Ahadu Restaurant

DON’T GO!!! It’s closed… all papered up… something called Barcote has a sign on top… but this place is closed. Call the number it’s out of service.

The vegetarian combination and the shuro combination are terrific. My wife and I ate across the street at Café Colucci — another highly rated (on Unilocal) Ethiopian restaurant. We like Ahadu so much better that we boxed up our food and walked across the street and started our lunch over again at Ahadu. The chef is really gifted!
Colucci’s is good too, but Ahadu is a real stand-​out. The only exception is their injera– wish it were a bit more sour.

What a great place. I know, there’s a very long line for Ethiopian right across the street, which brought me to try the OTHER side of the street. And you know what?
Ahadu is pretty awesome without the long wait. Actually, I prefer it!!! So yes, if you ever find yourself waiting needlessly, check out the great food nearby at Ahadu. It
deserves the 5 stars. Fresh, tasty. friendly.

i bought a
voucher and decided to try this place out with my husband as the next step on our quest to eat at all the east bay ethiopian restaurants. i think this is my current favorite. The staff was incredibly nice, and the food was just perfect. i got the veggie sampler as usual and it did not disappoint. it is super tiny but it wasn’t very busy and we just had a really lovely time.

Ahadu is an Ethiopian restaurant directly across the street from Café Colucci – yes, there are a ridiculous amount of Ethiopian spots on Telegraph, my friends. What stands out from Ahadu from the others is the service. Our waitress was the friendliest I’ve ever experienced at an Ethiopian place. The portions seemed a tad bit smaller than other places like Colucci and Ensarro, but still more than we could finish. Our injera and water was replenished constantly, which is a big plus. Their meat items had an edge over their veggie.
Would definitely recommend checking them out — not as busy as the more established spots but still solid.

Got an Amazon deal for this place. Staff was very friendly and attentive. We had gored gored, kitfo (my favorite!), doro wat, the vege combo and some tej. All of it tasted wonderful!
Definitely looking forward to coming back soon.

We love this place. Certainly, Adahu has the nicest service of all the Ethiopian places.
The food is very rich and delicious. The vegetarian plates are light and healthy; the meat is hearty. The portions are very generous. And the prices are great!
There are two very nice outdoor patios; we have enjoyed fun Ethiopian beers outside many a night.

The food was really good! Lots of subtlety to the flavors. They offer gluten-​free injera if you ask. The Kitfo was delicious. The Doro Wot was also quite good, but I thought the amount of chicken in it was a bit lacking.
The atmosphere was a bit stark and the service, while friendly enough, was also a bit on the awkward side.

Ahadu is often less busy than their neighbor across the street – Café Colucci – but their food is much better and their atmosphere is much more friendly.
The kitfo (raw) is supple and flavorful, their veggie dishes don’t suffer from the lifelessness I’ve experienced at other places, and their injera is fresh and delicious.
I recommend pairing your meal with their honey wine. It’s an Ethiopian treat!

Ahadu has changed hands a few times over the last few years and changed names as well), but this latest incarnation is delicious. I used a Unilocal deal here recently and for less than $ 20 I fed myself and two teenagers absolutely to the gills with rich, spicy, delicious food. We got the Veggie Combo and the Meat Combo and the three of us (hearty eaters all) couldn’t finish. The injera was spongy and delicious, just tangy enough. The only thing that wasn’t absolutely delicious was the buticha (a chickpea purée that sometimes is mistaken for scrambled eggs), it wasn’t thick enough I think. But I’m a buticha fanatic and I’ve had it at every Ethiopian place I could find in the east bay. It’s probably more a matter of personal preference than poor quality that I prefer the buticha at Café Colucci, and even there it isn’t always just right.
Service was quick and friendly, the injera was refilled as soon as we got low.
Café Colucci is right across the street and it’s always bustling. I hope Ahadu can lure some of their business. I like Café Colucci too, but Ahadu may just steal my heart away.
One note: on the afternoon we were there the television was blaring inside with what I’m guessing was Ethiopian programming (we were seated outside). We found it kind of amusing (Who knew Ethiopian TV was available here?) but it was loud. Some patrons may want to ask them to turn it down, and I’ll bet they would.

Happy:
Beautiful patio in the back
The kind, friendly female server
Flavorful meat combo
Sad:
Lifeless injera
Distasteful coffee
Unilocal coupon confusion
Slightly unaccommodating owner

I love Rockridge and the incredible cluster of Ethiopian restaurants that can be found there is a big reason why.
My friend and I both love Ethiopian food and decided to make the trek out here on a weeknight to enjoy some. We got the Vegetarian Combo with Misser Wot, Kik Alicha, Gomen, Atkilt, Buiticha, Azifa and Sing (stuffed jalapeño), and the Meat Sampler with Doro Wor, Sega Alicha and Aybe. I also tacked on an order of Kitfo because it’s my favorite Ethiopian meat dish, and we split a Meat Sambusa to start because we were starving.
Everything was incredibly tasty, but not as spicy as I had hoped. The food was a tad greasier than at other places I’ve been to, but the spices were all there (I’m obsessed with spices). I liked that the vegetables were still firm even though they were cooked, as I’ve been to some Ethiopian restaurants where they were overcooked and mushy.
The place is cute with just the right amount of decoration to make it feel personalized without being kitschy. Service was slow but friendly – They’ll never rush you here. It’s a family-​owned place and everyone makes you feel like one of the fold.

