Meskerem

Glad this place is closed. I have been trying to find the name of this place for almost a year in order to write this review.
Went to Meskerem with my boyfriend and a friend about a year ago and ended up with food poisoning for 3 days. Don’t remember what we had to eat but I know there was chicken and meat that we had. Ended up being over $ 100 for three people and we didn’t even order drinks. Fast forward one day and I end up violently sick. Get a phone call from my boyfriend who is also violently sick, and come to find out that our friend is also violently sick. There is no way all three of us could have gotten this sick from anything else. Had to stay in bed for 3 days because of this place. So glad that it is gone.

So sad to learn that this establishment is now closed and the building has been sold for $ 1.7 million! I loved this Ethiopian restaurant as it was my first ever experience with Ethiopian cuisine!!!

So I’ve never had Ethiopian before this place and with that being said I think the food was decent. It was fresh and tasty. I would try it again. The bread has this weird sponge like consistency. It doesn’t taste like anything but it compliments the food well. I enjoyed the décor. We sat in the front with the cute round table in the window. The service was quick and the staff were nice (very quiet). My friend order this side dish with a red spicy paste. It was really good. if you figure out what is you should order it and add it to every dip of food!

Dirty, slow, poor service, and not very flavorful. I do not recommend this restaurant as the atmosphere is also dingy, rushed, and not on par with other Ethiopian places nearby.
The vegetarian platter did not impress but they do give large portions. But that’s probably the only positive.

One of my favorite places to eat in DC. I love the veggie combo. Everything here is seasoned perfectly. Whether you are dining in or taking out, the food is always great. They offer Ethiopian wine as well as low prices bottles when dining in. The staff is great however they tend to always want to close early and you always feel pressured to hurry up when eating inside. The last time I was there we finished our dinner 90 mins before closing and they started to pack up and hover around my husband and I the entire time we were eating. It’s actually happened every time we’ve been there an hour before closing. That’s the only reason I’m giving it 4 starts instead of 5.

A fun and casual dining experience in the culturally-​diverse Adams Morgan.
Pros
Ample seating (two floors)
Very Ethiopian (a touch corny) décor and the female servers wore Ethiopian dresses
Unlimited injera (Spongy Ethiopian bread)
Pretty ceiling art
Cons
Unpleasant yellow lighting
What I got
Vegetarian messob (vegan) for three people, $ 12.25 each person (total $ 36.75)
Meskerem messob (meat) for people, $ 26.95
What I thought
I came here with four friends and we got two messobs — one vegan and one meat. A messob is a platter of many dishes plopped on a big circular piece of injera. It is meant to be eaten with your hands and eaten communally. The server also brought extra injera on the side and kept bringing it out when she saw us running out. This was great for me, since I don’t like soggy injera. In my opinion, Ethiopian food is really hard to mess up. It consists of all stew and curry dishes and the ingredients are consistent for each dish. The vegetarian messob came with 7 dishes and the meskerem messob came with 5 dishes. The meskerem messob (meat) was on smaller plate than the vegetarian one.
We picked bits of injera and grabbed chunks of the different foods on our platter. It was fun and made it the perfect environment for conversation.
Meskerem is one of the many good ethnic restaurants in AdMo. It’s great for group dining.

Mediocre at best. I’ve been here 3 times (over the course of 3 years), thinking it might actually be good one of those times. But no. I was there yesterday, ordered the vegetarian combo, and all the food that came out was cold. The lentil dishes, which are supposed to be hot, were cold like they just came out of the fridge. My boyfriend ordered the seafood platter and he ate 2 bites and was no longer interested. There are so many other good Ethiopian restaurants in the city, don’t waste your time with this one. I will not be going go back.

Meskerem is a decent place to catch dinner before going out in the AdMo area, especially if you have a big group. Overall, the food was good and the prices are pretty reasonable.
My group of 6 people all got the Meskerem Mixed Special, which included beef, chicken, lamb, veggies — all for $ 13.50 per person. Not a bad deal at all, and it satisfied dietary needs of everyone in the group.
I recommend asking to be seated in the upstairs area, especially if you have a slightly bigger group. Being able to sit on stools around a traditional basket table made the experience more enjoyable.
I wished the restaurant had a more extensive beer selection though — our choices were dark or light Ethiopian beer. Hahahaha.
The place gets busy on weekend evenings, and making a reservation on OpenTable means nothing. We had a reservation but still had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. It was the same situation for a lot of big groups who also had reservations and had to wait by the door just like us.

