Hareg Cafe & Variety Ethiopian Tastes — Restaurant in Ottawa

Great Place, Great Price, Great Atmosphere

I've tried most of the Ethiopian restaurants in the city but this was my first time for this one. I had the vegetarian buffet (17 items) for $10.99 which included injera bread.

The food was excellent with vegetarian wot dishes, lentils, greens, cabbage, and other options all done up in the typical style of Ethiopian cuisine. I didn't find the food as spicy as other places, but equally enjoyable and flavorful. Of particular note, the cabbage dish and potato wot were excellent. This was the first time I also had the mashed pea wot which was very good.

There are meat options on the menu as well but not on the buffet except for weekends the owner told me. I ordered a beef fried dumpling (Sambusa) to go which was excellent as well.

The owner had decorated the restaurant in a tasteful manner for Valentine's Day. Everyone else in the place seemed to really enjoy their meal and repeat customers were there for takeout.

As someone that cooks Ethiopian food at home and eats it whenever I get a chance while travelling, I would have to...

We waited over an hour for 3 plates to make it to the table and the restaurant wasn’t event half full - note that there are only about 10 tables, so whatever was going on in the kitchen is beyond me. The food is pretty good if you don’t mind waiting an hour for it. The vibe is OK, but it’s cheaply built and the seating and tables are uncomfortable considering how long the wait is. The service was just awful. No refill of the water until the food arrived. Ordered beer but that didn’t come for 45 minutes because the 3 servers all appeared to be in middle school and it wasn’t until an adult man came through and socialized with another table for 10 minutes before we could have our drinks served. He left promptly and we never got the second round we ordered either. Summary, food pretty tasty, everything else was about the worst experience I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Brutal way to...

How did I not know if this place before? The food was amazing. The best in Ottawa!! I love Ethiopian food and recently went to dine in at my previous favourite location. They only have take out so had to find another Ethiopian restaurant. It’s a relatively small place and the food as expected took a while to come but the wait was worth it. We ordered the vegetarian combo and the meat platter. The vegetarian came with 3 different types of lentils, potatoes, greens, beetroot and a cabbage and carrot salad and of course the Injera DELICIOUS!! I’m hungry writing about it. We forgot to order the meat with the veggie items so I had to unfortunately share my veggies with the meat eaters. Luckily their potions are generous. The lady there asked me how the food was and I regrettably said it was very good. I’m sorry I understated how amazing your food was. I can’t wait...