Asmara Restaurant — Restaurant in Portland

Stopped by Asmara for dinner with a coworker as were seeking something more ethnic for cuisine. Inside is kept tidy and neat, full of ethnic paintings, statues, and plants. We got seated and water was served shortly after. I ordered a Beef Sambusa for an appetizer, arrived with my main meal and not before. It was crisply fried to the point where the dough was burnt. Meat stuffing for the sambusa was flavorful but did not make up for the burnt crust. For my main course I ordered the Lamb Tibsi Over Injera with red lentil stew. While we awaited each of our main courses all i could hear from the kitchen is microwave doors being opened, closed and then the repetitive beeps of the microwave timers going off. My thoughts were they were heating up the main courses. So the main course arrives and the food is warm but the Injera is cold like it came out of the fridge. The quality of the lamb and lentil stew was overall great. Went to pay the check and they did not accept American Express, had to pay with another Credit Card. The bathrooms are downstairs in the basement and the steps are very close together so it's not the best experience up and down...

I visited before Covid and remember it being good, but underwhelmed by the size of the dish and injera given. Came here for date night before a show the other night. The atmosphere is casual with nice cultural art. The two of us shared the vegetarian sampler, a $70 platter, that is advertised to feed 3-4 people, thinking we’d have some leftovers for later. The dishes were very tasty and the honey wine was alright. The biggest downside was that we polished off that platter in a matter of minutes. The portions were definitely not going to feed 3-4 people. Maybe 3-4 children. A bit disappointed that we paid so much money for such a small portion, it makes we wonder if they altered the portion size because there was only two of us? I don’t know, but maybe ordering a couple of entrees instead of the sampler would’ve been better, though I’m not convinced it would’ve been any better of a portion size. Again, the service was good, the food was good, it just left us...

This was my first time in Portland and we saw this restaurant walking to our place. It had a great ambience so we walked in. First, the business is run by a very kind family. Second, the food was truly delicious! I am a vegetarian and honestly not a big eating out type of person. But wow, this place made me love Eritrean cuisine from the first few bites - so flavorful. So amazing to try something new and have a great experience. I would also say I usually go for restaurants in $10-20 range but the extra 5 bucks here are...