Chercher Ethiopian Restaurant & Mart — Restaurant in Washington

My family and I visited Chercher around the new year during a staycation in DC. I had to go back to read all the reviews prior to writing this- as I’m still shocked and appalled by our experience. I noticed there are several bad reviews from the last 1-3 months; but for whatever reason they are peppered in and hidden between good reviews dating 1-4 years ago. So, either their quality and service has gone down or it was an off day on both ends.

First and foremost, we had a bad feeling about the place from when we were greeted and asked to sit by the door while the entire place was nearly empty with one couple at a table and two individuals at the bar. It was a very cold day and it seemed like installation on the door was not preventing the cold air from coming in. We placed our drink orders: Very (preference requested) hot tea, wine glass and 3 sodas for our kids. We also placed food order at the same time- as we all love Ethiopian food (coming from a family who had it in several countries to include Ethiopia as well as several little Ethiopias throughout the United States). Wine came out first, following soda cans (two room temp cold and one hot). The waitress states one is hot is that OK?! LOL, I would think customer service 101 would kick in and she would have came with at least one cup of ice and asked if we wanted more. NOPE! I had to say no problem- can you please give us three cups of ice. She made a very annoyed face as if I had four heads and reconfirmed what I said lol. All this time I noticed there was a cup of tea sitting at the bar (which had been there prior to wine being poured). I brought to my husband’s attention so he called her over and asked if that was our tea order. She said yes and continued to wipe down the table next to us. So, I reminded her that I wanted my tea extra hot. She went to inform the bartender who topped it off with hot water LOL. As she was doing so, I went ahead and canceled my order. Now to the food our Tibbs were soooo hard, burned and overcooked, the salad side we requested with each of our three meat meal orders came out as a couple pieces of dried lettuce (usually seasoned with lemon and salt). When we reconfirmed our salad request she tells us that it’s a meal order not a side. Which btw was not even a menu item, nor did she state that when we placed our orders. Then one of our kids found a hair in his cup of ice so I guess that was a pretty big ask lol. We just hurried and took a few bites and boxed everything to get out of there. When we got to the hotel our truck smelled like someone died in it so we went ahead and threw away our $160+ order. Worst of all we were all in the bathroom for nearly two days (I’ll spare the details) and our children have vowed to never eat Ethiopian food ever again!

I’m truly shocked and sad to write an awful review but it was ALL Absolutely unacceptable.

PS: we’ve lived in the area early- mid 2000s and we’ve had several great experiences in Skyline VA, DC proper, 14th, U street, NE and NW. Next time we will stick to...

We asked for a table, they told us it was a 20/30 min wait, they asked us to wait upstairs on the 3rd floor, my parents couldn’t walk all the way up the stairs so we asked to wait outside, a very nice lady said no problem, a table is almost ready. We go outside and wait, we are talking, laughing, we are on vacation and in a really good mood. It’s a group of 4 including my older parents, so not a big group to be in anybody’s way or drunk disturbing the peace. The older lady showed up maybe about 10min later screaming @us because we were standing outside by the sidewalk instead of upstairs, I explained to her, again, that my parents couldn’t walk up the stairs and we will be waiting outside by the sidewalk away from everyone and NOT even standing directly in front of the door, and the other server knew that and she will call us when our table is ready. While explaining that to her, the nicer younger lady that I spoke to earlier was walking outside to a table, when she was waking back I approached her and asked her why the older lady was so mad and screaming if we were just waiting for our table (the older lady is still standing on top of the stairs trough all this and they are supposedly super busy but she seemed to have plenty of time to stand around and argue with us for no reason) the younger lady apologized and said a table should be ready soon, I will come back to get you when it is, she was absolutely amazing, kind and wonderful, I wish I knew her name but she’s the young, pretty lady that works there. The older lady from the top of the stairs started talking (yelling) to the younger server in Amharic (their language) My mother is white but was born and raised in Addis Ababa. SHE DIDN’T KNOW MY MOM SPOKE THE LANGUAGE AND SHE WAS TALKING SO BAD ABOUT US. MY MOM WENT OFF ON HER IN AMHARIC, THE OLDER’S LADY EYES GOT SO BIG AND SHE FLEW UP THOSE STAIRS! IF SHE ONLY USED THE SAME SPEED TO ATTEND PEOPLE COMING IN…..THE WORST SERVICE. EXTREMELY RUDE AND UNPROFESSIONAL. SO MANY BETTER OPTIONS. Not only that, I don’t speak the language but my mom said the two servers outside were making really ugly, racist remarks about a table of a different race (asians) that was just sat, it was a group of 8. This happens on September 2nd around 8:30pm. My mom said they were making really ugly jokes and remarks about them, as soon as they sat them down. They way they spoke about us and the rest of the customers because they know they can’t understand the language is disgusting. I WILL NEVER SUPPORT A BUSINESS THAT HATES THEIR CUSTOMERS. PLEASE...

Okay. I am not one to knock down a business. Not the intent here. Simply sharing a perspective from my experience. Second time visiting from California coming to this restaurant. I fell in love the first time I came here, it was during the day-time and we were the only party there. So, a different experience, then. I convinced my family to come here again on this visit, while other locals tried to persuade us to go somewhere else. I said no, we are going to Chercher lol. This time around it was a Friday evening. Storm came down with thunder like nothing I have seen before. The place is really tight, guys. Like, don't come with shopping bags and luggages and strollers, tight. I felt SO bad for the waitresses trying to squeeze through, and making sure each table was attended, best they knew how. The main dining space is upstairs, though it appears they have adequate seating area downstairs. We were told that's for deliveries and to go upstairs where the main dining seating is. I was disappointed, I clearly saw folks wineing, dinning, and being social there, and I wanted to spare my mother from climbing those steep stairs with her bad knees, but okay. I didn't want to challenge any further so we went up. I was determined to eat here this very night. Where we were sat, the humidifier was leaking on top of my sister so we asked to be moved. Not much space to move, so we shimmied our table further away from the wall. It breaks my heart not to have experienced this place to the standards of the hype. The waitresses though, I admire. They work like machines and know how to navigate. So I guess, it's more relaxed to come with a party of 3-4 during the day. The evening time, from what I noticed is more social, more drinking and watching the game (it was a tennis match this evening) and less eating ... type of vibe. Food was not out of the ordinary. We asked for recommendations and it felt like we were given the options that was easy for the kitchen and less about our experience (the way the host rushed to help us decide, etc.).

First timers looking to try this place, do...