Zenebech Restaurant Washington - Buy Reservations

This place is Zenebech but still shows up under another name on Yelp. I'd once had lunch here and found the kitfo (with jalapeno bits), injera, and fresh veggies to be sumptuous. I fantasized about returning and crossed several state lines. When I came back for dinner and ordered doro tibs (chicken), what I got was not "tender cubes of chicken" but disappointing cubes of rock hardened repeatedly fried meat. I exchanged this for beef tibs. That too was replete with hardened and rubbery flesh which had been tossed on the frying pan for who knows how many times through out the day/days. The homemade cheese this time also seemed dry, older, and bland. Avoid the tibs and extra $4.99 for cheese, or simply go elsewhere to get your DMV Ethiopian groove on.

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Unfortunately I didn't care much for the food but my party liked it.

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Among all the Ethiopian places around, this one checks all the boxes. My partner and I were in town for his job and we needed to get our fix of injera et al. before we headed back north, and this was within walking distance of our hotel. It was super packed, so we had to wait a bit to get someone to seat us, and then we ended up just sitting in the window across from the bar. We ordered a bunch of veggies (greens, lentils, beets), doro wot, and I believe awaze tibs. The service was okay, and the food was good! I can't say it was the best I've ever had, but it was a nice opportunity to grab some of this cuisine before we headed back home. They are definitely feeling the pressure of being understaffed, so it's hard for me to dock them on service, but I'd say if you're staying at the Washington Hilton and need a bite, this is a good spot.

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This is a great spot to try authentic Ethiopian food! I have never had Ethiopian food before and had a pretty good experience here.We started with the lentils sambusa. These are kind of like samosas, and the lentil filling was nice and flavorful. Then for our main we got the 4 meat / 4 veggie combo. Everything is placed on top of the injera bread, and we got an additional piece of injera on the side. This ended up being a little bit too much food to split between two people, so I'd recommend getting this combo if you have more people. All the meats and veggies were good though, and I liked that we had a variety of items to try.The food overall was pretty tasty, but I wasn't really blown away by anything. I might not have the right palette for these flavors, but if you really like Ethiopian food I think you would like this! And it was a good spot to try Ethiopian food for the first time.

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Let's not kid ourselves - this is the real deal right here. To start, excellent service. And I'll shoot it straight: white dude tryna order Ethiopian food can be daunting. I asked questions to my waitress about the dishes and I believe she picked up on my cluelessness and led me the right way. On my first visit to Zenebech, the waitress pointed me to the sambusa appetizer. 'Twas banging. and I MEAN that. I'm bout that. I'm bout that, bout that. that sambusa? was also bout that, bout that, bout that. Now, for the entree, I split the Mehaberawi platter. For veggies, only the classics. Not messing around here: gomen (collard greens), tikel gomen (cabbage, carrot, and potato stew), timatim fitfit (chopped onion, tomato, and jalapeno in olive oil), and mesir (chili sauced red lentils). The meats? WE ARE NOT PLAYING AROUND: tibs ferefer, and to be completely honest? cant recall any of the other ones. buts it's fine. we ball. and so did that dish. it balled. However, I did think the dish lacked that trademark Ethipioan spice punch I expect. But I also think they, as many international cuisine restaurants do, knocked the spice back a few kicks to spare my caucasian intestines. And, I must add, that decision did in fact spare my caucasian intestinesNow, I would be lying if I said I haven't had Ethiopian before. I had a great friend in high school whose mother would whip up all types of dishes. With the fresh injera imported from Ethiopia straight to her local orthodox church, this woman made magic with the simplest ingredients. This is something Zenebach does very well. The food is fresh. It punches. It kicks. The tibbs are not chewy. They don't lack that flavor I prefer in my tibbs. The injera is delicious. and don't get me started on them veggies. I have accepted that Ethiopians dominate veggies. So does Zenebach.On my second trip to Zenebach, I wanted to further explore the domain that is vegetarian Ethiopian food. I went with the Veggie Ferfer, chopped injera tossed in a savory chili-peppers sauce with two veggies. I rode with a pair of classics again: gomen and mesir. The injera tasted like a fall-off-the-bone spare rib. The chili-pepper sauce was absolutely bonkers. BONKERS, I tell you. The injera, while holding true to its trademark preforated and spongy texture, danced alongside my veggies and partied in my friggin mouth. was a party. was insane. was like the time madonna and drake made out on stage. Insane.wow. What a review. This? Has been a journey. I hope everyone enjoys Zenebach as much as I do.

