Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

Seated quickly, the staff were wearing masks. Served water immediately. The drink menu is extensive but also hilarious - the entire first page is dedicated to mojitos. I was given 7 minutes to peruse the menu before the server took my order, but the obvious choice for food was the feast ($20). I chose to get a blue nile mojito ($10) because I like blue and it sounded cool. The mojito was very minty and limey, and I could taste a hint of the blue Caracas.

I find Blue Nile's interact - the bread used as a table and which is used to eat the food, particularly good. It's the perfect amount of porous - with a large surface area for taste and absorbability but lacking holes for the food to seep through.

The Kik Alecha is mild but tasty, and I found it pairs well with the mixed vegetables, which were delectably soft.

The Meton Shiro Wat was very spicy, which surprised me because it uses the same berbere sauce as the Yemisir Kik Wat, which was only mildly spicy

The Defen Yesimir Alecha was not spicy at all either, despite containing jalapeños. It was, however, delicious.

If you like spices and vegetables, I can highly recommend the vegetarian feast at the Blue Nile. All seven of the dishes which come with the feast are at least good, and meat options can be added for the omnivores. All the dishes are best eaten hot, and refills of injera and any dish are available upon request.

The mojito went well with nothing - I don't think mint and injera mix well. It was a solid drink, especially if you like mint.

The raspberry sorbet was amazing - it somehow elevated sorbet. In fact, the cool mint of the mojito also added to the taste of the sorbet, although it was not reciprocal.

They do a fun thing here which honestly is genius and should be customary everywhere. They give you a hot, wet towel to wash your hands when your food arrives. It's particularly good since you handle the injera with your hands and then eat it. I'm going to assume it works and is hygienic, since Google refuses to acknowledge that I want information on this specific handwashing technique and not a basic guide on handwashing.

The aesthetic of the restaurant is calm, colorful, and fun. College students were present even during the summer on a weekday, and the restaurant phone was audible from the other side of the room, but the sound levels (on a Tuesday evening) were acceptable.

10/10 remains one of my favorite...

I really like the food at this restaurant but I want to leave a review of my experience in the hope that they can improve the negative for other guests.

I made a reservation on their website two weeks ago for Friday, November 2nd, at 6:30 pm. I stated on the online reservation that it was for my birthday and that we would like a booth. When we arrived, they had no record of our reservation. I had a confirmation email from the restaurant and the location was correct, we double checked just in case. The restaurant was packed, as expected on a Friday evening, there were no booths available and we ended up seated in the back at a very small cafe style table for two.

We then waited, no joke, for 20 minutes to hear from our waiter. Finally we got our drink order in and he took our dinner order as well at the same time. We ordered the meat Ethiopian feast but they only brought out the vegetable dishes. We had finished the entire tray by the time the meat was brought out. Another 20 minutes.

There was also a point where we ran out of bread and sat staring at the food waiting for them to come back around.

Then, they brought the bill and my husband asked about the birthday discount. The man who brought the bill was not our waiter. He asked for my ID and then started at it for a long time, then asked me the date twice, and then said sorry, he couldn't do it. I had to show him the date on my phone and the matching date of birth on my phone in order to convince him, which was really embarrassing. :( It made me feel like he thought we were cheap, or trying to cheat them out of money. We still tipped well, and on the total bill before the applied discount.

So overall, I really enjoyed the food itself, and our drinks were good too. But what was supposed to be a planned date night out with my husband, enjoying the live music and celebrating my birthday, was awkward, uncomfortable, and kind of embarrassing.

I'm sure they were having an off day. But it was weird enough that my husband feels like he wouldn't go back. I probably would, but I don't know. Food was good, service...

The food is good here, but the service is very poor. Most of the wait staff is very friendly, polite, and helpful. However, they are severely understaffed. Also, the man who it appears is the owner is very UNfriendly, literally grunts in response to comments, and seems to try to actively ignore patrons.

The dinner is typically an "all you can eat" arrangement for the vegetarian servings. This is $20 per person. You can order any meat items separately. However, you cannot get someone to come to your table if you want an additional serving of any of the vegetarian items. Of the 6 or 7 vegetarian items, we wanted to get another serving of two of them. Unfortunately, we could get anyone to come to the table for 15 minutes. When we did have someone stop at the table and we asked for those items, the items were never delivered (from the gentleman who appearrd to be the owner). Next, a server asked if we needed anything, we asked for those two items, and again nothing happened. Finally, a second server came by the table and then brought one of the two items.

It seems the strategy is to make people wait so long that they become frustrated and leave, never receiving any additional items. I wondered for a moment if I could get some attention by getting up to leave before the bill arrived, but we didn't try this tactic.

All in all, very frustrating and not a pleasant experience. We have been here before and don't remember having this type of a problem. As I said, the food was very good. However, the service is very poor due to the lack of servers (who are completely overworked and appear to be running all the time) and the indifference, if not outright hostility, of the owner make this a place we will not patronize again. That's too bad, too, because the food really is good. Maybe carry...