Dama Restaurant and Pastry — Restaurant in Arlington

What a spectacular restaurant set in the Arlington-Fort Myer, and Pentagon footprint! I was incredibly fortunate to have stumbled upon Dama Pastry and Restaurant while I was in town for work and want to share my experience here with other inquisitive diners wishing to experience something novel.

From the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel, Dama Pastry and Restaurant was no more than a stone-throw a way which made it an ideal dining choice for me. After arriving to town that day and settling in at the lodging accommodation, I soon found myself rather famished. Not the one to simply settle for the dining options and venues at the hotel, I wanted to explore the local cuisine. Almost immediately, Dama grabbed my attention when I did a quick search using Google maps.

The restaurant sits off of Columbia Pike (Rte 244) at the corner of South Oak Street. The parking situation at the establishment is limited, with 4 spots in the front of the restaurant, while the side of the restaurant has several spots (definitely consider this if you're coming here with a large party). Dama Bakery and Restaurant has 3 distinct sections. There is the bakery (left; make sure you don't walk into the extreme left of the building as it is a salon), the market (in the middle), and the restaurant (right); you can also walk freely from one section to another as they are all connected on the inside.

I happened to enter through the bakery from which the staff happily guided me to the restaurant section. Here, I was met with a welcoming host. The setting and ambiance were fairly modest with some portrait hangings that shed light on the history and culture of the establishment and cuisine. This along with the plain-straight forward menu was a refreshing change to the colorful, extravagant decor and menu pamphlets that can sometimes be overstimulating.

Although not my first time having Ethiopian food, I still required some assistance and recommendations from the host. Again, the menu descriptions were straight forward and to the point however it contained culturally named items that I was not familiar with. The host was more than gracious and patient to explain these items and make her recommendations based on my preferences. After relatively quick deliberation, I submitted my choices and eagerly awaited the entree. The dish I ended up ordering was the Awaze Tibs.

As I waited, I reflected and attempted to recall my previous experience with Ethiopian cuisine. Whilst I remembered the occasion and venue, I did not specifically have any take aways from the meal other than the fact that I simply enjoyed it.

When the meal was delivered, my eyes were the first to feast on the platter. While simple in plating and presentation, the notion that the meal was infused with flavor was immediately apparent from the colorful notes that coated the beef cubes and slides while chopped green jalapenos added another splash of color. On the side was a freshly prepared house salad. All of this sat over the injera that met with the circumference of the aluminum plate like a perfectly sized placemat. The meal was paired with more injera that was carefully folded like a crepe ready to be unfurled for enjoyment.

Followed by my taste buds, I could have not asked for anything more exhilarating to kick off my work-visit. The spice and aroma paired perfectly to provide a beautiful symphony that played out in my mouth. Eating with just my hands (this is the way), I enjoyed every bite of the beef as it paired with the delightfully sour-y injera. Having some bites with the fresh jalapeno, and some with the house salad, I ate until my belly could no longer - and even then I craved more. I continued to eat the injera that soaked up the juices and stew of the Awaze.

Finally, after I was physically and spiritually satisfied, I surveyed the completed platter in a victorious gaze. What a wonderful experience. I would highly recommend to anyone staying at the Sheraton to give this place a try - there is no reason not to - as well as anyone in the Arlington area. It is...

This place is great. Don't be fooled on your way to this restaurant. The road to Happy Satiety is paved with potholes and ever-changing lane markers. Even the parking lot is outdated. By outdated, I mean, that there is no real lot. It's just a thin parking strip clearly not enough for America's bigger cars filled with bigger diabetics.

But in the case of this place, I don't blame the diabetes. I, too, would develop such diseases after having found out about this place from my friend.

Get inside, and you'll find decor that looks like an Egyptian tomb or something out of the set of Indiana Jones. The service is nice and friendly. The prices are really good. And the food is flavorful. Now, I've had some good Ethiopian food before (See my Review of Zenebech Injera), and this place is great on multiple levels in terms of quality of food. It's also better on some other aspects as mentioned earlier in this review.

However, what makes this place better than Zenebech Injera is the "aftermath." When we go out for Ethiopian, we go all out. But the next morning, my stomach is destroyed; it feels as though my intestines are hungover. Thus, much time is spent in the restroom. But at Dama, there is no regret. There is no Walk/Run of Shame as you shield yourself from the public embarrassment of gut-pulverizing diarrhea.

There's a bakery that's also part of the restaurant, and the desserts are fresh and coma-inducing.

On a side note, the bathroom could use better soap. It's just a non-labeled ketchup bottle of green water. And well, the bathroom could be improved as well; it's too small. It looks like an orgy of porcelain.

As I move out of the city, I will like this place more and more, because it means I won't have to drive into DC's epicenter of Ethiopian Life to get great food. While my friends were there to celebrate a special day, I feel like we all won. Happy...

This weekend we finally tasted the Ethiopian cuisine for the first time in this restaurant. We were very exited about it after reading all these positive reviews here. After stepping inside the restaurant our excitement was lost to some degree, but we still were hopeful about the food. Following waitress's advise We ordered vegy combo, beef tibs combo, baklava and napoleon cake for dessert and their special honey tea. FOOD: eatable, but bland and boring. Tasted more like mediocre home cooking rather then professional restaurant fair. SERVICE: friendly, but not professional in the beginning, and abandoned by the end, somehow we left with the feeling of being cheated. It happened when instead of two combo platters we've got one with supposedly "everything on it" (but still looking kind of not filled up completely) at the same time being charged for two platters. And how come both vegy and meat platters have been charged the same price of $11.95. Seems weird to us. AMBIANCE: The whole place looked like it's in a middle of repare works. (half painted ceiling, sticking out wires, broken light fixtures...) or neglected and dirty. The most amazing thing to us was all these raving reviews this disgusting place got from so many reviewers. It makes us wonder who are these people and did we go to the same...