Madjet

Totally bummed to hear that Madjet’s is closed. It was one of my favorite Ethiopian places on U street. In particular they had the best greens I’ve ever had in any Ethiopian place. Now it joins Queen Makeda as places that only live on in my memory. A huge loss for the area.

This was my second time trying Ethiopian food! It was delicious!
Ambiance: Very clean, warm, and welcoming
Food:
The House Special -$ 10.00
Full of flavor, generous portions of meat, delicious
I would highly recommend this for newbies.
Vegetarian Platter (2 orders)
Lots of variety and fresh
We told the owners we came because they were voted as one of the Top Ethiopian Restaurants. He was so thankful that we came, that he gave us free sauce/​side dish on the house!
I’m glad to have ended my food adventure in DC with this delicious cultural delicacy with my amazing company.

The first and only Ethiopian restaurant I have tried so far. It was recommended by an Ethiopian cab driver, how much more authentic can you get?
The platters did not look appetizing but they didn’t taste bad actually. The Injera had a weird taste to it and honestly I wasn’t a big fan. Overall it’s a cool experience to have as I can proudly tell people I have had Ethiopian food but maybe that’s it!

I’ve only has Ethiopian food a few times but this was the best I had.
I started with the honey wine except it was really sweet and tasted much better paired with food.
We got the house specialty and the lamb tibs. Both had very different but delicious flavors.

This restaurant was excellent. Granted, I have only been to one other Ethiopian restaurant in DC. The bread was really good, and not too sour. I ordered a lamb dish and the vegetarian platter, both were excellent. This was a much better experience than Etete, the other restaurant I had been to. The cook/​owner came over to our table and talked about the meal, and where he gets some of the ingredients.
Excellent experience!

I’ve had Ethiopian all over the city and Madjet is by far my favorite. Their meat is the most incredible in DC, especially if you like it raw (their raw beef kitfo is the best!). I’m a huge fan of their lunch special, which is $ 8 for any one of a big sampling of classic Ethiopian mains (kitfo, dorowat, tibs, veggie platter, etc).
The place is run by two brothers– one that works the lunch shift and one the dinner– and is generally really great service from these two guys (the waitresses are a different story, but that’s true at all Ethiopian places I’ve been to). They’ve sent complementary tea when waiting for take out and even thrown in free dishes of their favorite meats when I was picking up a big order for our whole office. Much more personal, appreciative, considerate, and detail-​oriented than their Dukem counterpart. Their mom sends them ingredients from Ethiopia, and it shows in the quality of the food.
Recommended for Ethiopian food in general, but most of all for folks that like Ethiopian food and want a home-​y, authentic, and delicious stand-​by to go to!

I wanted to go to U street for Ethiopian during my trip because I was first introduced to Ethiopian cuisine in DC when I was a college student. I rarely eat Ethiopian food. I went to one other Ethiopian restaurant since and it was in NYC.
It was hard to choose between all these places on U street. My hubby wanted a place with solid rating. So, we went to Madjet. There is really no atmosphere, and there was only 1 other group when we went on Wed night. Kinda depressing looking inside.
We ordered the veggie platter and lamb wot spicy. The food was good and injera was good, but not as sour as I would like. The ingredients are fresh and not mushy. The lamb wot was very good, but it can cause major heart burn in people with weak stomach. I don’t like getting my hands messy, but I dealt with it. There was a small fruit fly that was so annoying and turned me off from eating, but we finished everything anyway. We were stuffed and the bill was about $ 30, cheapest meal so far.
I kind of wish we went to Dukem instead. It had more vibe and the place was buzzing, plus it has a sidewalk dining area. If you are just visiting DC and want to try Ethiopian then go to Dukem for the experience. I’m sure the food is decent, otherwise, it wouldn’t have the following.

This is relatively a small place with around 10 serving tables. But we enjoyed a lot with the quick, attentive, and friendly service and good food.
I had the recommended beef plate (soo good, but unfortunately I don’t remember which one it is on the menu…) and vegetables. The portion was perfect for two people, and the each dish was reasonably priced as well. Other than food, the honey wine was really good here. Maybe the best so far.
One small minus is that the menu is also small (we wanted chicken doro wott)… But over all satisfying experience!!! :)

I love this place! The food, the staff.
Last Saturday I ordered food for 12 people; everyone was stuffed for a total of $ 100. The owner called to remind me that the order was ready. Super nice. And most importantly, the food was amazing. I definitely recommend getting take out for large parties from Madjet.

