Sheger Ethiopian Restaurant

I had a hankering for Ethiopian so I stopped by Sheger because it was close and had fever reviews.
I came during lunch time and there was only one other table occupied. It’s a cute restaurant with what looks like some authentic décor on the tables.
The waitress was kind and the service for the most part was efficient (there was a wait at the end of the meal but this seems to be on par with other Ethiopian spots I’ve been to.
I’m a creature of habit so I always get the same dish-​kitfo. It is a spicy meat lovers dream. The catch is always on how you want it prepared. I like mine medium rare but for some reason I either get served something raw or o well done the dish looks like hamburger helper.
I tried to explain that I wanted my kitfo more rare than medium. The waitress said she understood, but based on what was presented she didn’t.
Other than that the spice in the meal was good. The injera tasted a bit old (even for injera). All in all this was an okay experience but not my best. On to the next one.

This is the only Ethiopian place I’ve tried just because we drove by all the time. Let’s just say I have cravings for it ever since and have to come back from time to time.
My family thinks the sponge-​like crêpe is too sour but I love it. We have only tried meat dishes and they are all good … even the one with internal organs. The food is consistance, the service is friendly and the place is simple and clean.
If you have never tried Ethiopian food, I highly recommend this place as a start. Their cuisine is unique and I love it with my first try.

I confess, I’m a frequent customer of Sheger. I’ve come here on a pretty regular basis for about 3 years now. I wanted to keep it a secret, but the owner asked, so here I am.
Sheger is exactly what I want and crave: tasty, affordable, no frills, quiet. Keep in mind, tastiness of food is like, 90% of my rating.
Disclaimer: I am not Ethiopian. I have no connection with the country. My first experience with Ethiopian food was in another state in my wee teenage years. Since then, I have done nothing but love it to the point where it’s almost comical.
When I first moved to Houston, I frequently ate at a much more well-​known Ethiopian restaurant in the area. The price tag was heavy, so I searched for another and I came to Sheger.
At most places I’ve been to, you are confined ordering a Veggie-​only sampler platter or a Meat-​only sampler platter. For people that crave variety, this is often a problem. I always ended up ordering both and stuffing myself silly. Sheger is unique in the fact that it offers a platter called «The United» which combines the greatest hits of both veggies and meats all for about $ 20. It’s been wonderful every time and still stuffs me and my husband silly.
Like other reviewers have stated, the waitresses here don’t speak much English, but are very accommodating. Like most Ethiopian restaurants, service can seem slow — make sure to signal. However, if it is your first time with Ethiopian, I would recommend you first try a restaurant with more bells and whistles. If you are a solid believer, come here and enjoy.

So, I recently returned from Ethiopia, specifically Tigray, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and I had been craving Ethiopian food for a few months. After finally finding someone to go with me, I entered Sheger and was back in my comfort zone. The injera was fantastic. Some restaurants have sour injera because they replace some of the t’eff grain with wheat. I got the tagamino, which they served with a salad and it was nice and filling. My friend got the doro wot, which was also great, but it may not be the best for you if you can’t handle spice. If you like the spice, then enjoy the goodness that is this holiday Ethiopian dish.
Lucky for me, the waitress speaks Tigrigna and they had my favorite Ethiopian beer, Meta Premium. The family boiled us some jebena coffee and the waitress took it off our bill for my birthday. All in all, Sheger is a low key, low maintenance place to get good comfort food and let loose. I’m definitely going back.

Slow service but well worth the wait. If you have never eaten here maybe try ordering ahead and pick it up. Each meal is meant to share so don’t over order like we did… so much food! The Spicy lamb was my absolute favorite!

Very pleased. Not as deep w/​spices and heat as some restaurants. So if Lucy’s and Blue Nile are too much for you this is perfect.
I got the vegetarian combo and it was perfect for 2 people, even had leftovers.
Want to cook your own? Check out MARU grocery at 6065 Bissonet… they have everything you need to cook your own. Don’t go to Penseys for Berbere, this grocery has it fresh and cheap! Super nice people too.

In my opinion this is the best Ethiopian food in Houston. Spicier and more diverse flavors than Blue Nile, and just better all around than Lucy. Yes, it lacks atmosphere and is pretty generic inside, but the service is prompt and the food comes out fast (which seems to be a rarity among Ethiopian restaurants in Houston). We usually get the vegetarian sampler and the meat sampler, which is more than enough food for two (we usually take home a large portion of each). All the dishes are delicious. The injera here is thin and papery around the edges, which I like, and there is tons of it in the baskets — no need to ask for more! They are also pretty good value for the amount of food, although the prices are pretty comparable to elsewhere.

