a piece and use it to grab whatever
you want to eat. The bread
itself is so filling that my sister and I call it “expando bread”.
Whereas Mesob, Arada, and Ras Kasa all had the above
similarities, they were strikingly different in the quality and price of
the food, as well as the romantic atmosphere.
When we walked into Mesob, the place looked like a partly
converted dance hall straight out of Costa Rica, with about a dozen
Ethiopian men sitting at the bar. It
was fortunate for us that they were there to translate our order as the
waitress couldn’t speak a lick of English.
The menus were handwritten and the food was very inexpensive.
Unfortunately, the food matched the atmosphere in that it was
good (my companion ate everything in sight), but not anywhere near the
quality of Arada or Ras Kasa. Arada,
which translates to “downtown”, is run by a middle-aged couple; he
cooks and she is the extremely friendly waitress.
Rumor has it that the half dozen tables are usually packed, but
this night they were only half full and she had time to entertain us
with stories while we ate. The
wine was lackluster, but the food was superb.
The atmosphere was cozy and it would be a good place to take a
date, despite the E. Colfax location.
Ras Kasa, on the other hand, is definitely the place to go if you
want to have a romantic get away with someone special or if you want to
impress visiting dignitaries. The
food quality is out of this world as is the presentation (all the wait
staff wear traditional garb). I
highly recommend eating out on the porch, next to the gurgling stream
and, if you like coffee, I highly recommend the “Ethiopian coffee”
ceremony. Definitely call
ahead for reservations, if you don’t get there early as this place
usually has a 30-45min wait. Be
prepared to drop $6/plate at Mesob, $8 at Arada, and $10-12 at Ras Kasa.
Next time: Thai one on as Scott helps you navigate the best
restaurants of Thailand. As
always, please e-mail me at splummer@mines.edu,
if you would like to join me for dinner at restaurant.
I prefer the company.
