Mesob Ethiopian Restaurant — Restaurant in Minneapolis

I have chosen to give this establishment a 5 star because the food is tasty and it attracts a lot of locals as a small business, serving Ethiopian folks within the Twin Cities, especially in South Minneapolis, at a relatively "hole in the wall" location. I do not want to use superficial criteria to rate this establishment lower, knowing that factors such as cleanliness, service, etc. can easily perpetuate elitist perspectives, especially when it comes to small POC-owned businesses. Its service to the community is what I value the most as it serves tasty food with very modest decorations and nothing flashy. Frequent Ethiopian visitors do not typically engage in reviews for this place but they visit very often. If you are not Ethiopian, you will find yourself the only non-Ethiopian (or just non-East African) in the restaurant more often than not.

However, even if I have chosen to give a 5, I do have a few points to make that can serve as genuine expectations for others: 1) They seem to be very understaffed, so please expect slower to at times nonexistent service and be proactive about asking for an update on food or ordering. The times I was there, they only had one server who had to handle all of the to-go orders and serve the diners. Please do not make matters worse by exhibiting behaviors that suggest your privilege or how spoiled you can be. 2) Their cleanliness is not always the best. I have had one case where someone threw up in the woman's bathroom and because they were understaffed, they could not attend to cleaning it, subsequently deterring other female customers away from the bathroom. As a Chinese person, I don't mind it, since I have seen enough. But you may care about it because of your background, so just beware. 3) Their food amount given has decreased over the years. The lamb / beg tibs used to contain a full container of lamb with no visible liquid while in June 2023 it looks like there are more areas that one can't see lamb meat. If I want to give Mesob a 4, then that would be the primary reason.

With all that said, the food is solid! It is all exactly as described on their menus, with abundant injera and free refill if one doesn't have enough. The doro special chicken is heavily seasoned with spices so having the cheese and injera will be helpful, but it is extremely tasty! The lamb tibs are slightly underseasoned and the lamb can be more tender, but I think it might be just because the lamb is not marinated. The awaze beef tibs are extremely well-seasoned and tasty as well! Both the chicken and the beef can be a bit spicy. As for the veggies, having yellow lentil, red lentil, and root veggies is perfect because they are more plain in flavor and therefore strike a great balance with the meat's potentially overpowering flavor. It's hard to go wrong with Ethiopian food because the spices are so specific, so there's going to be flavor.

If there is anything that needs improvement with their food, then I thinn it will just be more consistent with the food portion given. I have been there 3 times and have been given various portions each time. Once again, taste-wise,...

Come for the food, not for the service. After enjoying their flavorful, delicious food as take-out, we looked forward to dining in. The food was great but the service was friendly but slow, unprepared, and frustrating.

Our party of six had reservations as recommended, but no table was set up when we arrived at the nearly empty restaurant. The waiter initially put together two round tables, an awkward setup under any circumstance, but really poor for a shared platter and for conversation. We eventually settled on two rectangular tables end-to-end, with two rows of three facing each other, better but still awkward. There was no beer or wine list, and the waiter couldn't name or describe the Ethiopian brands that were available. Once ordered, our beverages took a long time to be served. We think someone may have run down the street to the liquor store to get Chardonnay for one person in our party, as we had been told that no wine was available. No second round of beverages was offered.

Our food was ordered in two rounds, as suggested by the waiter after we expressed some indecision, but this awkwardly prolonged our meal with a lengthy waiting period in the middle between orders. Dessert was never offered, no boxes offered for leftovers, and no tab was provided at the table. We eventually gave up waiting and paid at the counter.

Highly recommended for take-out or parties who already know...

My wife and I went to Mesob as first time customers after doing some home cooking of teff injera, doro wat, and other classic dishes to check our work. We got in the restaurant at about 7:00pm (a little earlier than many regular customers, I think) and found a few other parties of diners, all Westerners. The greeter/server came out of the kitchen after a moment and seated us. We ordered just the things we had made at home a few days before (doro wat, kik alicha and gomen, that is spicy chicken stew, mild yellow split peas and collard greens) by ordering the doro special and the vegetable sampler. (The menu we saw was all in English, but the server was African.) The server helpfully showed me that the doro special includes Ethiopian style farmer's cheese when I mentioned I wanted to order that as a side dish. He asked if I wanted him to choose a beer for me after I had heard that another customer ordered beer. He brought out a bottle of Walia, an Ethiopian lager beer I don't recall having before. The beer went very well with the meal, which was wonderful. The berbere sauce on the doro special was pleasantly spicy without being too spicy and all of the vegetables in the vegetable sampler were flavorful with distinct seasoning for each vegetable. We enjoyed our meal very much. We will tell all our friends and will...