Enat Kitchen

Go with 2 – 3 people and get the smaller family style platter. It’s an incredible amount of food for 3 people! The Asso Wot (fish) will keep me coming back, but everything else was very flavorful. Excellent coffee as well.

The food itself was great! The ingredients seemed fresh, things were not over-​spiced, and the meat was very tender! The service was okay, but the restaurant atmosphere itself is lacking. The restaurant isn’t very clean, the furniture is all miss-​matched. I’ll go back for the food, but wish the atmosphere were better!

Went for dinner on a weeknight with a friend.
FOOD
We got the 2-​person sampler, which includes 5 veg and 2 meat entrees, on and with injera. Great price for the portions! Sampler easily fed for 3. But the sampler was up in the air. There were 2 terrible dishes, 2 mediocre, and 3 spectacular ones.
DON’T get:
–Miser alicha wot (lentils) or
–Shiro wot (split pea)
They were both terrible. They tasted like burnt, heavy spices in an unmixed paste that was combined with pre-​cooked lentils/​peas afterward.
DO get:
–Gomen (collards) +
–Atkilt (cabbage) +
–Lamb tibs (or probably any of their lamb dishes)
DRINK
I like that they have true ethiopian beer and honey-​wine options, along with a few local brews.
SERVICE
Not great. I felt we were imposing on the server the whole time, despite having arrived several hours before closing and being (I think) pretty easygoing customers. Server gave us cold looks when we asked for another minute to look over the menu, and we got an eye roll when we asked for another minute. Server recommended 2 drink options but then returned saying they were out of both. Finally, the to-​go box came for us to plate on our own, which is quite tricky with ethiopian after you’ve already handled the check and have run out of napkins. It would have been nice for them to box the food to go.
AMBIANCE
We were one of 2 tables the whole time so it’s hard to say. Seems like a quiet place overall. With all the booths, it seems like a good place to go to enjoy the fun foods and the company you’re with.
Their $ 10 brunch buffet seems like a solid deal. If I return, it’ll be for brunch or to order only the dishes I already know they do well.

I really think this is the Ethiopian food experience catered to white folks’ tastes. That might be nice for them, but I was really looking to try something that actually resembled real Ethiopian food. This was completely bland, with no spices or spiciness to speak of. Moreover, the entire dish came wrapped in this sourdough pancake which was not described on the menu.
The sourdough pancake was so large that there was a second one folded over on top of the one actually containing the dishes I ordered. These dishes each cost me over ten dollars. One was plentiful enough for a little over a full meal; the other was merely a side dish.
This was the most expensive meal for the littlest actual nutritional benefit I’ve had in a while.
On the plus side, the lamb wasn’t excessively chewy and the greens were yummy.
However, given another opportunity I would definitely skip the experience.

Really good flavor, one of the best E restaurants in town. Great service. Fair pricing. Wish it was more centrally located. Good sized portions, better than Bete. Loved the berebere sauce and the dish with the cabbage in it. Had the beef sampler. Parking easy, wasn’t that busy for dinner on a weekday night around 7 or 7:30pm.

This was a pleasant experience. Very different, creative, colorful, relaxing, tasty, and fun.
We tried a combination of veg and beef dishes. It all came on one huge plate with the rolled teff flour «injera» bread. Used as silverware, you scoop your way through dinner.
We had 9 different dishes– all were unique yet went together well. Friendly staff and upbeat atmosphere. A great value! Very communal experience.
The spicy dishes we spicy but not overwhelming. Seemingly funny, but the salad in the middle was wonderfully refreshing in in all. Especially liked the Enat Special, kuanta firfir, potatoes, and Red Lentils.
Coming back with our kids!

Unfortunately, we had incredibly slow service. It took 15 minutes until someone would take our order, 30 minutes for water and about an hour for the food to come out on Monday night. I had to ask two separate people, three separate times for water. Overall the service left much to be desired on a weekday.
The food was good, not very spicy which was a little disappointing. My first foray into Ethopian food was successful but I probably won’t be coming back if i were in the neighborhood.

This being my second time ever trying Ethiopian food, I really enjoyed it this time ’round!
The décor here doesn’t scream «fine dining» but it’s very comfortable and homey. There’s booth seats along the window, a small amount of table seating in the middle of the dining room, and a limited amount of seating around the small tiki bar/​cashier station toward the back. Good for groups of 4, maybe 5 Ethiopians.
The food was outstanding! I tried the Enat Special, which is a spicy minced beef, and a spicy dish of fish with assorted veggies and sauce. The flavors were absolutely great, and all the little accompaniments such as the cheese, collared greens, and salad were perfect. I loved rolling up all the splendid flavors into the doughy ethnic bread they use and taking bite after succulent bite. 5 stars for the food.
The service was also very pleasant and friendly, if slightly unorganized. It is a family owned and operated business, so they really care about the experience you receive and will come around to check on you periodically. Street parking is a breeze in this neck, so you shouldn’t have any issues finding some. I would recommend coming here with friends, family, or a coworker for a nice Ethiopian meal. Enjoy.

I first tried Ethiopian food within the last 2 years and have become enamored. Admittedly I’ve only tried two different restaurants (one in Boston, MA and the other being Enat) but both places were recommended to me as the favorites of Ethiopian nationals. Enat Kitchen will not disappoint.
Firstly, From the Ethiopian beers and coffee to the honey wine and juices, the beverages are absolutely delightful.
The food is even better. I can’t stop myself from nibbling on the injera (the sourdough like pancake bread) before I even wrap it around any food! I have tried almost all of the Vegetarian dishes besides one, one of the lamb, one of the chicken, and four kinds of the beef dishes. They are all phenomenal! Of course everyone has their one tastes and preferences, and I do like some entrees more than others, but every single dish really is fantastic. Ask for the coffee ceremony at the end of your meal!

North Portland knows how to do good Ethiopian food. My friend requested E’Njoni Café for his birthday, however, they are closed on Mondays! After reading reviews and, mainly, looking at pictures… we met up at Enat Kitchen down the street for lunch.
We opted to do the family style couple over the lunch buffet, you get your choice of two meat dishes and five veggie dishes for $ 27. Since this was his first time having Ethiopian food, it was nice to have smaller portions of a variety of different dishes. We did the Doro Wot and Lamb Tibs as meat options then our veggie combo: Alicha Wot, Kik Key Wot, Gomen, Buticha, and Shiro.
Doro Wot is my all-​time favourite Ethiopian dish, it’s a stewed chicken in a red pepper sauce – they do it slightly different here. They don’t include the hard-​boiled egg and the sauce isn’t as thick, there are way too many onion in it maybe the onion are normally pureed to get that thicker texture. Don’t get me wrong, it was still delicious yet I prefer their Tibs over the Doro Wot. My friend liked the Tibs and Shiro (a pureed split pea). Personally, I love the Gomen (collard greens). The food wasn’t as spicy as I’d liked so I requested some more Bebere spices. In most Ethiopian restaurants, there’s that motherly lady that does all the cooking so she comes out with a jalapeño and habanero sauce along with some bebere spices. My friend was sweating bullets after trying the habanero sauce but I enjoyed it and that made her happy that someone could tolerate the spiciness of the sauce.
Every time I go into an Ethiopian restaurant, the staff is always so hospitable and feels like you are eating in someone’s home. Enat Kitchen may not be the fanciest place, however, the food and service was amazing.