Nile Ethiopian Cuisine Awards

Nile Ethiopian Cuisine Restaurant Review:

Expand your culinary horizons at the tiny eatery tucked away in a nondescript strip mall on busy International Drive. Nile Ethiopian Cuisine is an unexpected delight, a calm oasis in the heart of Orlando’s madcap tourist scene. Take a seat at traditional straw tables with wooden stools, or opt for a table and sturdy chair (more comfortable for dining). The servers in Ethiopian garb will help you with the menu. Start with a sambusa, a pastry crust filled with lentils, green peppers and onions, no doubt inspired by the Indian samosa, or the azifa, a dish served cold with lentils, onions, green peppers and lemon juice mixed with Ethiopian mustard. You can go all vegetarian or create a tasting platter of the beautifully spiced stews, called wat, with lamb, beef, chicken or pork. You don’t even need utensils thanks to the injera, a kind of thin, spongy sourdough bread that you use to scoop hearty specialties such as doro alicha (chicken stew slow-simmered with house spices and turmeric powder and served with hardboiled egg), beef gored (Ethiopian-style beef sautéed in sauce, served raw) and tikel gomen (cabbage and carrots cooked with ginger and garlic). Java fans will like the coffee as owner Abeba Gonetse ceremoniously roasts the beans as you order, then grinds them for a strong, smooth finish.