Senke

Oh my goodness. The level of sanitation in this place is so scary. We were in the neighbourhood, and my friend wanted Ethiopian food, so I agreed. But when we walked in, I wanted to turn right around and walk out. The place smelled like a combination of burnt sage (not bad, but don’t like fragrances interfering with the taste of food) and raw unrefrigerated meat, which is just nauseating. The smell of raw meat pervaded from a couple of bloody shanks hanging at the front of the restaurant. A kind-​faced woman sliced the meat with her bare hands, took our orders, and then even served us our food without washing her hands once in between! It was disgusting, and I asked why she was serving food without washing her hands?!! She sweetly apologised and then a man at another table said that the hands hadn’t touched our food. They brought us another plate of Injera served by someone else, but I really question the hygiene of everything we ate, and I refused to eat anything that was raw. Needless to say, my appetite was destroyed before I even began. Moreover, I’ve had much better Ethiopian food in the past. On my way out, I didn’t see any certification of sanitation. How this place operates is beyond me, and I am surprised by the very high ratings that this restaurant has received.

Have you had Ethiopian food yet? No? Then head to Senke to try the meat and vegetable platter.
We ordered both for a family of 4 and have leftovers for lunch today!

We had take away from here and boy there was a lot of good food! I’ve been living in the neighbourhood for 3 years and never heard of this place.
We had the mixed vegetarian platter and mixed lamb & chicken platter. Chicken was dry & overall a disappointment, yet lamb served with various sauces was delicious. I never had Ethiopian food, so this was a nice introduction. Traditional bread (injera) was light & convenient to scoop up all the sauces & fillings.
Good value for money & nice service.

Gutes Restaurant, nahe am Bahnhof. Das Essen ist sehr gut und preiswert. Viele Äthiopier als Gäste, so ist das Essen auch sehr authentisch. Zu empfehlen.

So. Had walked past this restaurant a few times but it appeared closed. Finally realised that actually it’s very popular. So we went there. As I said it does get busy. The dining room is fairly small and they may actually have some extra space upstairs. One thing that’s interesting is that they have a butchers display on the corner with some cuts of meat.
The food is Ethiopian which means stews on top of an injera pancake. We had the special where you can basically choose two meat dishes and two veg. Wots and Tibs were ordered. One chicken the other lamb. We also got some cottage cheese and spinach and green beans. You get some tef and wheat injera rolls too. The food was great: tasty and interesting. It’s also fairly varied (ie not all dishes look and taste the same), and excellent value for money.
Given the messy process of eating something similar to curry on a weird naan bread with your hands and the butchers corner, it’s probably wise not to go here for a first date. Or maybe it is…