Awash Ethiopian Cuisine — Restaurant in Lancaster

This restaurant has been a long-time favorite of mine ever since I moved to the city 4 years ago. Today, we had guests coming in from out of town so I suggested that we order take-out from here.

We placed our order at 5:10 PM by phone and was told that it would be about an hour's wait since they had many orders and customers which was fine and understandable for a Saturday night. We arrived to the restaurant after an hour but was told that our food would take some more time, about 35 minutes. That was again fine, as I was able to run a couple of errands and show my guests a little bit of Lancaster. I came back after 45 minutes or so, and was told that my food would be ready in 10 minutes. At this point, it was around 7:30 PM and I waited another 10-15 minutes in the car, before entering again. I was told that my food was ready, however they disappeared into the kitchen for about 5-10 minutes and at this point, I just wanted to leave because my friends needed to drive back home before it got too dark. I tried to get their attention to let them know to cancel my order but everyone was in the kitchen (everyone being 3 people). Behind me was a line of individuals who had eaten in the restaurant but were waiting to pay. In front of me was the reviewer below, who had ordered online but was told that their order had not been received but their payment had been. In the end, I left because it had been getting close to 3 hours since I placed my order and I could also see them putting things into the microwave and wasn't sure if they were just reheating up my food or if that was someone else's. My guests and I drove to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant and we got our food served to us within 15 minutes of arriving in the restaurant.

I truly would love to support family-owned restaurants and the owner was genuinely apologetic about the long wait and had offered a discount. Having been there in the past, their food is truly amazing and one of the few (if not only) Ethiopian restaurants in Lancaster and adds to the wonderful diversity - hence why they got two stars instead of one. But they need better efficiency and more staff (who doesn't these days) and if you can't accommodate take-out orders because of this, that's fine but just let the customers know so we're not wasting our time. Otherwise, if this continues, they are not going to be in business for long and that would be a sad thing...

Update: Went back to this Ethiopian restaurant, which seems to be under new ownership, and they have changed the name from Addisu to Awash. Went on a Sunday at 1pm for their buffet, so we could try some different dishes. They had several vegetarian dishes (lentils, peas, cabbage, rice & beans, etc...) along with 2 meat options (beef & chicken). The food was less spicy, but they did offer a nice spicy sauce that could be added to any of the dishes. Unfortunately, that sauce was off to the side, so it was not easy to find. Only got to use the spicy sauce addition on my last trip to the buffet, but it really helped make the food more flavorful. The new owners seem to have done some remodeling, and we liked the walk in sinks to be able to wash hands since traditional dining is all done with fingers. It also seemed less cluttered. Overall, still a good experience and fun to do something very different. We will be coming back again, and would recommend it to others looking for unique dining experience. Original Post: The family enjoys trying different kinds of food, so we gave Addisu Ethiopian a try to see how their food is. Overall, it was very good. Had a vegetarian pie appetizer, which was very good. Also ordered some combination platters, two different meat dishes along with several vegetarian dishes. It all gets served on one big platter, with the spongy bread (don't remember the name for the bread), along with a few baskets of the same bread rolled up. All dining is done using the hands & the bread, if you want to be traditional. I'm sure that they would supply forks for those who are less adventurous about dining experiences. The food is all very flavorful, and we enjoyed what we had. I cannot tell if this is authentic Ethiopian or not, as I've never been to Ethiopia. But it was an enjoyable dinner, and fun to try something new. The night we were there, the only person working that we saw was a very nice gentleman, who may well be the owner. He checked on us throughout the evening, and took care of several other customers. The service was fine, and the food was flavorful, which was a good combination. We will be back to...

The food taste great and it is well prepared. The place is clean. If you order two entrees, you won't receive what you expect. For example, the sampler plate includes the flat spongy bread, and the rest. But if you order another entree, it will be compressed on the same large plate but without the extra bread. In other words, the entree comes with the bread if ordered alone, but any additional entrees won't be accompanied by the same amount of bread. So if you ordered the second entree by itself, it comes with the bread. But if the second entree is ordered with the first entree, there isn't any additional bread. Got it? You pay full price for both entrees.

So, you're better off ordering the first entree, eating it, and then order the next entree.

If you visit, do so during the week when it is slower. The weekend is not a good time to visit. You receive less food on the weekend. We ordered items that never arrived. People were waiting a long time for their food. They know how to cook but they don't know how to work together to get the job done within reasonable time.

Aftetwards, we found ourselves hungry at a local high end grocery store. Our party of four people spotted another party of six who were just at this place. We laughed about the experience because we left hungry after dining. So we all found ourselves at the grocery store looking to eat after...