Messob

Ethiopians in the know say that Messob is the one that you want to try if it's your first time (the other one is Awash Restaurant). You'll have a choice of sitting at a conventional booth, or per native tradition around a small table that looks like a basket with a thyroid condition, surrounded by chairs.

The soft, spongy bread called Injera is the surrogate spoon you use to scoop up food unlike any other. Slightly sour in taste, the bread easily pulls apart to trap exotic possibilities like Doro Wot - chicken stewed in pepper sauce with an assortment of both tart and pungent spices; and Yebeg Siga Alitcha - mild lamb stew, delicately spiced with garlic, ginger and other assorted spices. Each offering is distinctively seasoned, with the heat index quite mild, yet everything is very flavorful.

All entrees include tomato fit-fit, and the House salad (tomatoes, lettuce, onions and chilies).

Directions

From the Santa Monica (10) Freeway, exit Farifax Avenue and go north past Whitworth, which starts Little Ethiopia district. Park.