| rev:text
| - For starters, this restaurant has great flavor and this review is based on this one experience my family had while visiting here.
While in the area, my wife, in-laws, and I were trying to figure out what would be great for dinner. Zoma appeared in Yelp and I was tickled to see there was an Ethiopian place walking distance from where we were at. My wife and I live in Los Angeles, CA, and there's an area there called "Little Ethiopia" filled with restaurants I'd frequent. I've been trying to get my wife to go with me for some time. Her very first Ethiopian experience was here at Zoma.
We went in to get a table and the place was packed. We were told by a gentleman that they were in fact packed and it'd probably be about 10 minutes until a table opened up. We were all very hungry, but were totally okay with a 10 minute wait. They offered to collect our phone number to let us know when a table opened up.
So we went across the street to The Wine Spot for a beer. 20 minutes goes by and we'd heard nothing. So we closed our tab and walked back to find that there were new customers seated in tables not previously marked as reserved, but other tables still marked as reserved. So we had to raise a moderate amount of hell. They explained to us that these were reservations and we countered that the tables people were sitting at weren't previously marked reserved. The server we locked horns with said we'd have to take it up with his boss. The boss came over, gave the same reasoning, apologized, and sat us down at a table marked as reserved. We were immediate met by a gentlemen who let us know it was his first day on the job. He was very humble and nice, but didn't know the details of the establishment yet. So we put in some appetizers and ordered our beverages.
The appetizers took an average amount of time to get to the table. I was surprised to learn that Zoma doesn't do sen'na bert (hand-washing ceremony) at the table I've been part of in every other Ethiopian restaurant. They do have a hand-washing sink towards the restroom if you require such a thing (which I recommend considering it's communal finger food).
The food came shortly after and the server wasn't able to tell us which was which and said he'd need to bring someone else out to tell us about our food. So a minute later the first server we conflicted with came out (very friendly with a smile) and explained what we were eating.
They also stocked us up with a healthy supply of injera to keep eating. It was delicious.
We are well, and felt full afterwards. The only reason we gave it 3 stars is how we were handled leading up to being seated and that we were given a new employee to take care of us instead of a seasoned person familiar with the restaurant. But we'd probably eat here again while in the area. If so and the service improves, I'll change my response.
***UPDATE (03/23/2017): I just received a message from the owner. It's very clear the owner genuinely cares very much about the experience of their customers. As a former small business owner myself, I totally understand where he's coming from. It is a very small restaurant and the tables can fill quickly. As the only Ethiopian restaurant in the area, the influx of customers is probably very unpredictable in such a small restaurant so it's advised to make reservations if you're able to. As I said before, the quality of food is wonderful. I'm sure our next experience will be vastly better. I've added a star due to the sheer nature of the concern and outreach the owner demonstrated. That goes a long long way.**
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