East Africa Restaurant — Restaurant in Montreal

So my friends and I wanted to try out Ethiopian cuisine - and wanted to try East Africa Restaurant out. I was deeply bothered and hurt about several things that happened in the restaurant that I'll be sharing - hoping that the restaurant authorities will heed attention and hopefully make sure that it doesn't happen to another customer.

I've attached the picture below of our meal. It costed CAD$ 71 dollars. Its a subjective issue - if it feels expensive to you or not. Personally, I found it to be VERY expensive - for a 4 person meal - and for someone who seeks value for money - this was downright disappointing.

We ordered - 4 separate curries on the menu - which were full-fledged meal prices, as you can imagine from the $71 dollar bill - each meal was about 14-15ish dollar. When you order a 14-15 dollar plate - you expect it to be filling - but when you see the meal doesn't even reflect the order you placed, you'll be sad. We ordered, a chicken curry, lamb curry, beef and mixed vegetable. But all we got in the mush was beef gravy and little of lentil, one drumstick chicken AND one egg (did not find any lamb, felt like one full curry over-crowded by beef curry). The food, amidst the quantity and not reflecting 4 dishes - was good in taste. If it did not cost as much as it did, may be, we would have let go of this issue of disappointment entirely.

However, the reason, why I took the time out to actually write a review and give 1 star because of how we were treated. When we finished our dinner (still starving) - and went to pay, we were asked 'how was the food'. We courteously replied, the food was great, but the quantity compared to the price seemed very unfair. What the owner replied was 'that's the right amount for price you are paying' - it ticked me off. My friend told him, 'No, there are other places, where we could have eaten well in full with the amount we just paid' and he straight up said, "I don't care what you think, I don't care what other people charge you, this is my restaurant". This guy was full-on debating mode and not willing to listen to anything at all. I knew the conversation was no where going to any logical alley - so we stopped it. And walked out. On our way out, we even heard him mumbling more stuff about us that we didn't care to listen.

Moral: If you have a restaurant, and serving your 'amazing culinary skills', you should be open to accepting criticism and learn to hear them out before making your customers feel undervalued. An air of arrogance never did anyone good. We should all be treating each other with respect and courtesy no matter what the situation. Its the customers at the end of the day what makes restaurants thrive. If you don't know how to deal with customers and their opinions, then may be you shouldn't serve. If I paid my hard earned money for some 'OVERPRICED portions' of food, then the last thing I expect is to go home still hungry and raging over how mistreated my...

I have eaten at 50+ different Ethiopian restaurants over the years. The taste of the food is good, straight forward really. I always prefer this traditional style, not fusion or fancy, so that part of my experience was mostly fine. But I was surprised that the meat dish my son ordered was put in the middle of a vegetarian platter for 4. Despite we ordered it separately, my son was sitting at a different table. We got there when the restaurant opened and it took over an hour for the food to hit our table. We waited so long for the water we requested when we placed our order, after 45 minutes my 8 year old walked up to them to ask, she was so thirsty and patiently waiting. When they brought the water he made a passive comment about her asking for it. Also, THERE WAS NO running WATER IN THE RESTROOM TO WASH HANDS WITH. I had to go to the car to get our hand sanitizer since we are planning to eat with our hands obvs. The menu has a post-it note disclaimer on it, stating "some menu items MIGHT cost $1-$2 dollars more per item when you get your bill". What kind of ridiculousness is this???? When I got the bill each item was $2-$3 more! The whole experience took for ever. All in all, it ended up being over priced for how long we waited and how rude the service was. I will never go back there again. Also the hours posted on the window are different than what is on their website and what is on google. It was closed when we arrived, but we hung around trying to figure out where else to go and saw a light came on inside. They never actually turned the Open sign on in the front. If you are vegetarian and somebody else in your group orders meat, you have to be very clear that your plates are separate, in fact mention it twice because they did not do this even though my son was sitting at a different table. My son said the meat dish was cold. Some of the vegetarian selections were cold too, like the spinach, which is a hot dish. Nightmare dining experience. It was so bad, I was a bit jealous of the table that was smart enough to get up and walk out. The people who work there were listening to their devices, on high volumes too. Disappointing all around, since the reviews...

My fiancé and I are literally addicted to this place. We go every two weeks to get our Ethiopian fix.

Dining here literally feels like you're dining at a family members house; they are beyond welcoming, make us feel comfortable, and prepare their meals with love and passion that you can taste.

The restaurants ambience is very low-key, nestled along the Sherbrooke strip in the heart of NDG. There are several occasions when they sometimes don't have what we'd like on the menu, as they're a very small operation, and I can only assume that materials run out fast, especially given how tasty things are, but they always make up for it by making us custom dishes and sides for us, which we always love.

We have a running gag about going - "they're not going to serve you what you want, but what you need" - and this motto, the quality of their food, and the fact that it feels like eating with family makes us come back religiously every two weeks to have their amazing food.

We have been to several Ethipoian restaurants across Canada, and this is the only place that we consistently go out of our way to go to on a consistent basis; it's not sophisticated, has modern seating, etc, but it doesn't need those things, because the food is that good.

Something to note however that other reviewers have mentioned as well; you need patience to eat here. All the food and dishes are made to order, and sometimes it can take quiet long to come out, but trust me, it's worth it. In addition, the fact that two grown adults can eat handsomely for 30$, including a tip, seems like a dying phenomena right now. For the cost alone this place is incredible.

I'd you're reading this are you haven't already made your way to their restaurant and gotten a dual order of 18 and 20/21, this review hasn't done their rest enough justice! Go support a small local business, and enjoy!

FYI - they also accommodate BYOW as well, so if you're so inclined to pair the injera with a nice bottle of wine, that's a nice option as...