I think this has officially become my favorite Ethiopian place! The cook IS AMAZING! I mean he hooked us up with an extra dish JUST BECAUSE we were talking about our love for meat! Just… just amazing… soooo good! I can’t talk about it!

it’s difficult to standout when you share a neighborhood with dukem or etete… but madjet holds its own. i would imagine that they do pick off a number of diners who were turned away by the long wait at dukem, which works in their favor as i would now have no hesitation to go to madjet anytime.
much smaller and more hole-​in-​the-​wall-​ish, madjet overcomes some spotty service with very delicious food. i love ethiopian food and rarely find myself not stuffing myself tot he brim… and this was no different.
the only thing i found slightly annoying, though understandable, was the waitress persistently trying to get us to vote for them as one of dc’s best on the washington city paper. i get that they’re trying to make a name for themselves, but one request is enough… no need for multiple pushes and handing us a handwritten website on a torn piece of paper. i’ll Unilocal you… that’s enough :)

This is still the best Ethiopian spot in DC, but I’m a little worried at how many times I’ve noticed it closed. Once, it was closed for at least an entire week – possibly longer. Other times I’ve noticed it closed at 6:00 PM on a Saturday? Really? Scary.
And yet… I go back. These guys do Tibs right.

Do not be deterred by the minimal décor and lack of any real sense of ambiance. When we walked in and saw tables full of Ethiopians eating, we felt confident we’d made a good choice. The food more than makes up for the plain interior.
Three of us split the veggie combo, the lamb tibs with collards, and the beef cubes with egg/​jalepeno. All of it was heads and shoulders above Dukem and Meskerem. The injera was perfect, and only 5cents per extra.
At first we were a little off-​put by the fact that they don’t have meat combo platters, but the portion sizes were excellent and all of the food was literally moan-​worthy. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Heads up though: the men’s bathroom I’ve heard is … less than pristine.

A couple of friends and I were lucky enough to drop in to Madjet, when Ben’s Chili Bowl was too crowded. I’m glad that we did.
Aside from the great service, the food was amazing. The injera was just right, and the lamb was to die for. The tibs were great and the vegetarian platter was better than most other places. Although the menu was slightly more limited, the taste and texture of the food was spot-​on, and the atmosphere laid back and authentic.
Fork lovers, leave it at home. Using your fingers is part of the experience. Prices were reasonable and the portions hearty in size. Can’t decide if it is a place to go with good friends or a place to take a date, but it could have been because they also have great happy hour pricing.

Stopped in this place when the power was out on 9^th St. and couldn’t go to Etete. I’m glad I did. The menu is smaller than other Ethiopian restaurants I’ve been to, but the food here is delicious. I had the minced lamb and tried the beef tibs. Both were excellent and had a lot of flavor. They don’t have a lot of options for non-​spicy foods, but someone who isn’t into really spicy foods will find something they’ll like. Make sure to ask the staff if you have any questions about hotness level.
The staff is very friendly. They also warn you if you’re getting a dish that is spicy or is cooked rare, which I appreciate. Even though it will say these things on the menu, it’s nice to get a reminder in case you’re distracted.
I came here with the girlfriend and we were waiting on another couple to arrive. We were waiting for about twenty mins. as they were running late and the manager saw us waiting and gave us a complimentary beef dish. I thought that was very nice, and left us a with good impression (especially because we were hungry!). He even told us where it was on the menu in case we liked it and wanted to order more.
The size of this place is pretty small, but the staff are efficient at putting tables together and trying to fit as many people as possible without over crowding. Prices are reasonable and mimic typical prices at Ethiopian restaurants (~$ 12-​$ 15 an entrée). Madjet or Etete are excellent Ethiopian restaurants in the district and I highly recommend everyone to try them out, especially if you’re new to Ethiopian.

