Meskerem

This was my favorite place to eat, especially for Ethiopian food! I’m so sad to see it closed!

While the service here isn’t the fastest the food is pretty delicious. I enjoy my meal every time and am disappointed that they have closed.

I wish there was an option to give two separate ratings… one for food and one for service.
The food is excellent… my favorite Ethiopan food in the Charlotte metro. Injera is fabulous, Tibs are well seasoned. Five stars.
The service is horrendous. This small family business is always terribly understaffed and service is insanely slow… beyond anything you can imagine. One star.
That said, if you go in knowing the service will suck and are willing to put up with it for the delicious food, this may be your place.

Great food, great service.
The owner couple are really sweet and provide a great service with very welcoming environment.
Get ready to eat with your hands and enjoy one I the best Ethiopian food in Charlotte.
I really enjoy the combo plates, vegetation or meat, doesn’t matter.
Food tastes very fresh every time I dine here, and love the constant great quality throughout the years…

The Tibs Wat has such great flavor with plenty of sauce for your injera to soak up. Our kids loved the Special Chicken Tibs & Vegetarian Combo, especially the lentils. They were out of Kitfo (insert sad face), but everything we ordered was plentiful and so delicious that I can’t complain. Friendly service, too, that included a quick lesson in tearing injera for the kids.

Delicious Ethiopian food. If you’ve never tried it, order a combo platter. Use the rolled injera bread to scoop up scrumptious bites of lentils, veggies or meat. One veggie combo is enough for two people if you’re not too hungry. The chickpea dish was dry but everything else was lovely.

The worst food and service I have ever had! Do not ever go there! It is the biggest waste of money! Our server was so rude. I asked for recommendations and he said, «can you read the menu? The descriptions are there for you to read!»? Wtf! I feel so stupid for even staying to even try the food. The prices seemed reasonable until we saw the portions. The menu read «chicken chunks» in the description and somehow we ended up with two chicken legs lol. I would give this place less than one star if I could. Dine at your own risk!

My husband and I ate here around 8:30on a Sunday night. Our meal was excellent. The man running the restaurant was efficient and courteous. Our sambosas were perfect, and the sampler platter was exceptional. Soft drinks are served by the can. The atmosphere was very pleasant, and the whole experience is located only a few minutes from the heart of downtown Charlotte.

The food was decent. Terrible service. The guy in the picture was the worst host. It was in until he gave a nasty grin when u asked for a box. Felt terrible asking for him that… never going back.

Had the pleasure of eating here with a nice group of people (some trying Ethiopian for the first time). While I am not a veteran by any means, I definitely enjoyed this place a lot. Super intimate and we were well taken care of. I’m sure they get a ton of people that are not familiar with the cuisine so they are very patient and are quick with suggestions if you are not quite sure what to order.
The dining room has a good number of tables, but this place is not huge since it is in the Kings Pointe Shopping Center strip mall off of Kings. Most of the businesses it shares walls with are only daytime businesses so there are plenty of parking spaces available. There is a bar in the back, but something tells me that it doesn’t get used as often. I should try to come back here by myself and sit there…
The food was delicious and it was super fun to share. Spoiler alert: no utensils at the table — YOU EAT WITH YOUR HANDS! Makes for an interesting experience and just really really relaxed — no knife and fork etiquette here! I am sure they have utensils upon request… but you will sorely be missing out in the experience that is Ethiopian. There are bottles of hand sanitizer on all the tables, but I don’t recommend using it and then eating right away — you get a big handful of alcohol-​laced tastiness.

GREAT food, GREAT service. Better experience than the random closings of Red Sea. I came here for my birthday dinner and we had a great time and they accommodated my cake.
I just wish I could get injera for take out, but I don’t mind ordering food, since it’s fantastic. Lunch is only $ 8 including tax. Wish they’d open a place in South Charlotte.

Shovel food into your mouth with generous portions of bread? Check. Use your hands and forgo all eating utensils? Check. Check.
This restaurant was my first Ethiopian experience and I have since taken any guest that’s come into town to visit. I LOVE this food. The service is typically lacking but this doesn’t deter my overall star rating.
If this is your first time, the bread is a traditional bread made of teff flour. It’s a little sour (it ferments for few days). The texture is pliable and its used to scoop up the food. Oh the food! Glorious. Lentils, collard greens, beef, chicken, all made with wonderful spices!
Please order an entrée per person and eat «family style.» I would suggest the sambusas to start and the vegetarian combo and the meskerem combo (or any of their chicken or beef dishes).

«Meskerem to homebase? Do you copy? Where is the salad?»
«We read you Meskerem. The salad is in the bread. I repeat, the salad is in the bread.»
And so it was… Timatim Salad (kinda like Salsa Fresca with vinegrette). Next Sambusa, delicious pastries filled with lentils or beef and served with a flaming hot green sauce — very reminiscent of Samosas.
«Come in homebase? Where are the forks?»
«The forks are AWOL… use your hands. Over.»
Use large pieces of bread to scoop food off giant platters of food. One double order Meskerem Veggie combo platter and one double order Combo Meat Platter — piles of green beans, cabbage, lentils (two styles), stewed lamb and beef, and collard greens — fed, or rather «stuffed» six of us easily.
«The Eagle has landed. No, wait, UFOs sighted. No, check that. All clear, only empty platters.»
Very exotic and cool place to have a meal. If you want to break out of «the norm» and have a fun, delicious experience, you must check out Meskerem! When in Rome, or rather Ethiopa, do as Ethiopians…

Super yummy! My friend Rebecca loves this place and honestly at first I was a little nervous about the ethnicity. Can’t believe I waited so long to try it. Love this little place. Great quiet, local spot. And who don’t like to eat with their hands!!! Check it out!
I love the avocado salad!