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The lamb was chewy and not up to usual Ethiopian standers. The fish was very very salty and overly spicy. There was an absence of that wonderful Ethiopian smell that comes from exotic spices and loving cooking.The place was a disappointment.The injura was good.

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I came twice in one week. Both times we ordered the 10 veggie combo, which is 10 vegetarian dishes and comes with two things of injera on the side. The food was amazing! I especially liked the lentil dishes, the corn dish, the beet dish, and the potato dish. I've came as a party of two the first time and as a party of three the second time and the food was more than enough to feed all of us both times. My partner also ordered the St. George's Lager and really enjoyed it. I got the Ethiopian tea and really enjoyed that as well. The staff at this restaurant are all extremely kind and helpful. Service is great. The prices are extremely reasonable for the quality and quantity of food they are serving. The 10 veggie combo was only 28$ and was enough to feed two or three people. This is my new favorite restaurant in DC and I recommend everyone come here!

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We were regulars before the pandemic and when we went back early this spring, they were so happy to see us. The food has always been consistent and the staff wonderful. We went once a week for about two months this spring. And then took a few weeks off before returning. Unfortunately we struggled the last time we went. The server was new and our samosas came out still frozen. They were a bit rude to us but.... Everyone has a bad night. We went back last night and the experience was horrific. We asked for an outside table, we were told we'd get the next one and it would be about twenty minutes. We were also told they wouldn't take our name since they don't take reservations so we couldn't leave the immediate area. That was fine. We waited. And waited. And waited. And as a table became available they came and told us we there were people before us. No one had been there but in a few minutes those people walked back. They hadn't been told to wait. We were furious. Our son was very hungry and we would have gone elsewhere if we'd known we weren't getting the next table. When we did finally get a table it took a long time to place an order but we know the food always comes quickly. Our son has Type 1 diabetes so needs to take a certain amount of insulin in advance of the food he eats. We gave him his insulin and our samosas came out. (A bit cold but not frozen.)And then we waited for our food. After forty minutes (and we have been there a million times and never waited forty minutes) I asked the server were the food was. I explained our son needed to eat soon because of his insulin. She shrugged and said, "I don't know. It's busy."Maybe our expectations were too high because we've always had such positive experiences, but I was furious at how indifferent she was. Ultimately I went in and explained to a much nicer staff person that it had been over forty minutes and my son was okay because he'd had a samosa but that he needed to eat in the next five minutes or it could be a problem and that we would pay for our samosas and go somewhere else. She was shocked we hadnt been served yet. She assumed we'd eaten and I was coming in for the check. She apologized and said it would just be a minute. Our son's food came a few minutes later. Cold!!!!!The rest of the food came a few minutes after that. We learned that they have a new owner and new kitchen staff who, according to the person we spoke with, have no idea what they're doing and there are problems where the computer system doesn't speak to the kitchen. It is SUCH a shame. We loved everyone who worked there. It was a great place for us to go because they knew our kiddo had T1 and always made sure he was taken care of. Just a lovely local restaurant. We're sad they have new management and mostly new staff. We told our kids we'll use this opportunity to try other restaurants in the area because we won't be going back.

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Mediocre. There are excellent Ethiopian restaurants within a mile - Habesha on U Street and Latena in Columbia Heights. Food here is meant to cater to the drunk/high crowd in Adam’s Morgan where poorly made food served in large portions seems to be what sells.

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