Cafe Abyssinia

Knowing nothing about Ethiopian food we headed out to this café eager to try something new. The place is bright and colourful. The food tasty and flavourful. Well worth the effort to get there. Recommended.

Until a few years ago there has never been an Ethiopian Restaurant in Auckland, then there was Café Abyssinia. I visited bere when it first opened 2 years ago and took my friends back recently.
You’ll find it in the Muslim district on Stoddard Road, down the back of a spacious arcade. It’s delightful, painted brightly in green, orange and red with a tasteful collection of Ethiopian handcrafts, Ethiopian music and a few old boys hanging about.
We ordered up a mixed plate of stews and curries, they can give you a variety, and it comes with enjera, the classic Ethiopian unleavened bread, slightly sour, perfect for mopping up sauce. There is no cutlery, you have to eat with your hands. But the washing ritual they now offer since the first time I went is a nice touch. This place doesn’t serve alcohol but its fun and quick so you don’t seem to care. We shared our platter between 4 and were full after at only $ 17 each. It’s a must visit.

My Café Abyssinia experience was like something out of a santa stocking last night. Not the main gift but a little something cute on the side. I would never had known it existed had not Plan B lead me there. We ordered platters of «wots» (which look like flattened tripe but are fermented pancakes and we all know the new black is fermentation) on which curries of chicken, lamb and beef were ladled. Dotted around were dhals, vegetable offerings and a bowl of dried chilli to sprinkle at whim. The wot were unusual but mopped up the food well. Fingers only — not a knife and fork in sight. Eating sans cutlery is rather satisfying as long as you don’t get the shivers over everyone else’s fingers wading through the food. I’m glad this small slice of Ethiopia is in our midst.

Exotic and interesting. Café Abyssinia is an unassuming restaurant situated in a small Mt Roskill shopping mall and has a limited but flavoursome selection of home cooked Ethiopian dishes. Chicken, beef and lamb stews/​curries (called ‘wots’) sit alongside lentil, spinach and other vegetarian offerings. Most are served with a slightly sour fermented pancake known as enjeera. It’s best to share a selection of meals between friends. Be warned that you eat off a shared platter with your hands and that the place is not licensed to serve alcohol. However, if you are up for adventure or merely wish to try something different, then this is the place for you. They also do takeaway meals, so you can take a little bit of Ethiopia home with you.

Who knew Auckland had an Ethiopian restaurant? Tucked away in a small group of shops in Stoddard Rd, this place offers a unique dining experience. The stews are served on platters lined with tangy crumpet-​like pancakes. We had a mix of chicken, lamb and vegetarian along with garlicky spinach, dhal and powdered chilli to sprinkle on everything. No cutlery here, fingers only! The chicken curry was the nicest, but I wasn’t a fan of the pancakes. Thought offering a hand washing station at the end of the meal was a nice touch. Even better was the price, $ 20 each for a feast.

Ethiopia isn’t exactly a country culture known for it’s food. So I was interested to try this out-​of-​the-​way wee café in the heart of Mt Roskill.
Run by an Ethiopian husband & wife, the décor & menu are pretty basic. When we visited, there were only 2 other tables of diners, and the place was half-​full; it’s quite small.
Being completely clueless, we asked for suggestions on what to try. We were happy with their choices of Doro Wot — chicken marinated with fresh lime juice & simmered in a mixture of freshly chopped onions, garlic & ginger, as well as Yebeg Alicha Wot — lamb sauteed and then slow cooked with chopped garlic, ginger, onions & turmeric until the meat is soft & buttery to the touch. The menu is quite descriptive which is probably helpful for most people who have no idea about Ethiopian cuisine. And no, I didn’t attempt the pronunciation!
Both meals are served with enjera, a type of Ethiopian flatbread with a texture between a crumpet & a pancake. Our hosts explained the traditional way to eat was to tip the dishes onto the enjera & rip off pieces to scoop up the bread — no cutlery needed. Hey, when in Rome!
Both dishes were tasty & reminded me of Moroccan/​North African flavours with a slightly hotter zing to them. The lamb was boneless & tender, but the chicken was bone-​in and skin-​on, which wasn’t as enjoyable. The chicken dish also came with an whole hard-​boiled egg.
Café Abyssinia gave me the feeling of eating in someone’s home — its definitely a small, family-​run business. I’m glad I’ve tried Ethiopian food, but I won’t be visiting regularly.

Let me first start off by saying, I have never been to Ethiopia, so I can’t really comment on the authenticity of the food. I have had a lot of Ethiopian food in the US, and it was something I was really missing when I moved to New Zealand. After talking with our hostess here, it seems that there are maybe just two Ethiopian restaurants in the entire country, so I figure they deserve a few stars just for simply being present and putting the food out there for us.
I went here a couple days ago with my family; we had a late lunch. We were the only diners at the time. The menu was not as extensive as I was hoping, but I settled on the doro wot (chicken) and my husband had beef. We were so happy to get our taste buds on some injera — this is the bread that you use to eat your food. (Yes, it’s finger food for adults and kids alike!). Typically, we’ve had our meals served to us separately and accompanied with a somewhat spicy side salad. In this case, we were given a large platter covered with injera and our meals were both poured out over the bread. No salad.
They miss a star here, because my chicken dish was three small chicken legs, bone and all. I know I said this is finger food but you can’t really use the bread in the way it’s intended and then expect to eat chicken off the bone. So, that was a bit irritating to me, but it was my only irritation. The food was tasty and my husband and I both stated repeatedly that we were glad we went out of our way to have Ethiopian food. (We had been in Auckland CBD and were heading back south to Hamilton). I was also served an entire hard boiled egg with my chicken dish. I like eggs so it was no big deal, but I hadn’t been served an egg at other Ethiopian places so it was unexpected. But, it was good.
If you have never had Ethiopian food then this place will certainly give you a representative experience based on what I’ve had in the past. Is the best I’ve ever had? No. But it is the best I’ve had in New Zealand — the ONLY Ethiopian food I’ve had in the last 8 months. So, that does count for something :)

This place rules. Had Ethiopian a few times while overseas and was stoked when this place opened up in my neighborhood. I agree with the other reviewer that the food did take a while, but the waitstaff told us that it would take a while and we were happy to wait. Found the service very helpful — they explained everything to us and helped us decide — we were a large group. Food was all excellent and hot and lovely. Will be back!

Considering the hype this place had been getting lately, and the fact it is just up the road from me, meant I had to go try it out. Walking down the newly built mall which ensconces it, I couldn’t help but marvel at the transformation that has taken place in this part of Mt. Roskill. Whether it’s as a result of the World Cup or the new motorway extension but the area has really taken off. Cafee Abyssinia is no different, a vibrantly painted area with the classic Ethiopian/​Rastafari colour schemes and interesting reggae playing. We ordered, unfortunately they didnt have halal options which seems a bit short sighted given this area is arguably the muslim capital of Auckland, and sat back and waited for our food.
And waited.
Maybe 45 minutes later we got our food, and the waitress was unapologetic, as apparently they cook everything from scratch when it gets ordered. This seems to me to be another short sighted decision — we were the only people in the place and I shudder to think how long it would take to get food if it was full of people. The food was interesting — you get served bread called Enjeera which you then use to dip into the curries and pick out meat. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed — one of our meals just tasted overwhelmingly like cardamom and the lamb in another was overcooked — maybe as a result of the length of time we waited.
I’d be kind of keen to go back and try it, maybe we went on an off day, but I hesitate to recommend it to anyone.