Axum Restaurant

Very helpful and delicious. Nice atmosphere.

Let me start with the positives and then the negatives:

Positives: the food was pretty delicious! I am always weary to try something new-ish and I enjoyed most of it. My boyfriend ordered the veggie platter and most of it was good. I ordered the fish and rice. The rice was really great with the vegetarian sauce. Our appetizers were good too. Our server was sweet and very friendly.

Negative: we got there at 6:30 and it took a full hour and a half to get our dinner. We got a free dessert with our meal and we didn't want to stay for another 45 minutes so we got our bill and left without it. It took over 2 hours for us to get out of there. It seemed like an issue of understaffing and miscommunication in the kitchen.

I enjoyed most of what we ordered but I do not think we'll be back because it takes forever--for a Monday night that was ridiculous.

As a relative newcomer to Ethiopian cuisine, I'm game to try out new places.  I snapped up a Groupon and away we went to Axum.  I had high expectations.

The restaurant is open and bright, both by way of lighting and the paint colors on the walls.  A few pieces of Ethiopian art are dispersed around the room but the majority of the decor is Americanized (or the result of a liquidized Chinese restaurant, depending upon who you ask).  You won't find any traditional round basket tables here.  The seating is square tables topped with layered tablecloths.  There is also a large bar and an enormous TV that was tuned to a basketball game while we were there.

We were surprised and encouraged by the number of people in the restaurant on a Monday evening.  There were about 10 to 12 tables while we were there.  Of course, there was only one person waiting on all of the tables.  She was lovely and kind but, not surprisingly, the service was extremely slow.  It took an eternity to get our drinks.  They might have gotten two rounds out of us but we didn't have that long to hang around.

Our discount deal was for two appetizers, two entrees and a dessert.  We chose the sambusa (pastry shell filled with lentils, onions and jalapenos) and the azifa (lentil salad seasoned with horseradish and jalapenos) for our appetizers.  The sambusa arrived burned.  I would have sent it back but knew it would take too long to get a replacement.  The not burned parts were not bad.  The two accompanying sauces were sweet and sweet and hot but nothing exciting.  I can only say one thing about the azifa: horseradish.  Well, at least I tried it.

We opted for a couple of meat and veggie combos as our entrees.  I was disappointed that not every meat dish is an option in the combination plate, including my favorite, zilzil tibs.  We both ordered doro tibs (boneless, skinless chicken in sauce) and key wot (stewed beef) for our meats and we both had the atakilit wot (cabbage and carrots) as one of our three veggie choices.  My other veggies were kik alicha (split yellow peas) and carrot and fesolia (I assume fesolia means "green beans").  Mr. P. had the gomen wot (chopped collard greens) and shiro (chick peas).

The verdict?  Bland.  Tasteless.  Everything.  Even the injera lacked the customary sourish flavor.  Just as the decor has been Americanized, I'm afraid the food has been, too.  Disappointing.  Unsatisfying.  Sad.

Oh, did I mention our dessert options?  Cheesecake or baklava.  The end.