Selamta Ethiopian Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Lenexa

My husband , son and I dined here for dinner as it was recommended as a fine Ethiopian Cuisine. We frequent many around town and happened to been in the area and sat down here to try it out!!

THE ABSOLUTELY WORSE EXPERIENCE AND FOOD EVER! My son ordered Mac and cheese. It was $9.99 for a box of microwaved Kraft box Mac & cheese! That was extremely hot! Uncomfortable to eat and took forever to cool down. Then it had no seasoning or nothing added to spruce it up. Just a big bowl of dry ole Mac and cheese!

My husband and I both ordered a veggie plate. The lentils were hard, the greens tasted like they were pulled straight from the ground and cooked with the dirt on them. The beets were over cooked! None of the food had taste. The ingera was the worse!

The waitress was very rude from the beginning. She brought our Sambusas out with the meal when we had placed the order as an appetizer on top of them being burnt.

My food was barely touched. My husband and son forced themselves to eat what little they did!

I informed the waitress about the unpleasant experience with the food and she seen we hadn’t eaten much and she was stale and unpolished in her apology. We still paid the full price for the ticket but definitely won’t be back! She snatched the plates before I could get a pic of my son and husbands! I did snap mines. It was so horrible I didn’t even take it to go! I only ate the tomato dish that was extremely spicy! The only thing on the plate that had some flavor!

We still tipped and left graciously! But the food and service was horrible! We definitely won’t be back! Never wasted money on a dish like that! Terrible!

I don’t...

Essentially, service is friendly but painfully slow and incompetent (more on this below) BUT the food is JUST truly incredible, authentic, and succulent. Be prepared to wait WELL over an hour for your food—butI promise it will be worth the wait.

When we visited, we ordered a starter salad for the table and 3 dishes—a meat combo and two veggie combos. Restaurant was empty. The waitress was nice but did not check on us once after bringing us water (someone else came by an hour later to refill our cups). She was not busy and was often at the bar checking her phone. We had to explicitly ask for our starter salad to be brought out after 45 minutes because we were just famished! It came out 15 minutes later. Another 25 minutes later, only the meat combo dish came out, and the waitress informed us that the chef “was not familiar with all of the items in the veggie combo” and could not complete our order (????), so she asked us if we were okay with eating meat instead to supplement the other parts of the order. We were bewildered that the waitress waited over an HOUR after we ordered to inform us that the plates we ordered couldn’t be made. We do eat meat so we agreed (also because we were so hungry!), but we were completely floored. We waited another 25 minutes for the other two orders to be done, so we couldn’t eat with the rest of our party. It was among the most bizarre dining experiences we’ve had. I will say that the quality, presentation, and quantity of the food more than made up for the service, but if we ever come back here, we’ll likely order take out—and we’ll be prepared to give them ample time to...

This is a restaurant I could eat at every day for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t hesitate if the opportunity were available to me. I have in three trips experienced the top five meals of my lifetime, two of which now hold the #1 and #2 position. I can hardly find the proper adjectives and depth of quality and value that my meals here have brought to my life. Upon my second visit (I had the beef tibs the first time around) I ordered Qey Wat and the veggie combo, I was moved to tears. I ate alone each time and the tears were primarily motivated by the overwhelming wish that I could share such exotic delight with a loved one friend or otherwise. I have eaten a wide variety of foods throughout my near four decades of culinary experience and I wouldn’t recommend any other choice in the whole world more highly than this combination of flavors and textures. Please do yourself a lifetime experience of ordering the Qey Wat and veggie combo, also enjoy a glass of tej. I’m deeply grateful for my experience and I will take every future opportunity I have to visit this blessing to...