Bete-Lukas Ethiopian Restaurant

The food is very tasty, but this is not the Ethiopian restaurant you remember from childhood, or college, in DC or Oakland or some major city. The only Ethiopians hanging around work there — this is not a community meeting place; it caters to hip upper middle class Portlanders, and that’s where the weaknesses lie. There are tablecloths, and your beer will arrive in a glass. The injera is tasty and has a lovely texture, but it’s not at all sour. The dishes are tasty, but almost all are very bland by Ethiopian standards (underspiced food has always been a huge Portland problem), and the portions are small. It’s all good enough that we’ll be back, but with diminished expectations.
p. s. This is NOT a gluten free restaurant. The appetizers have gluten, except for the injera (which you are getting with your main course anyway), so if any members of your party can’t eat gluten they might consider having a snack before they go, or plan on finding dessert someplace else afterwards.

Fantastic fresh food that is vegan-​friendly & quite filling (without over-​stuffing you). Staff is wonderful. Great place to eat with friends.

Nice authentic food. Good portion sizes. Great veggie options. The family style plates are great to share with your friends and family.
Plan ahead as there can be a 20 min wait for a table on the weekend.

Great food and super friendly staff! They really went out of their way to make sure we had a good experience.

I literally love every single thing about this restaurant. I love Peter (the owner). I love the staff/​team here. They are so friendly, efficient, and amazing. I love the food (specifically the lentil sambusa appetizer and veggie combo entrée). I love their Ethiopian tea. I love the vibe and the type of people who enjoy eating here. Within an hour I met some of the most genuinely nice people. I was so blown away by my entire experience. Goodness I freaking love this place!!! Did I mention that I love this place :)???

I went there for the first time due to good Unilocal reviews. I was not disappointed. I told the owner i had no idea what (and how) to eat. He recommended a meat combo and a cinnamon tea. Amazing. Food was spicy, but not too spicy. Really good. The place and bathrooms and extremely clean and the staff is very helpful and friendly. Highly recommended. This is how restaurants should be.

This is one of my favorite Ethiopian spots! There is always a bit of a wait to be seated but the food comes out quickly and is delicious. The green beans, in particular, are very tasty. If you order the combination platters, there will be enough food for dinner, a late night snack, and breakfast for 2, which is amazing because there is nothing better than leftover Ethiopian food. Mmm. The quality and price of the food are on par with other places in town, but this one has the upper hand on service, which is helpful and professional. The atmosphere is also more polished, if that matters to you!

I have eaten here a few times, always delicious, fresh ingredients, great flavors. Nice atmosphere as well.

This place is located on the SECOND FLOOR of the building, we were confused until we figured that out! This place has nice soft lighting and is quiet and intimate. We sat near a window.
I think this is the best Ethiopian food I’ve had. We got a veggie combo to share. Injera was soooo tasty and our lentil sambusas were inspiring. our waiter was a really funny guy, it was definitely worth the drive from SW, and I’ll be back again soon!

The best place for the best quality customer service! The server is by far the best in all of Portland! There is a unique passion and pride with the staff that you don’t see too often in Portland and because of this the food is unique and great as well! It is the greatest unexpected dining experience you will ever have! Love to come here in the warmer months when the bread is so delicious

We ate at the Bete-​Lukas Ethiopian restaurant this evening and the meal was amazing! Our party had two vegetarian dishes, one of the chicken dishes and the lamb curry. They were delicious and the injera was fantastic!
For my husband and I, this was our first time eating there and eating Ethiopian food but it certainly won’t be the last!

Our family loves everything about Beta Lukas. We’ve been coming here for a few years. There are many great Ethiopian restaurants in town. Somehow we often feel like family when we arrive. This is very true at Beta Lukas. Peter and his family make us feel at home. Always joking and fun conversation. Delicious and healthy comfort food. I can’t speak highly enough of our friends here.

Sorry, Bete-​Lukas. You used to be so good as little as a year ago. Now, your injera bread is served cold; your dishes are spicy in not a good way (meaning, hot without being tasty); and, your portions have magically shrunk. We do not want giant American size portions, but, a decent size for an adult who exercises and eats right.
Service is still friendly, and, magically, today’s wait time was short.
But, um… we’re not sure we’ll be back unless the food improves again! Sorry. We used to — and want to — love you, but, it’s in your court now!

I like it. good service. I always over eat. The lentil sambusas are spicy as the evils ones tip.

Arrived and all tables were filled however no one had food on the table. It was bizarre. We decided to leave since 4 couples were ahead of us. Strike two for trying Ethiopian in Portland.

