Gojo Café

First time for us eating Ethiopian food! Came in at a quiet time and our host was incredibly welcoming and helped us select two delicious dishes: a lamb and beef. Both were subtly spicy and the portions were generous! Had to take some home. The bread is unique: pancake like in consistency and holds the sauces well without being messy. Be prepared to eat with your hands! Capped it off with fresh, homemade baklava. All in all a pleasant experience and we’re both happy to have tried something new. Will definitely return! Perhaps for the tartar… Mmm…

First time at an Ethiopian restaurant and it was terrific. We had the vegetable platter as well as a beef and a chicken dish and the flavours were wonderful. The honey wine that accompanied the meal made you feel that you were in Ethiopia!
The owner of the café was a very friendly person who also gave us a brief history of his country which made the evening special. We will certainly be back!

Went on Friday for lunch with a friend, amazing host, great cook and excellent service, will definitely recommend.

Okay, so I’ve been to quite a few ethiopian restaurants in Vancouver (four) and this was one of the best ones so far.
I always get the veggie combo and was happy to find that this restaurant had big portions! Plus, it was tuesday – so it was even cheaper than usual (7.99/person) ! All my friends enjoyed it and we had a little bit of leftovers to take home too.
Service was very friendly and welcoming. We will definitely come back again next time. :)

Warning… gluten free will cost you an extra $ 2.50 per injera. That may be ok but not when there is no mention of this on the menu or when you order, just a nice surprise when you get the bill!
Our order came to $ 35 for two people with portions being half the size as Axum’s on Hastings and nowhere near as good.
The gluten free Injera was hard and fell apart. The normal gluten one wasn’t much better and was harder and drier than the super soft and spongy injera I’m used to.
If getting takeout, when asked if it’s ok to put it all in one box, say no. Unless all the portions are that small, it seems that you might get less because they’re trying to cram it all in. This might apply to eating in as well, ask for things on separate injeras.
Bottom line… portions are tiny, injera’s not good, food bland and not an honest business.

Atkilt knows how to cook real authentic Ethiopian cusine.
Extremely friendly and helpful for first timers to this style of cooking.
I personally tried the platter with a few different dishes to taste a variety.
Rich flavor, good texture.
Overall well rounded family environment restaurant.

This is an excellent restaurant to go to on the drive. There is fantastic service and delicious food. I’d highly recommend Gojo!

I would highly recommend this place — delicious, fresh food and amazing service.
We asked about drink options and were offered their homemade honey wine, which I would say is a must-​try. So tasty! Tehre is also a refreshing and light lime water that is served with the meal.
Two of us shared two dishes — the beef and vegetable platter and the lamb dish. We had a choice of spiciness for the lamb, so we went for mild and it was just perfect. Don’t go expecting to get huge quantities of the vegetable mixes, but do expect flavour and quality. All of the vegetable mixes were tasty, and the meat was well-​seasoned.
After the meal, the host suggested their homemade baklava for dessert, which was incredibly fresh and delicious.
Apart from the food, the host was so warm and welcoming, and it felt like we were eating in a family’s home. He definitely made the experience what it was.
Worth going south of Broadway to eat here.

This is my favourite Ethiopian food restaurant in the city. The man who is usually serving (I’m assuming the owner?) is extremely kind and very helpful with ordering. I usually order the vegetarian platter and it’s excellent! Such friendly great service and the freshest most delicious food. If you are a fan of ethiopian food (or want to try some!) definitely try Gojo.

Avg cost: $ 15pp
Seems to be a unique place. I had the choice between this and Chonqing (Chinese) which is a better reviewed place just around the corner from here. However, my drive for new experiences settled the dilemma with ease — an African cuisine is to be found few and far between.
I walked into an empty restaurant with no soul in sight. A cheerful man then appeared out of nowhere to greet and make me comfortable. The menu was, as expected, completely new territory but the gentleman was helpful. I settled with a chicken dish titled ‘Doro Awaze Tibs’ which, like others in that category, was to be served with ‘Injera’ — a kind of flat bread which I assume is the carb filler of the meal.
The meal arrived in a large plate/​platter with a side basket of extra bread. The platter itself was covered in a layer of bread with the chicken preparation on top in the centre. The bread was similar to a ‘dosa’ from an Indian cuisine, only thicker and less crispy.
Meal quality was tasty overall. While I did like the flavours, the chicken was over-​salted and over-​cooked. Not sure if that is how it’s supposed to be.
I feel the other more suggested items would be worth a try before one makes up a general opinion.

Great Vegan options and you can get Organic Foods, too if you call a day or two ahead of Time… Excellent Service!

Ethiopian is one of my favourite cousines… after trying different dishes at the Gojo Café here are my observations:
— Veggie plater: the stew portions are indeed small, but they have special offer for it on Monday and Tuesday. As for one person it is just fine.
— On other days I just get Gojo’s vegetarian special meal, which is grean beans, and spinach. I absolutely love it. Is is a bit oily, but the portion is just right.
— dishes are served fairly quickly
— Ethiopian tea is nice
I find with this place it takes time to like it. At first I also had expectations having different experience at other Ethiopian places, but after a while this place prooved to be friendly and reliable for late lunch/​early dinner. I felt there welcomed and had a good time relaxing after work.

