Ethiopic Restaurant — Restaurant in Washington

I've been to Ethiopic many times over the past decade. Usually it's great, but last week I went with some friends and had a negative experience. They have a happy hour from 5-6:30pm, Tuesday through Thursday, which has certain select items from the menu at half-price. We ordered, among other things, several double veggie platters, verifying verbally with the waitress when we ordered that we were both within the happy hour timeframe and were ordering happy hour half-priced food items. She assured us that the cocktails and veggie platters were, indeed, happy hour items and would be half-price, as it was only 6:10pm.

When the bill came, there were no happy hour discounts at all. Thinking it was just a mistake, we told her a mistake had been made when printing our bill. She began to argue with us that we had ordered after 6:30pm (she had verified the exact time when we placed the order!), and then finally, grudgingly took the bill back and made one of the two veggie platters half-priced, keeping the other one at the full $40. She claimed the fish side dish that came on a separate plate negated the entire happy hour price for one of the veggie platters, even though the platter itself was identical to the other, half-priced veggie platter. She had assured us when we ordered that both would be happy hour-priced, and at no point did she tell us this would not be the case. The menu (see attached photo) certainly makes it seem that the veggie platters are half-priced during happy hour, and the fish is an optional add-on to what would be a half-priced item.

My friend was covering the entire meal. When she said she was confused and wanted to speak to a manager before paying, the waitress led her to the back and proclaimed loudly to the manager/owner, "YOU deal with her!" The owner also refused to honor the happy hour price. (Side note: the same thing happened to me with the same waitress during a previous Ethiopic visit over a month ago, but when I reminded the waitress I'd ordered the veggie platter well before 6:30pm, she updated the bill without arguing and I didn't think much of it at the time.) I now see that this may be a pattern at Ethiopic - of inattentiveness at best, and predatory dishonesty at worst.

The real issue here is not the price of the veggie platters - paying the full $40 is not the end of the world. The real issue is that we felt like we were intentionally tricked into purchasing more food than we might have otherwise, and then we were gaslighted when the bill arrived and we had questions. If the restaurant is struggling with finances, I completely understand the desire to make enough money. However, if they can't afford happy hour prices, they simply shouldn't have a happy hour; it just isn't acceptable to tell customers certain things will be half-priced and then renege on that promise after they place orders. Alternatively, if any of the veggie platters are actually NOT discounted during happy hour, Ethiopic needs to train their staff to explain this far more clearly and also update their menu accordingly.

I hate leaving negative reviews, but this entire experience really made us feel taken advantage of and wary of coming back. The food remains delicious, but I suggest that you ask for an itemized receipt as you're ordering so that you don't get any surprises when the bill comes, regardless of whether or not it's...

Notice how all the rave reviews are by non-Ethiopians? In the DC area you can do better - this restaurant was full of young DC professionals, but when we went, not a single customer was Ethiopian. The staff did a good job accommodating a big party, though we did have to wait a while and repeat that we needed 14, not 12, seats. Food took forever to arrive, and service was so-so. Apparently the restaurant uses partial teff and part wheat flour in their injera but does offer the option of getting an order of gluten-free injera for $4. They were also able to identify which dishes could and couldn't be made without butter for our dairy-free limitations (fasting style vegetables, etc) and the waitress was quick to point out when something we ordered had butter and couldn't be made differently. The GF option, however, had only 3 meager rolls of injera, and the meal did not come served traditional style (family style, with a layer of injera on a central platter and the ordered dishes spooned out on it) except for those that ordered a vegetarian sampler, which means we didn't even get that injera to accompany the dishes we got. When we asked the waitress and said we needed more, she said that was all that came in one order, and said maybe we should talk to the manager. We didn't exactly understands why we'd need to do so in order to get another order of injera, but answered that would be fine... but we neither got to talk to a manager nor received additional injera. The high price of the dishes seems to cater to Capitol Hill salaries and the desire to appear as if you are eating exotic food without worrying about its authenticity or the atmosphere (the decibel level of the dining room was deafening, to the point that if we had ever gotten to talk to a manager, it would have been nearly impossible to explain our issue). So thanks, Ethiopic, but no thanks. We'll stick with U street and Falls Church / Arlington / Alexandria and restaurants where those of Ethiopian origin outnumber customers...

Limited street parking but you can circle the block and perhaps find something within walking distance.

Reservations are helpful but we were able to be seated without one. Although there is table service, the customer service was "light'. As newcomers, we understood that the menu was available by scanning the QR code with your phone. However, you also order online and choose to dine in or to go.

The rub here is the automatic 20% gratuity that is added to each party. Seeing that they are ok with just letting you sit there to figure things out, I disagreed with this.

Not a long wait for the food to come out. I do appreciate the server helping me decide which honey wine (Tej) I wanted by providing a sample. This made all the difference as I ended up changing my selection. There's nothing worse than paying for food or drink that you find to be unpleasant in taste.

I noticed that one of my veggie options had not been included, nor did we receive the injera when the entree came out. About 5 minutes later we got both and in my opinion and previous experience, it should have come out sooner. The server I told about the missing veggie side seemed very nonchalant about it. Again, this only added to the frustration about default gratuity.

While plentiful, the flavor profile was not as robust as some other items I've enjoyed before. The clientele here seems more hipster and trendy as opposed to being frequented by other native Ethiopians who support Ethiopian ran businesses. Too westernized and it shows.

Decent experience but not...