Keep your eyes peeled for it’s located at the end of a shopping strip on the corner — look for the big ‘Ethiopian Cuisine’ sign.
We were excited to have dinner here with our little sister & her boyfriend.
The veggie combo is AMAZING ! They had the meat combo & cleaned their plates as well.
We began with the avocado salad as recommended by our lovely server (owner?) & was blown away by the flavors.
This is hands down the best Ethiopian food & experience I have had to date.
Highly recommended.

I discovered Ethiopian food about 5 years ago while in Washington DC, but Meskerem is by far my favorite. The tibs wat (think that’s how you spell it) and the timatim fitfit are my mainstays at Meskerem.
For anyone who is a bit apprehensive of Ethiopian food, take it from me; I grew up in rural NC and Ethiopian food tastes very similar to old fashioned home cooking (just with a few more spices).
My advice; eat with your fingers and finish dinner with Ethiopian coffee

I would say this place is not for everyone.
This may be five star Ethiopian food, I wouldn’t know. I thought it was just okay.
So I came with a group. We ordered appetizers for the table. Then came the realization that you eat with your hands. Yes, you pull apart the spongy bread the appetizer is wrapped in and stick your hand, the one you used to wiped your ass with earlier in the day, into the food other people are also eating. Hey man, this isn’t like chips and salsa where you can avoid double dipping. With these dishes, your fingers are going into the food as you try to dip the bread in to get some. I could tell a few members of the group were slightly put off by this. If you have a germaphobe in your group, then skip the appetizer. To be fair, you can ask for forks.
For the entrée, I got the Meskerem Combo (lamb, beef and some other shit I didn’t recognize). So the sample came with a plop of like five items on top of the bread. The bread gets soggy from the dishes and is like eating raw dough. I thought the sample was just okay. Nothing great.
I left sill hungry and stopped by Cook Out on the way home. If you like Ethiopian food then more power to you. I

As a latecomer to Ethiopian food who has been to only a handful of Ethiopian restaurants, I don’t know how qualified I am compare and contrast them. Nonetheless, I’ll offer a few thoughts about Meskerem along those lines.
Our local Ethiopian joint in Cincinnati and a couple of others I’ve been to in other cities have a relaxed, comfortable, and casual feel. Meskerem is less so. It’s not what I’d call stuffy, but maybe «staid»? Or maybe it just has a bit of old-​world formality? Service by an older gentleman was efficient and professional, but the fellow was rather impassive. In short, Meskerem lacks the conviviality of some other Ethiopian restaurants I’ve visited.
That said, the food was quite solid and affordable. We ordered a vegetable combination and the «special lamb tips,» which I guess is sort of like beg wat but less of a stew. I’ve had Ethiopian food with bolder flavors than this, but it was still quite satisfying. The lamb tips were cut into a variety of sizes, with the larger ones being very tender but some of smaller ones a little chewy and overcooked. One of the veggie items was basically a chickpea mash that was slightly bland and on the chalky side and not that appealing, but all the other veggies hit the spot. The injera was somewhat thin, which actually made it better for manipulating the veggies and meat.
Beer and wine are available, even if it’s not the greatest selection.
3.75 stars.

Best Ethiopian food in North Carolina. If you’re coming from or planning on going to Amelie’s, be sure to stop here at some point. It’s only three miles away. The food is simply outstanding. What you take is up to you… but I recommend getting the combo plate, which is more than enough for two people (veggie dish with eggs, chicken drumstick dish).
Expect to eat with your hands. It’s just easier and better.
Highly recommended restaurant.
Just a head’s up: the service is a little inconsistent but staff is always friendly and nice.
Parking can get a little crowded because of the other restaurants and businesses but a space is usually open.

Am I the only one who thinks that an Ethiopian food place is odd? I mean when I was but a young ‘un, and didn’t finish my plate, my parents told me about all those starving kids in Africa who would love to have the food and all — how can they have a restaurant?
But I digress. In actuality, there are multiple Ethiopian places to eat in the Queen City, and Meskerem is just the latest that I’ve tried. The ones I have tried share the same two common traits: One: The service is excellent. Way more friendly than most «American» places (perhaps my parents sent them all my leftovers, and they’ve spent all this time looking for me to share their gratitude). Two: Injera. This cold, spongy bread is just odd.
It is pretty cool to be able to eat with your hands, and if young me had it way back when, I might not have had any leftovers to send to those less fortunate, so the service might stink. But for those of us who grew up on a limited palate, it’s just strange. Note that I never said I didn’t eat it, but it takes some getting used to in order to do so.
Luckily, being able to eat with your hands really helps in that regard, and the flavors from all the other stuff seeping down into it does as well. If you take any leftovers home (not sure if this is common in Ethiopia), then heating it up at home the next day makes it even better.
With all that in mind, Meskerem is probably the best of the places I’ve tried for Ethiopia. I just have to make sure they know I’m not sending them any more leftovers. Of course, they could probably look at me and figure that one out.