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| - The restaurant is easy to find, right on 10th in Kensington, but the door is off to one side which is great - keeps street noise and annoying breezes away from the other diners. Upon entering the first thing I noticed was the warm colours and rich woods everywhere. It's very inviting and cozy. Our group was seated, conveniently, at a series of tables stretching the length of the middle of the main dining area.
We looked at menus for fun, just to see what kind of food they had, though the dinner was pre-planned. There's a great description of the restaurant, some of the ingredients they use, and how they came inside the front of the menu - they use spices I'd never even heard of which was exciting! I tried the Pinot Grigio which was light and crisp, great for the hot day outside and the first round brought out was a series of plates with puff pastry triangles and little bowls of hot sauce. The triangles, which look like samosas, are filled with a delicious lentil mixture for the vegetarian ones (we didn't have the beef ones). They're great with the hot sauce which sneaks up on you a little but is so flavourful with great spices and a little smokiness. We each had one and I split an extra with Derek they were so good.
By this point everyone was pretty comfortable and the conversation was getting lively. The platters brought out were huge for the main course! There was the giant puffy bread circle, loaded with mounds of Cabbage/carrot (delicious!!), lentils, split peas, lamb, ground beef, and chicken. There were several rounds of rolls of extra bread brought for us to eat with, and steaming-hot bowls of rosemary beef and mushrooms (I passed on those ones but the beef was delicious). The food was so good we all stuffed ourselves silly and then had to take leftovers home. The last time I had Ethiopian I left starving...this time I was satisfyingly over-full.
You can tell they cook from the heart, and I can't wait to eat there again!
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