I went to Meskerem to redeem a voucher for dinner and a coffee ceremony with some friends on 1÷13÷15.
I had never had Ethiopian food prior to this experience. However people had described it to me so I knew what to expect.
Meskerem is a relatively large restaurant and I found the noise level in the restaurant perfect to have a conversation. The décor is also comfortable. However this fact is not enough to bring it to a higher rating for me. Our waitress waited over 40 minutes to take our orders and as we placed our orders she seemed unable to answer some basic questions for some «newbies» that were having Ethiopian food for the 1^st time. I was also disappointed that when I was given my appetizer that it had meat in it after specifically stating that I was a vegetarian before placing the order. I didn’t realize it contained meat until I took (and had) a bite. Although I was given a new appetizer, I could imagine this be greatly upsetting a stricter vegetarian than myself.
I also found the dinner lacked flavor and this was confirmed by my friends who had Ethiopian food before.
The Balaklava dessert (which we had to ask for the waitress to bring to us after almost 30 minutes after dinner was completed) was good. However I don’t think I would make the trek out to Adams Morgan from where I am again specifically for it.

I’ve been here twice, and I plan to go back many more times. Despite it being a restaurant with great service and food, I’m usually able to get a reservation relatively easily for dinner. When you first walk in, you see a bunch of regular tables, and the restaurant doesn’t look too different from other places. However, I recommend sitting upstairs as it’s more of an experience with sitting on stools and having a low-​set basket table in the middle and is nicely decorated.
The honey wine is very good to start with. The appetizers are delicious although small. I usually get one of the combo sort of entrees to share with those with me. It has beef, lamb, chicken, egg, spices and vegetables. I think on the dish, my favorites are the vegetable parts and the beef. The chicken served is on the bone. Whenever the shared plate is put in front of me I think to myself that it won’t be enough food. However, it usually is! Dinner and drinks are reasonably priced as well.
Bathrooms are clean, and the service is great. Like I already mentioned, I plan to come back here, and I think it’s the best Ethiopian restaurant I’ve been to in DC so far.

Very good Ethiopian food. The injera here is pleasant, as are the various stews, meats, and coked vegetable dishes. The vegetarian platter contains a wider variety of dishes than most Ethiopian restaurants in DC, including green beans and a potato-​garlic dish that my companions were quite fond of. Their lentils were well cooked without being mushy, as were the collard greens. The honey wine that we ordered was pleasantly dry and I would absolutely order it again. Similarly, the upstairs here is outfitted more traditionally, with stools and low tables, which was a fun break from regular chair sitting.

There are so many great Ethiopian restaurants in the area, but I really enjoy Meskerem. They have a great sampler platter for two people that I have never been able to finish – and I’ve ordered it upwards of 7 times. It’s really enough for three people to be satisfied instead of two people falling into a food coma with leftover, uneaten food.
Make sure to see if you can get seated upstairs. It’s much nicer with a cool sunroof thing going on and more authentic seating. Downstairs is just regular tables and chairs but upstairs you’re low to the ground and it’s more fun and intimate.

It was ok. The green tea honey wine was good but I like the fit fit better than the platter

I absolutely LOVE Ethiopian food, seriously love it. It reminds me of southern food but with more spices. We have eaten at several different Ethiopian places over the years and we have had some good and some not so good experiences. Meskerem was your pretty middle of the road, standard Eth. meal. It was good, but nothing blew me away here. Everything was cooked wonderfully and the lamb (which is usually my favorite anyway) was quite good. Between the four of us we all ordered the standard meal per person that included lamb, beef, chicken, and some veggie sides. It was served as most Eth. dishes as family style with rolls of injera bread to eat with.
If you want an Ethiopian place to eat in Adams Morgan, I am not sure of any other ones, but this would probably be your best bet. It is in the heart of Adams Morgan with tons of great bars surrounding it. The décor was less than desirable and the service was slow. But as usual, we left extremely full (every time I eat Ethiopian food, I eat like I have not consumed food for a week. I always over eat.) and ready to walk off some of the food we consumed.
Just a note: Our favorite Ethiopian restaurant by far, so far, is Etete.

