Habesha Ethiopian Restaurant — Restaurant in Nairobi

My family frequent the gigiri branch at least every other month - the food is always great - although the bathrooms and wash areas are wanting - we always come back. Yesterday - 31 May, we placed our order, as usual, and as we sat waiting for our diner to be served, the owner (who is mostly on site at the gigiri branch) made such a raucous that my children were making straw drawings with the straws and toothpicks - still in the wrappers! He started giving us a lecture on how we shouldn't waste things that they pay for- these are 6 straws and maybe a dozen toothpicks (STILL IN WRAPPERS!)

I had a mind to leave.. but didn't want to disappoint the kids who had really waited to have their ethiopian dinner treat! So we waited for the meal...and got served some more maltreatment when the owner - now irritated and, obviously, also inebriated - started telling us how we should eat the food from the same platter with our hands - this as I explained to him that we like to do it differently - the kids like to make wraps with the angeras. The Ethiopian un-gentleman,owner, wouldn't relent and barraged me especially - since I'm Kenyan and the only one who engaged him at our table - with lectures, in english, kiswahili and kikuyu (never mind that I missed half of what he said) of how we are disrespecting ethiopian culture, how uncivilized we were to play with the toothpicks and straws - something that 'apparently we wouldn't do in our homes' ( toothpicks people! - STILL IN THEIR WRAPPERS), how he doesn't care for our patronage he has been doing fine since 1985 and how we won't get served next time if we insist on using separate plates. All this in front of our 8 and 6 year olds!

It became too much - I lost my appetite - and I asked him if this was a free meal and why he was harassing paying customers when we came in respect of his culture to enjoy an ethiopian meal as a family - in our own way!

Well...long story long . We are never going...

Having had Ethiopian food in Ethiopia on several occasions in the past, I was convinced my friends and family would love the flavors too, partly because the use of spices and that the tastes would suit our South Asian palates. But none of them have been to Ethiopia, and so I was looking for the closest substitute in Nairobi. Googling led me to Habesha, and so we had a spectacular brunch today.

First of all, I was not wrong - the friends and family loved the food, the textures and the flavors. We ordered a mixed meat grill with white injera, extra brown injera, an order of goat meat tibs and the shiro, which was recommended by the waiter. Everything was fantastic - particularly the shiro which went really well with all of the items in the mixed grill. The only problem is the tastes pose a risk of overeating - which we tried to chase away with some strong Ethiopian coffee for dessert.

Service was excellent - we could barely finish our servings before more was piled on. The only problem with the restaurant is that the restrooms could do with some maintenance, and the hand-washing facilities could use more soap dispensers. But these are mild inconveniences compared to the fantastic food and service we received. We will...

The young man, who served us yesterday (sun 12th sept 2021) was quite combative unlike the service that we've always received in the past.

First after serving my sister and her close friend sodas, then leaving the menu so that they could choose, he went off and sat in the house verandah place, without enquiring about the choices.

I joined them after they already had the above. I sat there and sat there without anyone coming to take the order. Or even to bring me a drink. Some 30 or so minutes later, I stood up going to look for service. I found him and his reaction to me was very combative. He eventually brought me a drink and took the food order. Eventually he brought a double injera and double spicy fish.

When my sister's friend called him out for ordering the double fish, instead of a 1 fish and 1 beef he simply engaged her in an aggressive blame game, which forced me to address him as, "young man" and then seek a solution to the issue. His initial attitude was to dramatically declare how he'll pay for 1 fish order from his salary, which no one had asked him to do.

I was rather disappointed because we've never had that sort of disrespect all the years that our family members have...