Where to get started:
Lucy Ethiopian Restaurant & Lounge: By far Houston's nicest place to enjoy Ethiopian food, Lucy features three separate areas in its sprawling restaurant: a full bar, a standard American dining room and a more traditional Ethiopian one that encourages you to lounge on the pillow-laden floor while you eat. Prices are very reasonable, especially considering the amount of food you receive. And while there are some non-Ethiopian dishes for any in the group who aren't keen on the East African cuisine, the best stuff here comes out with a pile of fluffy injera bread: ruddy doro wat stew, berbere-scented kitfo and a vegetarian platter piled high with lentils, greens, cabbage and more.
Blue Nile: The city's oldest Ethiopian restaurant is run by a mother-daughter team who import everything -- even the spices -- from Ethiopia. Blue Nile is therefore a little more expensive, but the quality of the food that arrives in big, colorful platters bears out the added cost. This is also the perfect place to indulge in a traditional coffee ceremony or a honey-sweet jug of tej.
Sheba Cafe: Sheba Cafe fits right into the colorful hodgepodge of its multicultural Gulfton neighborhood (where you can even purchase Ethiopian groceries and other sundries from Maru, just a few blocks away). In the mornings, it's quiet on this stretch of Bissonnet, perfect for enjoying a leisurely Ethiopian breakfast over a very strong cup of coffee. Order the kinche for an African twist on oatmeal that even kids will love. Evenings are ideally suited to long dinners with friends over communal dishes of doro wat and giant plates of tabor.
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