I love Ethiopian food and this place has some solid food. We ordered the vegetarian combo and it was more than enough food for the two of us to share.
The combo comes with 6 or 7 (I don’t remember) different things and they ranged from ok to awesome. There were two lentil dishes that rocked my face off and had flavor for days. There were two other dishes that were ok but could have used a bit more spice.
I will be going back.

This was my first time eating Ethiopian food, so bear with me here. The place looks really small and hole-​in-​the-​wallesque, but it gives a more familiar feel. It’s very mom-​and-​pop style; I love it!
The waitress we had didn’t seem to speak too much English, but she was nice and did her best and we appreciated that.
The non-​vegetarian combo plate is really good. Cones with 3 types of beef, 3 types of lamb, and 1 pile of sauce. It’s plenty for two people. The non-​veggie and veggie mixed combo is a lot bigger since it pretty much combines the two types of combo plates. They were all delicious and good for people who want to sample all the different types of food they offer. I mostly liked the cubed meats on these dishes.
We also ordered the spicy lamb dish (#18) and it was our favorite. Tender meat and very nice flavor. It was big enough for about 3 people I think.
The bread that you use to eat everything and that’s used as the plate is nice and spongy. Some of my friends thought it was a little sour, but if you put the sauces and cheese on it, you don’t really have that sour aftertaste.
Overall, it was a great experience. Give it a shot!

Went here for dinner with my Ethiopian friend and she said the food was really authentic. If you are adventurous type and never had Ethiopian food before, the combo is a must try! So delicious and really different than most other cuisine.
The injeta (kinda like Naan in India food but really soft) is made from a special kind of flour imported from Ethiopia.

The food here is very good. We had the vegetable combo which was very good and the lamb in a spicy red sauce (I have sadly forgotten the name) which was fantastic! I also order a coffee which was OK. Not what I expected from demanding Ethiopians, who after all, invented coffee, if one could say it was invented by anyone at all. The place was empty save for a few Ethiopians who were not eating! I have noticed though that many neighborhood Ethiopian places also serve as social clubs.
Go here. You will enjoy it!

Great fun. We had never eaten Ethiopian food, so this was an adventure for us. We did cheat a little by doing some research before we went, so we had some idea of what to order and how to eat it with the injera bread. The lamb tibs were great as was the veggie platter. We ate until we were just about to «pop», shared with some friends and still had enough to take some home for tomorrow. I think the injera does continue to grow inside your tummy after you have pushed away from the table, because we kept getting fuller. No room for desert.

I love Ethiopian food, I love the way dishes are normally served a top injera, and something about they way meat is cooked just really makes me happy.
This place was really great! I gave it ⁴⁄₅ because I went to an Ethiopian food restaurant in Austin that was even better so I couldn’t honestly say «Woohoo! As good as it gets!», but I will say this, for Houston this place is pretty darn good & «Yay! I’m a fan.» :)
I agree with previous reviewers who said «ask the waitress for her recommendation».

I know I’m possibly a freakshow in that I was none too impressed with Blue Nile (years later, I stand by my raving mad one star review), so I haven’t been especially keen on trying other Ethiopian joints. However, I did agree to try Ethiopian in Washington, D. C earlier this year and was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable the experience was.
Given that Sheger is rather near us, we decided to give it a go. Um, can I ask, mostly rhetorically, why are Ethiopian restaurants seemingly all housed in rather unglamorous (understated choice of word) shopping strips? Friday night doesn’t seem to yield too much of a lively crowd, as we were the only patrons upon arrival, although a few more seeming regulars did trickle in after we received our food. Needless to say, it felt a little eerie at first, like maybe this wasn’t the best Friday night destination for us.
The bar had a few limited wine and beer options and perhaps there was a handful of liquor selections? We ordered the vegetarian combo to share between us two, which elicited an incredulous «Is that all?» from our waitress. I’m not sure why, because when it arrived fifteen or twenty minutes later, we were both feeling quite overwhelmed (please see photo I uploaded). I can’t possibly remember the names of everything we sampled, but the brown mush/​fine paste-​like dish was overly spiced, like cumin/​curry-​ish overload to the point that it was almost unpleasant. Thankfully the strategic layout of everything on a ginormous round of injera made it easy to mix up the items with one another, which is of course half the fun. You’re never too old to play with your food, right? However, you can be too stupid to not stop eating when you should. Yep, I somehow felt obligated to annihilated the massive spread and had to resist the urge to keel over and die the rest of the evening.
In closing, the food was pretty all right, not nearly as good as what I had in D.C., and service wasn’t outstanding or anything, but she did check on us and acknowledge our presence, so makes this experience leaps and bounds more awesome than my Blue Nile experience. Three stars for now.

