Walia Ethiopian Cuisine — Restaurant in San Jose

After facing the excruciatingly long wait time at Zeni I decided to try another Ethopian place in San Jose. Yelp threw up Walia Ethiopian Cuisine with good ratings so I decided to give it a try. It also had the added advantage of being able to order ahead so I went ahead and got what I generally get at Ethiopian restaurants namely the Meat Combo ($17.95) to-go. Walia's meat combo consists of beef stew, beef stew non spicy, doro wot and lamb stew.

Thirty minutes after ordering I reached to pick up the food. Walia is located in a plaza with a large parking lot so no issues with parking. There was a group of people waiting outside (but far less than the madness I observed at Zeni) so I patted myself on the back for ordering ahead and stepped in. From this point forward everything went downhill.

I reached up to the counter and asked if my order was ready to-go. What I got was some bad attitude from the person behind the counter who was not happy with just my name but insisted on seeing the order details. I told her that my cell was discharged so I could not show her that but it made no difference to her. She got so mad that she started screaming at me. At this point the manager stepped in. He told me that they are so famous that they get a lot of orders and that's why they insist on seeing each order before handing it over. This made no sense to me, but after he saw my facial expression he quickly changed his tune and offered to look up my order on a dirty, beat up, broken phone with my name. It is nice that he did that else he would have experienced first-hand how rude some people can be.

After finding my order I was asked to wait another 5 minutes and then I was on my way. Let's come to the food. Let's start with what was good. Walia has packaged the Injera (the bread used to scoop up the food and eat) separate from the stews so it had not become soggy. They also gave me a lot of food i.e. there were literally 2 containers with the curries. Here's where the good stops. Let's start with the curries. The container used to hold the curries does not have clearly demarcated compartments, so by the time you reach home everything inside tastes like one monolith dish even though there are supposed to be 4 different curries in the container. The only taste that I got was of burnt onions which I'm assuming is the base of one of the curries. It completely overpowered everything else making everything taste bitter. The injera generally has a sour tang but Walia's was just flat. It also lacked the sponginess of injera but had the texture of regular bread.

Sorry not impressed. Having tons of crappy food may appeal to some but not me. Forget about Zeni, the food here does not even match up to some of the Ethiopian places that I've been to in LA. I have absolutely no intention...

Walia is one of the many good Ethiopian restaurants in the South Bay. In the past we have visited Gojo (our personal favorite) and Zeni and Walia is a new entrant (2 years old) to the area.

Walia is located at the intersection of San Carlos Avenue and Bascom close to aBank of the West branch. The location is less than stellar especially on quiet weekends but let that not deter you from visiting the restaurant. The restaurant is relatively small like most other Ethiopian places. Its menu is simple offering multiple vegetarian options alongside the often chosen veggie combo. We ordered a veggie combo, a bowl of shiro and a cup of Ethiopian spiced tea.

If you have never been to an Ethiopian restaurant (what are you waiting for?) you should know that it is a veggie paradise. They cook with multiple lentils and lots of vegetables. Coupled with their native bread, the injera, it offers a complete and wholesome meal for the vegetarian palate. It is well spiced that serves the spice lover in you. As my wife remarked, Walia (and other Ethiopian restaurants in the area) will soon, if not already, compete with the likes of Saravana Bhavan in the minds of the South Bay Indian population. Food takes a while to arrive in most if not all Ethiopian places and make sure you factor that into your dining plans.

The veggie combo arrived relatively quickly by Ethiopian restaurant standards and was very good. Spice was good but not too much. My 5 year old loves to dip into the veggie combo and he was not complaining until his final bite. If any, the only nitpick was that my wife’s favorite Atikilt wot did not have very many potatoes. The Shiro was fantastic too. The injera was not too sour which is a common complaint for many. Overall, the food was as good as any Ethiopian I have eaten and none of us would ever mind going to Walia again. If you havent been to this place, you should definitely stop by sometime. It is a 3-5 minute drive from Santana Row/Valley Fair mall area on...

This place is run by arrogant and rude folks who've taken patronage for granted just coz back in the day they had received good reviews.

But I warn you to go there at your own risk because you'll get NO SERVICE, the food quantities have been drastically cut and prices increased and at least the place is FILTHY on the verge of being unhygienic.

We reached there on a Wednesday at 7:30p and there were only about 5 out of 15 tables occupied, so fairly light traffic which should have been good, except we waited almost 10 mins at the entrance before anyone even acknowledged us and got us seated on a uncleaned table which was cleaned only after we sat down.

Then we waited for almost 35mins before I finally walked up to the back of the restaurant to place my order because NO ONE CAME to our table to had us the menu let alone take our food order.

We waited another 15mins (so a total of 50mins) before finally a waiter was summoned to give us a glass of water!!

When the food finally arrived the quantity had reduced dramatically from the last time I'd been here appox 4 yrs back and it was meh.....!

By this time we had given up expecting any visit by the waiter to see if we wanted more injera or water to to expect a bill. So I walked up to the back and paid for the food only to see that a 20% SERVICE FEE was already added to the bill.

It was almost 9:15p and many of the tables still had dirty dishes that had been sitting there since we'd walked in almost 75mins back. See the pictures for yourself!

What a con!!! They have the gumption to charge 20% service fee for being rude, unfriendly and disgusting!!

NEVER EVER going there again esp. since there are plenty of decent Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurants in and...