Deeelish. My friends and I shared a veggie combo, one spicy lamb thing and this really good medium rare beef dish. (not the raw kifto)
Get the medium rare beef dish. it was amazingly tender and flavorful. It would make a trip to madjet worth it on it’s own.
the veg combo is pretty solid too. Go with friends. get lots of stuff. share.

Fantastic food. I tried the vegetarian comb, the filet mignon dish, the minced lamb dish, the ground chickyea dish. I forget what they were all called. Sorry. It was all delicious. The meat was all very tender and very spicy and flavorful. The vegetarian dish had some incredible collard greens, lentils, and cabbage. The food actually had a vaguely Indian taste.
I have a love-​hate relationship with Ethiopian spongy bread, injera (spelling?). It soaks up liquid in the stomach, and makes you full really fast.
The wait-​staff was very friendly and generous. They gave us free food. We were probably the biggest group of the day. That might have had something to do with it.

LT got dibs on where she wanted to go to dinner on her second-​to-​last night on the East Coast. She felt like Eithiopian, but wanted to try somewhere new rather than her old reliable.
Enter Madjet.
‘Twas my first experience with Eithiopian, and I must say I enjoyed it. (And I know you’re thinking, «Vonetta, you’ve been in DC for 7 years and you’ve never had Eithiopian?» I know, I know, I just never got around to it.)
Three of us split the veggie platter, the vayyagra (the beef dish that’s really popular), and the wesheme (minced lamb with garlic, etc). Delicious! I thought the wesheme tasted like pepperoni, but apparently that was me. The vayyagra was wonderful – the meat tender and the onions delicate. Yeeeeeah, it sounds like Viagra, but it tastes really really good. Enter a bottle of Eithiopian honey wine, and I was done. The wine was really sweet, which I don’t normally go for, but it was a great complement to the savory of the meal.
Overall, a great first Eithiopian experience!

I ordered a vegetarian combo for take-​out the other night. When I got there it wasn’t ready, but the restaurant really stunk like old dirty mop water. I could barely sit there and wait, let alone EAT in there! (glad it was take-​out). The owner chatted me up and told me this was the best Ethiopian food in the city because the OWNER cooks it. Hmmm, hard to imagine him cooking it when he was outside the kitchen talking to me, but I didn’t want to mention that ;-)
So it was a pretty hefty container of food (as it should be) and everything was very tasty. This was among the best «salad» I’ve had. My only complaints were that the lentils were undercooked. Not fun. Also, the Shiro was absolutely divine, but they hardly gave me any :(booo. Eh, hate to say it but if you’re on U Street, Dukem is still the best bet for quality.

So the first thing after dropping my little bag in our hotel room here in DC was looking up the address from my bookmark on Unilocal.Although this place was not one of the 3 suggestions that my sweetie got from a white local who loves both Ethiopian and Korean food (as do we), I decided we should come here. Although limited, I liked the reviews. Unfortunately I was somewhat disappointed.
First, the plusses: the place is really cozy: small, British pub-​like. If you like European soccer, it’s playing on the HDTV. (Soccer seems to be about the only ball sport that doesn’t drive me insane – I’ve even been known to enjoy world cup finals!) The air is full of the typical incense, something you don’t get in NorCal probably because everyone is allergic to scents. The service was pleasant, even concerned when we didn’t finish our whole plate – we had ordered three main dishes for the two of us. The quality of the food was very good.
Now for the one minus: the flavor of the food. Of the three things we ordered, the kitfo (raw minced beef) was the best. It was their special kitfo with onions and Jalepenos and garlic. It did contain these items but little other flavors typical of kitfo. Meat itself was excellent. The overall presentation was nice.
The veggie combo was mediocre. The gomen (greens) were average. The misir wot (lentil stew with berbere) was bland. There was some «tomato salad» that had none of the usual simple vinaigrette. They did have my favorite, azifa, a cold lentil salad/​purée which was excellent. The shiro was bland.
For our third dish we ordered one of their creations: the menu described it as what sounded like misir wat with a boiled egg (a la doro wat) with beef chunks. Well, it was. The same bland misir wat form the veggie combo with the boiled egg thrown in plus some small dry fried tasteless chunks of beef.
Since I’d rather have less ambiance and more flavor, I can’t give this nice place more than 3 stars.