4801 N Broadway St / (773) 334-8787 / http://www.demeraethiopianrestaurant.com
After twisting my ankle carrying laundry up and down the stairs, my luck suddenly changed when my friend Ehren announced that he had an unused Groupon that was about to expire. I have never had Ethiopian food, and I would never turn down a meal, so we hopped on the El and headed to Demera in Uptown (right off of the Lawrence red line). His Groupon included a full dinner for two with wine.
Wanting to make the most out of our dining experience, we started off with a bottle of their homemade honey wine and their sambussa sampler which included several thin dough shells filled with a variety of ingredients (spinach, lentils, tuna, and beef). Our night was off the a good start as the honey wine was delicious, and so were our sambussas.Being newbies to Ethiopian food, we were quite unsure about where to start, and clearly out waitress quickly picked up on this and took charge. She picked the vegetarian/meat messob for two and picked all of our choices (including out spice preference). This might have rubbed some people the wrong way, but neither Ehren nor I are picky eaters, so we appreciated her choices and the fact that she moved our dining experience along.
We were brought a communal plate of 6 small dishes and some spongy flatbread that was meant to function as our dining utensil. I can see how this could be a little weird, but we both enjoyed all of our selections. They had a variety of choices we could have gone for, and plenty of vegetarian options, so no matter your tastes you could have found something to your liking here.
We finished off our meal with some dessert, and I, of course, had a cocktail. Our dessert was a pastry filled with almonds and walnuts over raspberry sauce, and was pretty good — not amazing, but acceptable since we didn’t pay full price. Looking over their dessert menu, there are certainly some items I would have rather tried, but I cannot complain. My cocktail advertised itself as an Ethiopian margarita, and although it was nothing like a margarita, it was pretty decent. In the future, I think I would have stuck with the honey wine.The actual price of the meal would have been $77 before tip if it hadn’t been for the Groupon. I think this is pretty fair considering the amount of food/wine we had, but I’m certainly glad Ehren had that Groupon. The restaurant was busy on this Saturday night and had a bit of a wait, so come expecting this.
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sambussa sampler
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vegetarian/meat messob for two
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one of their house cocktails — it advertised itself as the ethiopian equivalent of a margarita
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sambussa turnover: sweet pastry filled with almonds and walnuts over raspberry sauce
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