Asmara Restaurant

£30 for 2 people, and add £8 for every additional person for a Royal vegetarian feast. Delicious lentil dishes and followed by a coffee ceremony and popcorn.

Something a little different. Quite novel, and a great experience. Service was super friendly! Eat with your hands and share food amongst your group. We went for the set meal. Tasty enough, but not outstanding. Moderately priced too.

What does a homesick Washingtonian eat while apartment hunting in London? Phở or Ethiopian (or just as good, Eritrean), of course! Homesick for my weekly dose of kitfo, I was excited to stumble upon Asmara. However, the excitement soon died. I started with a «spicy vegetable soup» that was not spicy, not even flavorful. Some green chilies made it OK, but the meal went downhill from there. For my main, I ordered kitfo with spinach. First issue: the kitfo was cooked. The waiter was nice when I sent it back, but when he brought it again, IT WAS STILL COOKED. I asked politely for it to be raw. The waiter said he would send the cook out and then explained to me, «We normally eat our kitfo uncooked.» Duh. That was what I had requested. Perhaps he thought my gripe was that it was not cooked enough. Anyway, I waited for 15 minutes and the cook never appeared. It would have been one thing had the cooked kitfo tasted good despite not having the tartare texture I was craving, but it literally had no seasoning. Maybe a touch of berbere, but bland. Meanwhile, I started in on the spinach, which was also underseasoned and sandy, as though it had not been washed properly. Also, the injera (the bread with which you eat the food) was stale and clearly not made on– site. After 15 minutes, I realized the cook was not coming l, so I tried to flag down the waiter to pay and leave, which took 20 minutes. When he finally came around, he gave a cursory apology but clearly did not care that my dinner was uneaten. Perhaps my standards are high as I’m used to DC Ethiopian/​Eritrean, where competition is fierce and a large chunk of the clientele is Ethiopian/​Eritrean or eats the cuisine regularly and knows what to expect. Still, the staff’s behavior indicates that they assume their customers do not know the difference between good Eritrean food and bad, and that they do not care about providing good food or service. Utter disappointment.

I visited here when I stayed in London for one summer.
Great food, great price.
I’ve tried other Ethiopian/​African food in NYC where you can get pretty much the best of any cuisines. I think Asmara was better than any.
I’d love to go back.

If I had never experienced this vein of food I might have been wowed, but I know better. I’m not going to say it was bad, because I’ve never had Ethiopian food I didn’t like. However, this was the most mediocre and overpriced in my experience.
I recently moved to Brixton from North London where I was accustomed to ordering one veg sampler for £7 to share with my girlfriend and be stuffed and satisfied by the end. Asmara’s veg sampler was embarrassingly petit, hardly a snack, and goes for £9. We also tried a stewed fish dish, which was a slightly better value.
The bold spices that draw me to Ethiopian food were lacking here. I found all five dishes to be rather dull, mild, bland. The atmosphere was nice. I enjoyed the landscape artwork, and the server was very polite and conscientious. I won’t be back.

Small place. Food was OK. Not worth the £12 or so per head through. You can get better Ethiopian in London.

This place is lovely. The food is very good and well worth it. We ususally have the vegetarian platter to split and make a pioint of trying the African beer. I highly recommend this if you like an earthy ambience and tasting different dishes!

To be honest, it’s a little on the spendy side.
Though I used to live in East Africa, so I’m a bit used to £2 more-​than-​you-​could-​possibly eat meals.
But the menu is good. and extensive. You’ll get full, but you’ll spend about £12 a person, really, to get the variety.
There’s stuff you don’t often see on here, including this lovely livery thing that was, well, good. And livery as in liver-​y, not your uniform-​and flag.
Perhaps a wee bit cramped, but you get super-​African hospitality, even down to a hand on the elbow with your shake. (did that make sense?)

We went to Asmara the other night, first time I had ethopian food but my partner lived there years ago… I really loved it various spicy and mild stews served on sour pancakes called injera, peel off some pancake, grab some stew and eat — very direct and delicious!
The (slightly surly) waiter came round with incense/​burning coffee every now and then, nice atmosphere!

Asmara has become something of a local feature, tucked away in the happily disorganised chaos that is Brixton’s Coldharbour Lane.
Eating here is a lovely but very different experience from most other cuisines, and it’s a wonderful introduction to East African food, if you haven’t tried it before. The restaurant itself is small, homely and intimate (though there is extra seating upstairs), and the staff are extraordinarily friendly and welcoming. They’ll help navigate the menu and tutor you on the eating technique (read on.) if you need it.
Essentially, the food consists of fairly dry stews of meat and/​or vegetables (lots of veggie options), which is served in dollops on huge, sour pancakes called injera. You eat by tearing off bits of the injera and folding it around the stew — all with your hands — finally eating the base of the injera at the end, once it’s been infused with the flavours. It’s a communal experience, and can get a bit messy (so don’t wear white). But that’s all part of the fun.
A traditional ‘messob’ dinner provides a variety of dishes served together, and lets you try out different things — a similar concept to Turkish or Greek mezze. You can go for meat or vegetarian or a mixture, if you want. Eritrean food can be quite hot, though less spicy than South Indian or Thai. The Eritrean dishes are better than the European ones (mostly pasta — but why on earth would you go to an Eritrean restaurant for pasta?).
After the food, comes the coffee. Freshly roasted beans and incense are brought to the table and wafted under your nose before being ground and infused, and served in tiny cups. It is extraordinarily strong — think Turkish coffee, and then some. Don’t expect to sleep.
The whole experience should set you back about £10−15 a head — yes, this is a bargain. The informality and lack of cutlery means it’s the last place you’d take your boss, but then you want to come here to enjoy yourself!