Nile Ethiopian — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

I can’t say enough good things about this place!! It doesn’t look like much from the outside, and the little area it’s in isn’t super nice but it is sooo worth it to go anyways! I had never eaten Ethiopian food so I really wanted to try it, and I couldn’t have even imagined how amazing it would be. Our waiter was the owner (I believe) and what a nice man! He was so happy to tell us more about his culture and the reason the restaurant was decorated how it is, and give us recommendations on what food to try since it was our first time. We ended up getting the Chefs Special and added lamb onto that, and basically that dish is a sample of almost all of the meats, veggies, and sides that they serve there. If you have at least 3 people in your group and don’t know what to get I’d highly recommend it, because then you can try a bunch of different things and share it. That’s what we did and it was just fantastic! Honestly, I can’t remember what half of the foods were called that we got but it was all delicious! You take some of the bread, and grab the different pieces of meat and veggies and go for it, and seriously every combo I tried I loved. The lamb was cooked to perfection, and I was just so impressed. It all just blended together so well and wonderfully. To finish up we got Baklava for dessert, and it’s really some of the best baklava I’ve had. So fresh and made exactly how it should be. I am so blown away by this place, and highly, HIGHLY recommend it! For my covid people they also kept everything super clean and our waiter wore masks, so you should feel pretty safe...

Words Can't Express...

... how amazing this place is. It's unassuming from the outside, but the experience and food is over the top amazing!

It's is such an amazing cultural experience. We always order our food as a communal meal. This just means that it comes in a big bowl lined with Ethiopian injera. Injera is their bread. It's more like a thin, light and airy pancake than an American bread. Then you are served a basket of injera to pick your food up with. You use your hands, though I am sure you can get silverware if you prefer... never done that to be honest.

All of their dishes are amazing. The meat is always tender and everything is always seasoned to perfection. Some is more mild than others. Just ask or read the details on the menu. With the communal meal being in one big bowl, everyone's meal choice is lined up from the center towards the person. So you have access to your choice, but we also like to take bite of what others ordered too. There's no double dipping to worry about since you rip of a piece of injera just enough for your one bite, use it to pick up your food and get a new one each bite. No worries there.

ORDER THE COFFEE! Coffee is a celebration to Ethiopians. It's a cultural experience you must enjoy while you are here. It is a whole performance and the coffee is AMAZING!! Not bitter, not too strong, just right. I don't want to ruin the experience, but I will suggest you research the importance and significance of coffee in the culture beforehand so you can fully appreciate...

The waitress was upset that we didn't order more food, which I thought was quite rude. She kept on telling us we needed to order more. We ended up having 2 to go boxes, so I'm not sure what she was upset about. They then automatically added 20 percent tip to the check and then asked for another tip to be added on top of that. I didn't notice at first and added another 20 percent tip on top of the other tip. I was about to hand it to the waitress, and realized what had been done. We had received 2 receipts, and so I took that one back and just signed the one that had 20 percent automatically added to it and handed it to the waitress. We then left and went to our vehicle. The amount for the check went through our credit card and I received a notification on my phone that it had been charged. As we were loading the family into the car the waitress came out to our car and asked for the other check where I had added the extra tip on- thus making the tip 40 percent. She said that we couldn't be billed from the other receipt that we have her. I showed her that we already had been charged, so I didn't understand. She insisted that we give her the other receipt. It was very strange behavior, and it seemed as though she wanted the bigger tip. The food itself was good, although we weren't sure exactly how to eat as the waitress didn't explain how to. Will not...