Red Sea Ethiopian & Eritrean Cuisine Restaurant — Restaurant in Oakland

For a place that's been around for 45 years I figured they had nailed down the food (at least). The menu was filled with typos and the ordering site had its sambusa information mixed up.

The dive-y atmosphere seems to work for the folks who were hanging out in the (loud) bar that led to the dining room. But the music poured into the room and collided with the atmospheric (random) music. I was intrigued and pleasantly surprised by the salad with injeera in it along with mayo pesto dressing. That was good and perhaps the highlight of the meal, though biting into jalapenos and raw onions somewhat made it unsettling.

We got the vegetarian sampler and the shiro. The discordant artwork on the walls and the lack of detail was reflected in the plate too. The potatoes and carrot pieces were too big and underwhelming. The shiro took a while to grow on me, but it definitely has a lot to address. The shining jewel was the okra in tomato sauce. If only the pigeon peas and red lentils were as flavored this would have been a good experience. The collard greens, as is the case in all Ethiopian restaurants, was...

I loved the food. Next time I will ask them to cook it straight original style like the chef would prefer it, they admitted they toned down the spice level since we came in with kids. Very good flavor nonetheless. Strongly reccommend this place above all the other ethiopian/eritrean restaurants in SF/Oakland/Berkeley. We have tried a bunch. We really tend to like eating in ethiopian restaurants that have more pungent and strong flavors, not mild and overly sweet to meet the Americanized expectations (like fusion style). Vast majority of them tend to really tone down their flavor to be more like fusion style and they turns out very boring to us.

This place is a gem ! Finally after all this time found a good one, Red...

When I lived on Oakland almost 20 years ago, I used to eat at Red Sea all the time and I loved the food back then. I happened to be in Oakland today and had a craving for some authentic Ethiopian food (there are no Ethiopian restaurants where I live now 😞) and I was happily surprised to find that the Red Sea was still there. We quickly found a park and with excitement made our way over to the restaurant. We were promptly seated and the waitress wasted no time getting us menus and glasses of water. We decided on a vegetarian family platter and I'll tell you what...the food was just as yummy as I remembered it to be 20 years ago. I was in heaven. I'll have to come up with another reason to visit...