Overall tasty, filling, and good value.
The veg combo could certainly fill 2 stomachs. Some of the dishes were spot on, others tasted a bit like canned veg. Our lamb dish was excellent, if not a bit injera-​heavy.
Loads of expat Ethiopians (as noted by the Red Sea cabs outside), so must be authentic.

This place has INCREDIBLE FOOD! My first time here was back in 2010 not too long after they first opened. At that time, I had an appointment in the area where I was really early, was hungry, and found them in a random drive. Being a BIG fan of small businesses, I thought I would give them a try. Although I almost walked in and walked out (no fault to the restaurant), staying was one of the best things I have ever done in a new restaurant.
When I was working nearby, I always tried to find an excuse to make an appointment in the area so that I could take my lunch breaks here. Even when I had little time to spare, I didn’t mind eating bits of a meal from here to go in my car. In fact, I am never able to resist eating some of my to-​go-​plate before reaching home. Their lentils, jalapenos, greens, and other veggie options are just that GOOD!
If only I would dine in, I am sure I would have good service because everyone from the hostess, bartender, waiter, and owners are VERY nice people. One of the owners even remembers me from my first time visiting and always says hello when he sees me. Unfortunately, I usually take my food to go. For this reason alone, I only give them four stars. Once I get a chance to dine-​in, I am sure this rating will change to 5 stars.
Being a newer restaurant, they may get overshadowed by Blue Nile, but their food is just as good. I wish there was an Ethiopian restaurant like Sheger near HWY 6 and 59 and I would DEFINITELY check them out more often. If you pass by or live in the Bellairre Area, you should try them out!

Could not pass an Ethiopian restaurant when out of town.
good:
— waitress is kind and attentive
— place is nice and clean
— a lot of options on the menu
— my combo of wats with injera was really good
— Ethiopian music
— beer is 3 $
bad:
— waitress speaks little English
— very few Ethiopian décor items
— not the cheapest
— 2 tv sets on English channels

I ordered a vegetarian combo ($ 15) at Sheger and it was delicious and was very filling to make the empty stomach go from :(to :).
There was only one lady as hostess and the server, but it was not a problem considering the restaurant was practically empty at the time I went.
Only negative about this place is the ‘neighborhood’ it is in. It is sad that, in Houston, such restaurants that serve delicious ethnic foods are confined to sketchy neighborhoods, strip malls, next to some pay-​day-​loan shops etc.

I don’t have much experience with Ethiopian food to compare it to. The food was all right in taste. The injera tasted less sour than the one I had at Queen of Sheba in Portland but it was also served cold. We ordered the vegetarian combo and it was a bargain at $ 15. This one dish was enough to serve three people. The different veggie dishes like the chickpeas, lentils, and collard greens were lightly spiced compared to the usual Indian curries that I gobble.
Maybe Ethiopians like to eat really late because we were the only customers on a Saturday evening at 6pm. Yet the restaurant is open to 1am. There were guys that were hanging out but I wasn’t sure if they were the owners or just regulars of the business. The place looks like a sparse café in a non-​descript mostly empty shopping strip. While parking our car, several Ethiopian young men just stared at us while leaving the restaurant which added to the creep factor.

Whenever I go to another city I look for Ethiopian restaurants. So while in Houston I wanted to find one. I had introduced my young friends I was visiting to this cuisine while they were with us in Germany. They loved it and wanted to try it in their home town. So I got onto Unilocal and searched. Although this is not rational I automatically stay away from places called Blue Nile. It also had over 50 reviews. No, I wanted more of a hole in the wall. And Sheger seemed to fit the bill.
My friends were a little leery seeing the place from the outside. But often the best food is found at a strip mall. Once inside were were all impressed. The décor was light and airy and better than many a similar places I’ve been to.
Having had Ethiopian food all over the US and in Europe, I’ve gotten pretty picky. And when the food came I was quite impressed. The menu had one of the widest selections I’ve seen. We got the veggie combo, raw kitfo, and awaze lambs tibs. The combo was very nice and in addition to the normal dishes such as misir wat, kik alicha and gomen, there were also red beets and red cabbage. The kitfo was perfect with lots of ayeb on the side. The lamb awaze tibs were boneless and flavorful.
The service was very pleasant and unobtrusive. Since the food, especially the meat is made to order it does take some time. This is not a place for a quick in and out. If I lived here this would be one of my regular gangouts.