Ghenet first opened 18 years ago and is still one of the best (and only) Ethiopian restaurants in the city. There used to be two locations of Ghenet, but the Manhattan location closed. The Brooklyn, location, however is going strong and I’m happy to hear it. It’s not usually crowded for lunch, but gets more active around dinner time. Still, you don’t need a reservation.
The restaurant serves traditional Ethiopian food, which consists generally of various meat or vegetable dishes on top of injera, a spongy, sour flatbread made of teff. Injera is Ethiopia’s national dish and serves as the base or accompaniment Ethiopian food you’ll ever order. It’s used in place of grains or bread that you would might see in other cuisine to add bulk and sustenance to a dish (like rice in Thai cuisine or naan in Indian).
I would always recommend ordering a platter as opposed to one individual dish. It’s not much more expensive and in a platter you can try an assortment of foods. You can do a meat platter, veggie platter, or a combo and can select 3-4 individual meats/veggies total. Though a platter for one is meant to feed only one person, two people could easily share it along with an appetizer or dessert. The dishes you order are served sitting on top of the injera (spread across a plate) and you’re also given an additional side of injera. The food is served directly on the injera, so as not to waste any. Once the meats or veggies are finished, you can eat the injera it was sitting on, which has soaked up any remaining juices and spices. The plate itself mostly remains completely clean.
You really can’t go wrong no matter what you order. Everything is flavorful, well-spiced, and delicious. And injera is very deceptively filling. It’s actually very dense despite its sponginess so it can fill you up quickly if you’re not paying attention.
Two favorites are misir wett, which are super spicy lentils slow-cooked in a berbere sauce with other spices and shiro wett, which are slightly spicy beans with herbs and berbere sauce. By the way, it’s the berbere sauce that makes it so delicious. Berbere is a spice mixture made of chili peppers, garlic, ginger, basil, nigella seeds, and fenugreek found in many Ethiopian dishes. Delicious.
I’d stay away from the atkelt wett, which consists of cabbage, potatoes and carrots cooked in a mild caramelized onion sauce. It one of the rare dishes that’s a miss. Flavor is a bit odd and unpleasant. As is common in Ethiopian cuisine, you’ll find way more vegan and vegetarian options than meat, so it’s a nice change of pace. But don’t worry, it’s delicious and filling.
Decor is nice and food is solid. Worth giving it a try.