I loved eating here! After traveling to Ethiopia just a few months ago, I’m happy I found a great Ethiopian restaurant in Portland. For starters, treat yourself to Tej (Ethiopian honey wine) or a cool Ethiopian beer. Both of these will go great with your main meal and any appetizers you choose. My party ordered the lentil dish, chicken tibs, lamb tibs, and a potato-​carrot veggie option. All came on top of a healthy serving of injera (Ethiopian sponge-​like bread) and all were delicious!
The service and atmosphere was great and we had great conversations with several members of the staff. Overall it was a great experience and I highly recommend trying it out, you won’t leave disappointed.

I love this place with all my heart. The staff is absolutely amazing. The owner makes me feel like I’m an old friend every time I come in. He even took some time to explain the way to eat the platter (not eating the salad first but actually using it as a palate cleanser between different bites).
The veggie platter is so delicious and flavorful. We usually add a ½ order of another veggie item, and it’s enough for the two of us. LOVE the yellow split peas and lentils especially.
Definitely give this place a try and you’ll find yourself craving their food all the time!

Our favorite Ethiopian restaurant — and we have tried them all! So delicious. Fair portions of high quality food. Many vegan and/​or gluten free choices. Nice atmosphere. Full bar. And the owner, Peter, miraculously remembers the DATE of our last visit — even when we haven’t been in for 6 months!
And although you have to climb stairs to go in the main entrance — if you drive around back there is an entrance with no stairs for anyone who can’t climb them. If you can’t find it — ask the staff — they will be happy to help you. We use this method so that my 90 year old grandmother can eat here with us when she visits from the East coast. It’s her favorite restaurant too!

Ethiopian cuisine is a staple of ours and occasionally Santi would make it at home. So when Santi and I saw this popular Ethiopian restaurant on Unilocal we had to stop by to support their business. After seeing the small signage, we were required to walk around the building and onto the second floor. From the entrance looking in, there was a bar area followed by plenty of tables with natural lighting coming through the windows. The atmosphere was calm, quiet, with a number of large groups dining there and wait listed people who stood by the door.
The Veggie Combo ($ 11) came with miser wot, kik alicha wot, gomen, ticket gomen, fosolia and house salad. The kik alicha wot was particularly delicious with yellow split peas were complicated by the flavors of ginger, garlic, and onion. The Fosolia was also memorable as the green beans were sautéed with light seasoning with carrots. One glaring disappointment was the small portion size, with the house salad, as a filler, being the largest item on the platter.
Yebeg Alicha ($ 13) arrived with cubes of lamb cooked with onion and curry. The lamb tasted normative, and the serving was again too small for the price. Despite some positive experiences with the food, these particular items tasted very common when compared to other Ethiopian restaurants around the country.
The biggest disappointment was their petty policy that gave us only one injera to share aside from the one that was on the platter. When we asked for more, there were two servers who took our order on separate occasions but never came back. After a prolonged wait, the third server told us that they only give out one injera per table. There was at least a 30-​minute wait in between our repeated inquiries, so we wished they could be forthcoming and honest with us from the very beginning. In the end, I asked to speak with the restaurant owner, who only apologized, but did not offer to do anything to address our complaint. Since our request was not out of the ordinary, service was an epic fail on all levels.
In the end, we wasted a lot of time waiting for nothing. I have never encountered an Ethiopian restaurant that was so petty and tried to nickel and dime me from the beginning to end. I urge interested diners to avoid this restaurant and go some place else.

Food was great, but portions small, proportionally quite expensive, and additional injera not so forthcoming – which has never, ever been a problem at any other Ethiopian restaurant I’ve ever dined at.
The waiter was kindly, but intense and his deadpan was so severe we hard a hard time determining if he was joking or serious, like when my wife ordered a cherry Italian soda and he asked her to spell «cherry.»
He did introduce me to Mac and Jack, an African amber ale, and quite honestly, the finest I’ve had.
Bete-​Lukas is hard to find: a tiny sign across the street from the carts on 50^th (a la carts). Plus you have to ascend a flight of stairs to get there, which was difficult for my mother-​in-​law with arthritis, and would of course be impossible for anyone in a wheelchair. There may have been an elevator? I didn’t see one. Call ahead to find out.
The ambiance was very upscale, with a lot of well-​dressed patrons. It took quite awhile to be seated and served, but once we were, the service was above average.
All things considered, I prefer some of the more divey Ethipoioan joints in North Portland, although I’d almost consider coming here again for that awesome African Amber ale and the convenience of the location.