Meskel Ethiopian Restaurant

I have eaten at Meskel Restaurant several times and I greatly enjoyed every visit.\r \r The food is fresh and very tasty.\r \r The service is excellent and my entree was only $12.00 dollars.\r \r I highly reccommend Meskel Restaurant. more

Meskel is a bit pricier than other local Ethiopian restaurants, but it's food is so incredibly flavorful. Expect spicy and well spiced. The atmosphere is also very bright and cheerful with wonderful outdoor seating. more

I have visited Meskel Ethiopian Restaurant many times, when they were further west on Cherry street, by Seattle University. I waited with bated breath for a year or so before they moved into their current location, still on Cherry but near MLK. They are very friendly, and relatively quick -- I usually call ahead... but it's really about the food. They have delicious food! I generally order the vegetarian platter, and now that my children have grown I have to order two platters! The red lentils are our favorite, plenty of flavor and spice, perfect to mix with the collard greens. The meat (lamb, beef, and chicken) is delicious too, spicy and satisfying. They are a bit pricier than some other restaurants (about a dollar or two higher) nearby, but we generally find it worth it, particularly for those red lentils! I would definitely recommend this restaurant, and would say plan to come back for more! more

My husband and I love eating here. The food at Meskel's is the best! Don't waste your money trying the other Ethiopian restaurants in that neighborhood- NONE will compare! The service is not terrible, they just aren't overly friendly. It's the cleanest Ethiopian restaurant that I've been to. I would suggest sitting on the patio in the summer time; their dining room gets too hot! Pros: Delicious (inexpensive) food Cons: Not the best service, closed on Monday more

If you like rice and don't care much for hearty dishes you can find some appetizing entrees here. They definitely had some food that I had never heard of before. more

Having been to Ethiopia myself, I've really come to love their cuisine for its unique blend of flavors and spices. Meskel captures this tradition quite nicely. You always know bad Injera what it's too sour, and I've never had sour Injera at Meskel. Their green chicken and yebeg tibs are amazing.\r \r The best part of Meskel is the kitfo. They use a Gurage recipe that is really a cut above all others that I've tried (of course, being a typical American, I ask for the kitfo well done). The other great thing to order is their spice tea. They actually use Addis tea, which gives it a much better flavor than the Lipton I've had at other places.\r \r The people are nice, the food is great, the atmosphere is pleasant. I highly recommend Meskel for the first-time diner. Pros: Awesome Kitfo and Addis tea! Cons: Soda only comes in cans, so it's not refillable. more

Would have given 4 stars because the food was great. I brought a few of my friend and made reservations on a Saturday night and arrived on time only to be seated in a waiting area for 15 mins and we order food (3 dishes) that took them 1 hour to make. By then we were starving to death and pretty much anything tastes good in our mouths by that time. Very slow service maybe next time I'll order take out instead. Pros: Delicious food and fun to eat Cons: Extremely Slow service, even with reservations more

Compared to other Ethiopian restaurants in Seattle, Meskel has proved to be the most authentic to what I had in Ethiopia. Service was great and the food so good. I highly recommend this restaurant! more

Always tasty, with a superb blend of flavors. If you eat meat order the green chicken. The tea is always a great pre-dinner treat. I get cold in the summer and hot in the winter. When I visit I feel like I'm warmly welcomed. They are popular so sometimes you have to wait a bit. The wait staff is totally responsive if you ""flag"" them to your table. \r \r A couple of hints for the first timers so you don't appear culturally ignorant.\r \r 1. When you come in go ahead and find a seat. The friendly wait staff will know you are there.\r \r 2. The flat bread is called injera (pronounced in-jeera) and all food is served atop in a family style way. You eat your food by breaking off a piece of the injera and scooping your food with it.\r \r 3. Questions are cool. Just remember that you are asking about someone's home food and be respectful. I have seen plenty of Westerners having totally snobby and privileged stances that are totally inappropriate.\r \r 4. Ethiopian food is not Indian food. Maybe a quick online study of Ethiopia would help before you go. (I'm totally serious - I could tell you stories of how many things I have witnessed from ignorant folks eating there. Sometimes humorous and sometimes downright rude) Pros: Food Always Delicous - doesn't depend on the day or time Cons: Parking is sometimes hard to find more

We've been eating at other ethiopian restaurants in the city and went in here today because our favorite was closed. Terribly disappointing. The food was worse than mediocre, service poor and the prices unreasonable - considering the quality of the food, service and location. \r \r Don't go here....there are other restaurants within a couple of blocks that are way better. more

