Desta Ethiopian Restaurant — Restaurant in Dallas

I have been to Desta Dallas a few times now. Up to this point, the service is quite well. However, today, the entire crew seemed to be off their game.

We (my mom and I) were going to go to Sheba off of Forest Lane and Shepherd; however, my mom wanted the Chechebsa - which Desta offers all day (unlike Sheba, which only offers during breakfast hours). Plus we have always been pleased with Desta's service and wanted the experience today.

So, we went - the lady who is usually there greeted us with a smile. She may not remember us, but we remember her. She speaks very good English and knows how to connect with the customer who is not Ethiopian. For that, I am appreciative.

So, to get started, we ordered the Chechebsa and the mango margarita. The first round of margaritas were good. The second round was good, but I could tell the waitress had rushed making them. The crowd in the restaurant was full. Also, there was some guy ( I guess a relative of the owners of the restaurant or an employee) going behind the bar and filling up his drinks with quite a bit of liquor. It was unprofessional.

Moving on....as we are enjoying our drinks and talking, we realize that it is taking longer than usual for the chechebsa to come out. I finally call our waitress over, who comes back and admits that the chechebsa did not get prepared. Part of me thinks she forgot to tell the cook to make it. But she says the cook forgot to make it. Anyway....she tells us this and says that we can get the chechebsa after our meal because our food is on our way. We decided to 86 the chechebsa.

So, our food SLOWLY comes out plate by plate. The restaurant was out of collard greens that is supposed to go with our meals. The waitress was not going to tell us. I guess she expected us to be stupid and not realize it. But I did and brought it up. She said 'yea, we're out....sorry for that. That's why I gave you extra beets and will give you extra of whatever else you want.' Ok...so we enjoyed our food....

I ordered the Misto - Talapia on a bed of veggies - missing the expected collard greens - however, the meal was very, very tasty. My first time having talapia at an Ethiopian restaurant - I was pleased.

My mom ordered the Kitfo - she enjoys kitfo and enjoyed Desta's kitfo - it was so much food, she didn't even eat half of the plate

We ordered (to share) a veggie plate - again, so much meat from our individual meals, that we had four to-go boxes.

Ok, to the ending - we get our check....we pay....but it takes too long for the waitress to come back and get our money. She finally makes it over and we ask her for bags for our to-go boxes. She asks someone else to process our check/money and get the bags...

The young lady does as she's told but is taking her time....Not sure if she's a bit slow up top or just overwhelmed... she looks over and sees us leaving and runs to get the bags....

Because our waitress was running her mouth at another table about a business opportunity that had NOTHING to do with serving us - her tip went from $12 to $6 in five minutes. I'm picky about quality customer service...

Today - Desta was busier than usual (than I've seen). I think the owners need to hire more wait staff (it was so bad, one couple never got served and they finally walked out of the restaurant). Perhaps even more cooks. I don't know. The ambiance of the restaurant is lovely. The food is good. I like that they have appetizers. But if the service is going to be like this in the future, I might as well...

Nice authentic Ethiopian food, or so my friend that invited me says. I do not know the names but will do my best to describe the dishes we enjoyed. My friend ordered, she speaks Ethiopian, so I had no idea of what the English names of the food were. The atmosphere was friendly, but as I already expected, it did take a while for the food to come out. It was worth the wait. Drink: Had a long island ice tea. It was good and tasted great. No complaints. Main: we got a combination family style plate that comes with 4 meats on top of injera with additional injera rolls between the meats. We got the double stewed chicken, one with spicy almost charred lamb chunks and one with stewed lamb. It came with their bread called injera. The best way to describe it is like a sourdough pancake crepe. It has the notes of sourdough and is flexible like a crepe but thicker. It's yeast based, so be careful as I ate 2, and I think it expanded in my tummy. Let's just say it may have caused a grand evacuation the next day. You unroll it and use it to scoop up the stew/ meat. Kinda how you use fufu in Nigerian food. But chicken fell off the bone tender, and of the lambs, I performed the spicy cargrilled one. We also got a separate plate of stewed lamb that came in a red sauce she ordered French baguette bread just in case I did not like the injera. She knows I don't like sourdough bread, but I did not have a problem with the injeras taste. I was worried it would be sticky, but it was not. Dessert: Tiramisu was dee-lish-ous! Would recommend it as it is hard to find a one that is not soggy. Also , I had a touch of milk chocolate flavor, which I enjoyed. Downsides #1 The food was so good I ate til I was glutton style full. I'm taking like how you eat at Thanksgiving. #2 I had gas the next morning bad, but it could have been as I don't eat a lot of bread, esp yeast based carbs & the stewed chicken did come with a boiled egg. It is either of the two, so I would suggest having hot tea after or some gas ex. #3 Again, I did not order, but in hindsight, it would have been nice to have some side veggies to try. I know they had a vegetarian platter, but I'm not sure if they did them solo as I don't remember seeing sides...

I'm a contractor and I do Uber and I on this day I was looking for more diet friendly. My daughter bragged how good Ethiopian food was as we go to different African restaurants and try the cuisne. I pulled in and spoke to the people sitting outside. Courtesy. I walk in and looked around and had good thoughts at that point. But I was greeted by a sister as like yea what do you need or want. No proper greeting I sat myself in front of a TV that was playing then it went to a back drop. No one thought to say we'll be with you in a minute. The sister ask like 5 to 10 minutes later did I know what I want. IDK what I'm looking at. I've never had Ethiopian food. Let's start with water No ice lemon on the side. No explanation on the menus or food choices. So I ask what was this and pointed. She then proceeds to explain like I was bothering. Ok, ill take the vegetable plate. I normally don't stay with those types of vibes and at that point I felt that. Then a few people come in and sit around me. Now the soccer game is on and playing for these brothers. My food is served and get up and go wash my hands because I been up since 5 am it's time to eat. I come back out the brothers behind me were gone.( because the TV stop showing Their at the bar watching it now) I really didn't see that they ordered anything. Anyways, it was a brother and I'm guessing his daughter comes in and sits next to my table. Now the sister is more attentive. Hmm. OK when I let here know I'm going to need a to go she announces it out loud. The brother gets up and proceeds to engage in conversation and exchange of hugs. You didn't eat nor drink. Hmm. The only reasonably engagement I got was when I was getting ready to leave. I left the highest tip and would've tipped more because of the FOOD not the service. If the welcome could have been more uninviting I would probably be hanging from a tree. I never felt that uncomfortable in my life from brothers and sisters thats my color in a city where people embrace especially myself the different cultures here on there own free will. I know my daughter will know the place she went to. I don't believe it was this one. That was my experience. But other than that the food was...