Warka Tree Ethiopean Restaurant — Restaurant in Guelph

We visited Warka Tree (Guelph) on a Friday evening around 7:30pm. Between 5 of us, we ordered 3 Mild Vegetarian platters. One of them was the vegetarian platter for 1, while two of them were the vegetarian platter for 2. The Vegetarian platters arrived after a reasonable / short wait time and were bountiful offerings of peas, lentils, cabbage, collards, chick peas and mixed salad, served on injeera, milled from gluten free teff. The various offerings were flavourful, and with the additional rolls of injeera, were more food than any of us could finish in that sitting. We all needed a take away container, including the person who ordered the platter for one. We made the right decision to ask for our platters to be mild, as none of us are true lovers of heat. The service was friendly, the server was patient in her explanations of menu items, and she was attentive throughout our time there. The interesting thing about Warka Tree is that it wasn't just a restaurant. For the regulars seated at the bar and excitedly chatting and ribbing one another, it was also very much like a social club. Some of the men seemed to be there for an after-shift/after-work beer, while others seemed to periodically come and go, like they were passing time among friends, in-between calls or, jobs. The laughter and seemed comraderie lent a casual easiness to the atmosphere which afforded the restaurant the ability to be as much of a restaurant as a comfortable meeting place for its regulars. There was a television streaming music videos from various African locations which also contributed a further cultural element to the restaurant and meeting place, and which was reminiscent of walking into an Indian establishment and hearing a bhangra track from somewhere in the distance, or like finding yourself in an Italian establishment where a soccer game is playing on a TV and an announcer is excitedly reporting the play-by-play, in a non-English tongue - except for the magical word: GOAL! The regulars were friendly, the server worked to be attentive, and we were treated to bountiful platters of delicious vegan friendly dishes. This location appeared to be accessible for persons with mobility assistance devices, but some chairs might need to be temporarily shifted to afford comfortable and easy manœuvrability. Warka Tree is in an area that is serviced by transit, but also offers ample and...

Today is Monday and during the Ontario Lockdown. The hours shown on Google about "Warka Tree Ethiopean Restaurant" says that they are "CLOSED" Mondays. But I was very blessed to be able to order their traditional dishes on SkiptheDishes for Take-Out.

Their food saved my life! I am a homemaker and I have to manage a lot of things at home. I was finished cleaning and then didn't have the strength to cook a wholesome, healthy homemade meal to nourish my exhaustion.

Nothing beats the spices that were prepared and applied magically into the two dishes I ordered.

'Special Yebeg Tips' with "Injera Salad" included the salad and it was refreshing! The salad vinaigrette is amazing. The meat was spiced beautifully, but slightly chewy, though still edible

If you order takeout, expect most of it to be fridge temperature.

Don’t even try calling (if you can actually find their correct phone number online), they won’t pick up under any circumstances.

I’ve ordered the vegetarian platter a few times for takeout. The food itself was alright but nowhere near the quality of Ethiopian restaurants in other cities. Biggest problem with this place is they don’t care about their customers. If you want to order takeout, you have to show up to order it then wait because they don’t answer their phones. The wait is usually only 5-10 min and you will get maybe 1/5 of the platter that’s warm and the rest is literally straight out of the fridge.

I’m not sure if they intentionally give horrible takeout so people come in to eat (which I will never do) or because they just don’t care. I’ve been there waiting for food while others have come to complain about the food being cold. The lady complaining about her cold food, leaves and in less than 5 min they produced her entire order which I’m sure was cold. I ordered my food before her and got it after her and mine was also cold.

I started off this review as 3 stars but as I was writing I realized how bad this place actually is. It’s worth it to make the drive out of town to a place that values...