Mother of Coffee — Restaurant in Wellington

This was my first experience with traditional Ethiopian food. We had been wanting to come here for a while and managed to book a table for the family (2 adults, 2 adolescents) on a Thursday evening.

Being off Cuba St, parking is limited so be prepared to walk. The restaurant is tucked in a cute little section of small businesses in an alleyway. It is a very small restaurant with limited tables for indoor seating, hence why booking a table here can be competitive. I'm aware it can be quite a busy place on the weekends, so book well in advance. There is some outdoor seating, and some protection from the elements with outdoor heating, however, we sat indoors during our stay, and it was fully booked on a rainy day. They have some takeaway options on their website, but not the full menu from what I understand (I did not check Uber eats or Delivereasy).

There is traditional decor and art throughout the restaurant adding a unique aesthetic and conversation while we waited for our food. It was very colorful with tactile interest in the woven pieces which were difficult not to touch. Plants dangled from lights overhead. There was no music playing, but it looked like they had speakers set up for it. I'm not sure if that would have changed the ambience significantly, but I was still curious about it.

We ordered 2 traditional coffees, 2 hot chocolates, and the meat combo for 4. All our drinks came with a sprig of herb (we asked but I can't remember what it was) which gave it subtle character. The children enjoyed the hot chocolates which they said were very creamy and one of the best they've ever had.

Traditionally the food is eaten with your hands, but there was plenty of cutlery and napkins on hand. The food is spicy (be prepared for some heat), coupled with the sourdough flatbread (injera, gluten free) which makes it a sensory experience unlike any I've had before. My favorite was the doro wat (chicken stew) which was perfectly cooked.

I'd love to come back for a date night, maybe sit outside on a warm day, and eventually try the whole menu. I'll get a hot chocolate to accompany my...

So I really wanted to like this place. I'd heard great things about it and booked 2 months ahead as we were visiting wellington for the weekend. We were all looking forward to it and me especially as I'd heard the vegan food was great. On arriving we weren't greeted, barely acknowledged really. We had requested an outside table for 5 and we were shown to a table for 4. The waitress was sour faced and rude. Getting an additional chair seemed to be a huge imposition for her. As was asking for the heating to be turned on. She was later replaced by a slightly more polite waitress luckily. 4 of the 5 of us ordered a vegan selection plate. Each plate was different to the next for some reason.. some had more or less than the other. Mine was missing the yellow Dahl and had a lot less than everyone else's but not wanting to bear the wrath of the sour faced waitress I just tried some off someone else's plate. Not a great standard for the price, $27.50. The food was ok on the whole but after spending less than an hour there we couldn't wait to leave to go somewhere we were wanted. Won't dine here again nor will we recommend this to anyone else. You have your sour faced waitress to thank for that. This review only gets 3 stars as the vegan range of food was good and the flavour...

Very cold inside so left jackets on. We had the 3 meat vege share. The food was dog kaka. There was plain smashed yellow lentils; plain lumpy mince with no flavour; a spicy red lentil dish and a dish which contained lumps of the hard white part of Silverbeet with the green lumped in with a lump of uncooked raw onion.. a wee bit of red pepper and a couple of bits of meat in a watery sauce. This was accompanied by grey tasteless pancakes. There was no flavour and no love in this meal. I don't recommend it at all. The tea was a nice change. Expensive for items costing under 20 bucks to purchase to make this, we paid $119 total. As a home cook, anyone could do better and add some flavoring. There was no cool or interesting vibe inside. Very disappointing. The lady serving took 3 goes at getting the bill right.. and there was no checking if it was OK etcno smiles...