I called in an order for pick up. A very rude waitress took my order, I went over the order with her again and again. I was told it would be 15 minutes. I arrived 20 mins later, I couldn't figure out who worked there no one greeted me. A young man came by after a few minutes and asked how could he help. I let him know I had an order for pick up. The food was not ready, it had not even been made. I waited for 23 minutes for the food to come out. My total was $37.62 for 2 orders of food. I asked what was so expensive, since I couldn't read the hand written reciept. That waitress acted as if she didn't understand my question. She told me to hold on and walk to the back, after waiting another 5 minutes I just left. The food was not worth the wait or the the money. Cons: The wait time! more

After being recommended I invited my co-workers to Meskel's. We waited for 15 mins before anyone greeted us then we were sat. we waited another ten before they came to the able to take our order. since it was our first time we had a few questions. the waitress seemed very annoyed at us at one point she walked away in the middle of a question. When she finally returned she said ""ready yet?"" I wanted to leave at this point but i was convinced to stay. Although we had confirmed our order 3 times, it still came out wrong. When we informed the waitress she told us we ordered it wrong. we went back and forth for a bit. Then I asked if we could just have what we ordered. she said yes but you have to pay for it. along with the wrong order she had put in. This was by far the worst experience i have had. I will never return and would not recommend this place. Pros: YOU DONT HAVE TO EAT THERE! Cons: SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE! more

Meskel is great for eating in or carry out. I love the ""veggie combo"" which includes split peas, spicy lentils, salad, tomato fitfit (no clue if i'm spelling this correctly), potato stew and homemade cheese. It is great. Eat in and they have a small selection of African beer and wine and a few American beers also. If you haven't tried Ethiopian before, this is the place to go. If you have, and haven't been to Meskel, it's time to go! Pros: Tasty Food, Good Atmosphere Cons: Park on Cherry, not the sidestreets more

Having eaten amazingly good Ethiopian food in the dingiest, grimiest scourge-of-the-health-district joints across the continent, I was a bit stunned to find such a wholesome-looking place rated so highly. However, taking refuge from the midday sun under the wide umbrellas on the expansive patio, my coworkers and I were not disappointed. The doro wat, the vegetable platter, the homemade cheese were all so good I can forgive whoever poured the pitchers of water for substituting a flotilla of sad little lemon slices for any measure of ice whatsoever.\r \r Inexplicably not air conditioned--are they trying to replicate Ethiopia's climate to enhance the experience?--the inside was nonetheless charming. The only pall cast over the experience was a near brawl that occurred across the street as a group of people hunkered down in lawn chairs outside their house entered into a dialogue with some individuals who exited the bus at the corner. Certain words were exchanged, as were certain glass projectiles--a bottle or two? The tension mounted as we tersely sipped our warming, vaguely lemon-flavored water. Luckily, the bus riders caroused off into the...well wait, then, it was only noon, wasn't it? Caroused off into the...noon? How is it that all of them were so drunk that early? How do I get that job?\r \r Aaaaanyway. My coworkers--one an Ethiopian food newbie, the other formerly a believer that it was supposed to be served with cottage cheese--became, respectively, a convert and a zealot. Me, I'm going back some day when I'm not working so I can have some beer. I'm just not taking the bus.\r Pros: Great, authentic food. Nifty scratch-made cheese. Charming hosts. Cons: Drunken, glass-bottle-throwing patio furniture dwellers across the street. more

We were consistently very pleased with the kitchen's flexibility - we have ordered the vegetarian plate without butter quite a few times and every time, service is friendly and the food is prompt. We often eat lunch there. Sometimes it's hard to know if unfamiliar food can be made veg or vegan and still taste good; this restaurant does that admirably. The tastefully decorated interior has quite a bit of room for dining, and there is seasonal seating outside. Pros: quick service, tasty food, clean & quiet Cons: street parking only more

I love Ethiopian food, but this was the first time I've eaten here - based solely on the previous posting. I agree with everything said, and will add that I received the fastest service I've ever seen in an Ethiopian restaurant - my order was at my table within 15 minutes! I had the green chicken, and a salad, and both were spicy and delicious - with enough left over for lunch the next day with plenty of injera. Pros: pleasant servers, nice interior, relatively fast! more

At only 4 monts old, Meskel has earned at top spot in my book. I've eaten at most of the areas Ethiopian joints, and, frankly, most of the food is the same good quality. What makes Meskel more appealing is the ambience. A stunning outside deck, lovely interior, and wonderful, helpful service made for a wonderfuly enjoyable lunch. As we usually do, we asked our server to just 'make food appear..whatever she recommended"". I suggest you do the same :) Pros: outside deck, moderate prices, great variety more