Marathon Restaurant

This place is amazing! The food is great. I love all their meat dishes and veggies. It’s truly authentic. I feel like I am back in Ethiopia everytime I go here. Oh… and you know the food is good when loclas are the majority. Don’t be misled by the low # of reviews, Ethiopians don’t Unilocal

Excellent food and I am Ethiopian!!! :) Phenomenal spicing and exactly like Ethiopia. Really delicious Kitfo and I loved the Corniche…

Had just a glass of wine here but the atmosphere was chill and the service was very friendly. I’d go back for that glass though, they had it at perfect temperature and it was only $ 5.

Amazing food! If all you care about is the taste and quality of food — this is the place to go! I was looking for something that was vegetarian besides the combo platter. The waiter recommended Shirot (made without beef, of course). The fragrance and taste was amazing. I still remember the smell and taste after a week! A must-​try dish!
There was an Ethiopian music channel playing on the TV. Got a flavor of their music as well. All in all worth the visit, if u don’t mind the ambience.

Meals by Genet may be more consistent, as Genet’s the only cook, but the atmosphere and prices there are too fancy, and the hours too short. Palm Grove is erratic — wonderful sometimes, disappointing others. But my new fave is the run-​down looking Marathon, which serves up splendid kitfo (of 4 varieties, including Somali special!) and delightful sides, at bargain prices.

The food here is delicious! I’m Habesha, so it takes alot to impress me when it comes to the food. My girlfriends and I go here any chance we get for the Awaze Tibs and the veggie combo is great too. Nevermind the décor, and try this place out for the food. If you’re super hungry, order a sambusa as appetizer to hold you during the wait. Food is an absolute 5!

This is my first time having Ethiopian food. Since the recommended Meals by Genet was too busy. I settled for this. the restaurant was empty and employees were hanging at the bar.
This being my first experience, the food was great. I shared the 2 person meal… more like ¾ person meal. The service was lacking. We had ordered water refills and they never came. I’m not sure if it was the language barrier.

You know the place is good when locals or Ethiopians come in high numbers.
I was excited to come here, had a
coupon and all. Gave it to the waitress, just to be told they no longer accept it (bummer). — took a star off for that.
But the food was yummy (a contender to Awash for me).
We ordered the veggie platter with a doro wat and chicken tibs. Also ordered a beef dish (forgot the name) that had a more citrusy flavor (favorite of the night).
Would come back here again maybe, to hang out and bring friends new to the cuisine. More of a hole in the wall vibe in comparison to other spots.

I usually don’t write reviews, but I was so happy with the food that I feel like I need to let other people know about it. This place serves… hands down the best Ethiopian food ever! They have a variety of selections with very reasonable price and generous amount. Which was perfect for a group dine-​out. I went with a group of 7 and had auze tibs, kettifo, dero wot and their vege– combo. Everything was delicious and surprisingly, light! Loved it!

went to this place after checking out the last installment of the lacma outdoor tim burton screenings. they were like the only restaurant open at eleven in the evening. the small, plain, dimly-​lit place with what looked like a bunch of regulars at the bar made us a little hesitant. but we were starving, so what the heck.
the food surely validated our decision. the veggie combo was much like any other in little ethiopia but had a little more flavor. we also tried the awaze tibs (beef chunks in spicy sauce), and it had a nice zest to it too.
i was really impressed by their injera the most. the thinnest and most crêpe-​like outta any restaurants on the strip. i ate alot of it but didn’t feel bloated after dinner, since this sourdough flatbread was perfectly created to complement the meal.
even though marathon is the most ghetto outta all the restaurants in little ethiopia, it still serves meals comparable or better than the others. the service albeit kinda slow was quite friendly, and the food is very affordable too. wouldn’t have a problem dining here again, though we still have a few ethiopian spots in the area left to try…

So here’s the dang deal. First off, I’m not an expert on Ethiopian, I’ve had it 3 or 4 times prior, and I found the meat dish that I shared with a lady friend pretty frickin’ good, although hotter than Christina Hendricks in a sweatshop.
I had originally planned on going to MEALS BY GENET, which is a couple doors over and fancy pants, but they totally mucked my reservation and didn’t have any tables, or any opening up (which is the soul galdern point of a reservation), so we sidled over to Marathon, which had only good reviews on my 10 second google map checkermabob.
The place is weird, small, and awkward, but maybe only if you’re a cracker. Unlike most of the other Ethiopian joints, this one is harshly lit, the furniture is cheap and spartan, and the only customers were the obvious regulars/​friends of the owner who ate and drank beer while watching/​jeering the Lakers game on the TV they keep on the back wall.
The service was a pleasant, yet entirely non-​English speaking African woman who seemed to be somewhat confused and put off to be serving Monolingual white folks from denimtown.
Nevertheless, we picked a combination meal at random, I ordered from the bland beer menu, lady friend got a tea that was hot water served with a lipton bag, and a bottle of water from Ralph’s (really).
Bottom line: service was slow, disinterested, and not in English, ambience was unfortunate bordering on hostile, but the food was pretty damn good.
Learn to speak Ethiopian, and it’s probably a dang blast.

I used to go to an amazing Ethiopian restaurant when I lived in Berkeley, CA… but now, since I moved back to L.A., I was determined to find a replacement. I went to Little Ethiopia and I must say that I have been most impressed by this place… it’s not like the restaurant in Berkeley, but it’s close enough! I love the Doro Wot and Veggie combination. It is an amazing dish. Very spicy and filled with exotic spices. I get this all the time! The staff are very friendly too. Because everything is made fresh, sometimes the wait for food isn’t that great, but it is still very well worth the wait. I’ve tried other beef dishes and they are pretty good. I highly recommend this place.
DISCLAIMER: The service is slow. I usually order it over the phone and pick it up/​or have them make it while I’m on my way.

I have never had Ethiopian cuisine before so I can’t compare it to anything… I would go back to here though… I guess this area of Fairfax is an Ethiopian enclave and there are a few similar restaurants on that part of the street. This is another rare food– even in LA– so it gets more stars just for being one of a kind

I finally tried this spartan neighbor in the Fairfax Ethiopian enclave. I went there because my son is not vegetarian. The menu of this small white hall is as austere and minimal as the interior, but effective nonetheless. They do however have a very nice large screen video monitor in the back on which several patrons were watching a basketball game. An interesting note about this café is the inclusion of spaghetti and sandwiches, apparently a reflection of Italian hegemony during WWII.
I tried the vegetarian combo, and I must now rescind my prior comment that all the veggie combos along this block are the same. While the basic dishes included on the injera draped platter look basically the same, they are drastically different here in terms of taste. I especially enjoyed the yellow pea mash and the lentil salad had a unique crunchy quality. Also the cooked green vegetables were unlike anything tried on the block previously, with a mushy stewed celery/​red pepper overtone. My son ordered a spicy beef dish that included a curious type of cottage cheese that I’d never seen before, very earthy and not salty.
The food was good but there were a couple of things that irked me. One was that the food took a long time to arrive. Another was that they do not offer the traditional hand washing service that Rahel’s never fails to omit. Most significantly, though, they did that «serve you bottled water and charge you for it» routine when we ordered ice water to drink. I may have to start getting more medieval on places that do this, like getting in touch with chambers of commerce, bureau of consumer affairs, etc. I didn’t say anything because I was happy with the meal generally, and we were the only gringos in the place. I also felt kind of like we were having dinner in someone’s private home rather than in a restaurant.
Just the same, this practice is becoming more and more common and I think it’s wrong. It smacks of the America I knew growing up slipping away. Silly, but it’s how I feel.