Meskerem was considered the best Ethiopian restaurant in town when I lived here; but that was a long time ago. Today Unilocal rates a few others higher, and an Ethiopian cab driver told us of yet another place. But for old times sake, we decided to bring the family here for our last night in D.C.
I was a little surprised to discover the décor at Meskerem is EXACTY the same as it was 15 years ago. It’s looking very worn and dated. The neon-​backed panels lining the walls were kind of new and different when they opened. Now they’re beginning to look a little warped. In short, Meskerem needs to think about getting a décor upgrade.
The food, however, was exactly as I remember it. We ordered our usual Meskerem Mesob, which was a large platter with a sampling of various vegetarian and meat dishes. My oldest ordered a beef dish that looked interesting to her, and the staff was nice enough to add it directly to the Mesob platter. The injera bread arrived shortly before the platter, and we enjoyed the kids initial confusion at why their «napkins» were so spongy. They also kept wondering about the lack of silverware. (We explained).
As for the platter itself, the yellow peas and lentils were tasty, the various meat dishes were fine, though I was not as impressed with the chicken. My absolute favorite was the spiced lamb. Consequently I may have been a little unfair in the «sharing» category.
As for service, it was really off. It was difficult to find our waitress, and waitresses for other tables didn’t really want to assist us. It made me really wish they were using the service sharing model that some restaurants employ.
Beer list was unimpressive, as expected. I tried an Ethiopian beer (forget the name), and it tasted like Schlitz. I decided not to care, for old times sake.

I’ve had Ethiopian food a couple times before, and Meskerem’s was just decent. Good, but I’m not dying to go back any time soon. My friend and I split the seafood special with shrimp, scallops and fillet of fish in the restaurant’s special sauce, as well as the zilzil tibs — which were way too well done so that we could barely pull them apart with our hands. The flavors were good, but I would probably get something different if I go back. Love the atmosphere though, very relaxing.
Came for dinner on a thursday night, no need for reservations — the place was pretty empty.

This is probably the least practical review to ever hit Unilocal.
What I will say –
They have okay food. I didn’t know half of what I was eating, but all was solid and tasty. They do NOT offer you silverware for dining. You must eat with your hands unless you ask for utensils. Don’t ask for them though. Be authentic and eat it as it was given to you. The injera (the Ethiopian sponge bread) is perfect for picking things up. Roll with it.
Service is decent. The servers dress in authentic Ethiopian attire. I think it adds a little bit of spice to the restaurant.
My only complaint about this restaurant is that the bathrooms are a little dingy. It was far from the cleanest restaurant I’ve ever been to also, but it definitely was not the worst.
Worth returning for a second visit.

This was my first time eating Ethiopian food. I thought it was pretty good.
Warning to vegetarians – the food is served combined and if you are weary of your food touching – don’t go here. They group all of the food items in this huge bowl/​platter.
Also, the seats are very uncomfortable – I wish we had sat at a table instead.
It was a pretty good experience, I enjoyed the food a lot.

My fiancé and I have been hoping to try Meskerem for ages now — ever since we got hooked on Ethiopian cuisine — and I can say without a doubt that it did not disappoint. We will most definitely be back, especially considering how perfect the location is!
We asked to be seated upstairs because it looked a lot more authentic than the standard tables and chair downstairs, and sure enough we found the low chairs, round tables, and side trays for drinks and napkins. The space is simple but nicely decorated and charming. Our waitress was very pleasant and took good care of us throughout the night.
We started off with some sambusas (veggie for me, meat for him) as an appetizer, and I can say they were the best we’ve had. There were several different vegetarian options but I chose the potato, carrot, and cabbage sambusa, which I far preferred to the lentil ones I’ve had in the past, though that’s probably just a personal preference. We ordered some honey wine to accompany our dinner, and whew, was it strong! It was also really delicious and flavorful, though, so definitely worth it.
For dinner, my fiancé had the Meskerem Messob — an assortment of both meat and vegetarian dishes — and I had the Vegetarian Messob. The injera was perfect — texture was spongy but held together well when used on the delicious food, and the flavor was present but not overpowering. I would list favorites, but for the first time ever at an Ehtiopian restaurant I loved everything pretty much equally. The spicing of each dish was distinct both in level and flavor, as was the texture. The variety is invigorating, and I ate way more than I probably should have.
Not only is all the food excellent, but as with many Ethiopian restaurants, the prices can’t be beat. You could do very, very well here in terms of food for well under $ 15 a person. Anyway, enough gloating. This is delicious food. Go eat it. We’ll be back.

I go back and forth with Meskerem. At its core, it is delicious food. The vegetarian sambusas are all great, though I continue to argue that collard greens are a delectable but very much acquired taste. The entrees do vary in level of spice, which is a refreshing change of pace for vegetarian entrees, and the variety of bases (lentils, potatoes, cabbage, chick peas) allow for a great taste and textural consistency across the plate.
If you are vegetarian: Make sure the dishes are meat-​free. Many of the dish titles are similar on the menu and you will want to ensure there is no misunderstanding — though the staff does seem concerned and vigilant on such affairs.
However, the staff really could work on their customer service. In a city filled with other Ethiopian establishments, this spot would benefit from more attentive service, accurate pricing on the check, and a greater interest in the patrons on the part of the waitstaff.
All things considered: A great dinner spot in Adams Morgan if you’ve got a hankering for injera.