Dukem

Dukem Restaurant Review:

When you get right down to it, Ethiopian is the most romantic of cuisines. French places usually have more glamorous settings, and Italians can offer more swoon-inducing music. But nothing beats the allure of sitting opposite your loved one over a single platter of fragrant, exotic food, your fingertips touching as you reach for a bit of crêpe-like injera bread, with which you scoop up morsels of wot (stew), tibs (marinated meat) or, for the adventurous, kitfo (highly spiced steak tartare). It’s kind of like the scene from “Tom Jones,” only, well, spicier. In Baltimore, the place to go for Ethiopian is Dukem, a sibling of the Dukem in D.C. Located in Mt. Vernon’s cultural district, this small, two-level space, with its close-set tables, isn’t especially romantic in itself --- the best seating is upstairs, at a traditional mesob woven table --- but the food is first-rate. The best bet if you aren’t dining alone is a combination platter, ample for two, that shows off the cuisine’s array of savory vegetarian dishes and mild-to-spicy wots. For solo diners, the lunchtime buffet is a bargain.