I’m an Ethiopian food freak. I will try it anywhere I go because I love it so much. I feel bad giving this place a bad review because the people who run it are so nice, but the vegetarian platter was really not good. I actually couldn’t eat most of it as it was pasty and sad. I was bummed because its so close to my home.

I had a very lovely dinner here at this hidden gem on commercial drive. I have walked past this place for the past 5 or 6 years since living in the area and it took me until tonight to finally give it a try after a friend of mine wanted to try something different.
The staff, as mentioned by other reviews, are as wonderfully friendly and welcoming as described, they were very attentive yet not hovering over the table, even though we were the only one’s in this wednesday night.
I was very cozy here indeed, and the food was very tasty and I took the rest home as it was also very filling. We shared the veggie combo with the Lamb Kikil.
It is definitely sharing food so I am glad I waited until a friend gave me the idea, for it is far too much for one person alone. I hope more people discover this place and recommend it to anybody who likes spicy food and something different.

I really expected to have a different experience here based on the reviews and my dining pal’s past experience. He thinks that maybe there has been an owner change and that is why we had a meh time.
We ordered the veggie combo platter and that has to be the saddest veggie platter I’ve seen. The spinach pile was the size of a ping pong ball. Yellow lentils maybe the size of a golf ball. The red lentils seemed to have a bit more size. But mostly we were just eating the injera for dinner.
My pal’s meat dish came out a lot more robust, so maybe this is only a place to get bang for your buck if you’re a meat eater?

i lived near this restaurant about 6 years ago and i think it was new then but i can’t totally remember. and i understand from a review here, that the owners changed this year. service is still as friendly as ever and family and friends still seem to be hanging out here whenever we come.
i learned from other ethiopian restaurant reviews that typically the injera out here is not completely made of teff (and therefore not gluten-​free!) and it seems like you can special order the teff (or GF) but it can be about a 5 day advance (i suppose for the fermenting process). for gojo, it seems to generally be a special order as well, but it doesn’t hurt to call on a whim of nights you simply must have ethiopian (hehe) as you may just luck out! i called tonight and they have their GF injera!
i love coming here into the calm and warm café as everything feels so authentic, probably because it is! they have tej (honey wine) here and i believe they still do a traditional coffee ceremony. coming to gojo actually brings back memories of my trip to ethiopia a number of years back and i suppose that is why this restaurant is my favourite place for ethiopian in vancouver.

My husband and I LOVE Ethiopian food and come here quite often to enjoy some awesome Ethiopian. We prefer Gojo to the other Ethiopian restaurants down the street on Commercial. The food is reasonably priced and delicious!
The owner is a very nice man who gives prompt & attentive service, which we always appreciate.
We have been coming here since before the ownership changed (last year) and have been pleased to always have a great meal with great service!
Try it!

I love the food here! I was hungering for Ethopian when I came by and decided to have some kitfo (beef tartare bathed in clarified butter, herbs and served with a cottage cheese and vegetable mix as well as a chili-​like spice called berbere).
The serving of kitfo was modest but it should be with a large amount of injera (their flat bread made with teff, a special grain high in iron… injera also needs to be fermented as a dough for 24 hours before preparation in order to create that sour, savory taste which accents well with Ethiopian cooking), and it was nicely flavored.
What’s really cool is that they make their own tejj — honey mead, which has a sweet taste with a strong hint of alcohol.
I really like this place. Decently reasonable prices ($ 14 for kitfo and $ 5 for tejj) for a meal that’s going to definitely fill you up.

This is an interesting restaurant. Looks like a little village inside
We were here during the re — opening in spring 2012.
The food is good and not expensive. The service was really nice.
The day it was really loud because of a African musician but it was ok.
The beef we had was way to spicy. We said that we would like it not so spicy but it was so bad! The rest was really tasty.
If you wanna try out some Ethiopian food. Do it here.

The food was really good! When we first walked in, it was a bit chilly inside, but once the food came, we were all warm and toasty. The restaurant itself is clean and tidy and it has a cute village kind of feeling. The music in the background is fun, upbeat and isn’t too loud for conversation.
I don’t think they are open during lunch very often, as we’ve tried coming to this restaurant a few times prior and they weren’t open. When we noticed it was open during one particular lunch day, we had to make a stop. We were the only bunch there that day.
The service was very friendly and she recommended excellent dishes for us. I believe they make their own breads because on the walk to the wash rooms, you get a waft of yummy fresh bread smell.
They offered a lunch menu with share platters and finger foods which is all fun and yummy when going in groups!
The food is made fresh on the spot so it takes a little longer to get, but they cook everything themselves and the food was amazing! It was definitely worth the wait! The finger foods and sauce keeps you wanting more and trying more, unfortunately, the tummy could only take so much!
They don’t have a desert menu, however, they brew their own honey wine and gave us samples — equally yummy! The honey wine is for sale at this restaurant — should definitely try it!
It’s also a bonus that the wash rooms were nice, clean and large!

Went here for a Meatless Meetup. The food we had was pretty good, though not the best Ethiopian I’ve had in town — for that, visit Red Sea on Broadway and Fraser. Still, it was satisfying. Unfortunately we were not given everything we were promised with the meetup purchase price — kind of disappointing — but we were still full.
I’m giving Gojo three stars because it was good, and vegan-​friendly, but it wasn’t the best Ethiopian I’ve had. It just wasn’t amazing. I am not likely to visit Gojo again, only because there are a couple of Ethiopian places I like more that are in the same neighbourhood.