The Ethiopian House

The Ethiopian House refused to give us cutlery... and we loved it.

The Ethiopian House
Where: 4 Irwin Avenue
Wellesley and Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M4Y 1K9
Price: $ (Our bill came to $30 for 4 people, including tax and tip)


Decided to go out of our element with Ethiopian food.

Interior;
strong incense smell and very authentic decor

TEH mantra

AMEN to that. No forks, spoons or knives - only hands

We got two Vege-beef lunch specials ($8.45)

Food comes to you in this woven basket

The two special orders were placed on a large plate under more injera <3. My favourite was injera with Tibs (pan fried beef) and Kitfo (beef tartar). This experience was taking finger foods to another level and I loved it :D

Injera
Look at all those little holes! Like pockets to catch all the flavouring :)

Injera
They were given to us folded like napkins

We ordered a huuuge Hot Stuffed Pepper ($1.85) that was deceivingly unspicy

Half veg (left hand side)/half meat (right hand side)

Our vegetable/meat platter came with:


Tibs (fried beef), Gored-Gored (chunks of beef mixed in seasoning), Tikil Gomon (Cabbage & Carrot), Atakelt wot (String beans and Potatoes), Yekik Alicha (yellow split peas in mild tumeric sauce), Sherro Wot (highly seasoned chick peas in a berbere sauce), . In the center lay a generous serving of cottage cheese and collard greens.


 Essentially, injera is used to scoop or grab up the veg/beef dish. All the while, the toppings sit on top of another large piece of injera which absorbs all the flavours and yumminess that you eat afterwards.

Strictly hands-only!

 We only ordered one (large) platter and it easily filled 4 people!

Ethiopian Coffee ($2.95)

Ethiopian coffee is far different from the coffee I'm used to. For one, the smell is extremely strong. It also intimidated me abit because I expected it to be very bitter. Strangely enough, it wasn't. The smell of the coffee helped add to the flavour. Ethiopian coffee is served with sugar and clarified butter instead of the regular cream and sugar.

TEH offers an "Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony" ($13 with enough coffee for ~6 people) and can take up to 30 minutes so I suggest you get this only when you have time to spare! It features a pan that roasts cofffee beans. Someone will usually wave the smoking pan around for everyone to smell. This is a tradition that allows patrons to sample the coffee scent before tasting it. This option is more for the presentation and ceremony than it is for the tasting.


However, we did not have time for the ceremony so we opted for just the coffee on its own :)

Clarified Butter in coffee

Definitely coming back to try more delicious food! A fantastic place for some really quality Ethiopian food.
If you're looking to eat something out of your element, we HIGHLY recommend TEH!!