This is quite simply the best Ethiopian food in the Bay Area. And I’m not just saying that because I would never eat in an Ethiopian restaurant with an Italian name; to me Italian-​Ethiopian is like going to King George’s Burgers or having a slice of Queen Elizabeth apple pie. Have you any idea the suffering and catastrophe caused by Italy when they invaded Ethiopia and attempted (but failed) to colonize it, twice?
So I digress… head to the East side of Telegraph because Ahadu is the real deal with plenty of spice in the tender chicken tibs (favorite), hearty wot, spicy awaze and a nice selection of tej. I don’t know how they get that egg so hot and delicious! The injira is plenty fluffy and doesn’t fall apart when sauced. Huge portions.
They have a creative vegetarian option to match the flavors of the meats, called mushroom tibs. Can’t say this is my favorite but points for being creative and open to customer preferences.
The owners Fisseha and Lula are friendly and very attentive. Hard to say how they’ll do when word spreads. It’s been getting busier and busier, improving in appearance every time (note to owners, flies love tej. leave an open bottle out and they’ll disappear). maybe they’re planning to stay in this small spot and continue to fix it up from the previous owners. Or hopefully they will open another location.
My only real issue has been that I never seen the same wait staff twice. One said she was just visiting from Ethiopia. Some have been amazing and some confused. Overall, still have to give it 5 stars relative to every other spot I’ve tried in NorCal. It stands out as a clear leader and means I don’t have to travel to DC as often any more.
Ok, one other issue is I would like to see local/​homebrew tej. Their fancy bottled selection is great. I’m just saying if their tibs are delicious the tej would be outta this world.

I’ve tried a few Ethiopian restaurants in the bay area, and this is my favorite. The place is small and cozy, enhanced by a warm and friendly staff and owner. It’s a husband and wife team, the wife is the chef. She seems to take much pride in her cooking and both of them always make sure that things are up to my satisfaction. Water and bread are always replenished without asking.
This has become a regular place for my friends and I. Food and hospitality have continued to be excellent.
It’s worth giving it a try.

Ahadu is a great addition to the neighborhood. We always get one lamb dish and the veggie combo and love the wonderful assortment of flavors. It is really too much for two people, perfect for three… Luckily we like leftovers! The owners and staff are always friendly. Once there was a misunderstanding about our order, but no matter, the server did her very best to correct the situation.
A side note: the customer is not always right, and dining out does not give one license to behave badly.

My second Ethiopian dinner.
I came with the Unilocal deal, and loved it.
Got the Doro wot and BF got the awaze tibs with chicken.
both were great.
I love the flavorful doro wot, but i also kept stealing the BF’s chicken.
The waitress was very timely throughout the meal, refilling the injera and checking up on us, unfortunately when we were done eating, ready for the check the restaurant became VERY full, therefore we waited quite a while (maybe 45 mins) for the check?
But i won’t dock her, she was serving alone and all the tables in the back filled up at the same time.
Definitely very good.

S and I could smell the spices when we walked up to this restaurant. They also perfumed the air inside the dining room. The smell of spices certainly was delightful. We went for lunch at about 1:30 and we were their only customers.
We started the meal with the meat sambussa appetizer. Three pieces of pastries were stuffed with a blend of minced beef, peppers, and herbs and they were wonderful. I could have easily eaten a whole plate or two of them.
S had the Awaze Tibs. The menu did not say that this dish had ingera pieces as a major element of the dish. He said it wasn’t what he expected and he was disappointed. He was right; the online menu description is altogether different that what he was served. I don’t particularly like ingera and didn’t try it, so I have no idea if it was good or not.
I had the Doro Wot, a stew like dish with chicken pieces simmered in a spicy berbere sauce and served with a hard-​boiled egg. I share this dish with S. It was really tasty and I would order it again. However, it only had two pieces of chicken and I think they were one small leg cut in half. I ate both of our salads and let S have the greens, but I was still hungry when we left.
We used a Groupon; the server told us she had to charge the dinner prices. It was clearly stated on coupon. They might want to rethink this policy if they do a coupon again. We certainly would have order more dishes if they charged the lunch prices. We would have spend quite a bit more than the extra three dollars that the dinner cost

It makes me sad to write reviews like this one. Clearly nice people –trying– to have a nice café, left me clearly feeling meh about the over arching experience.
There is a lovely patio, but on this evening it was cool and sitting next to the breezy front area I felt noticeable cold all night, even wearing my coat.
The waitress was friendly and nice, and there was a loud group of men enjoying a discussion over a bottle of wine, while the Big Bang Theory played on TV in the background.
I tried the veggie combo, my date bought the Unilocal deal– tried the meat combo.
I love Ethiopian food, but I can’t say that this exceeded any basic expectations.
We came on a Sat night, the injera seemed unusual, maybe pre-​made? thin, a little mealy, cold. less spongy. Some of the veggie dishes lacked a richness in flavour. The Besser wot red lentil dish is a long fav of mine, but this one didn’t have the same flavours. On the other hand the cabbage, yellow lentils, mushroom wot, and green beans were very good. Hummus less impressive. Salad, fresh. I left full, but it simply wasn’t as yummy as other places I’ve enjoyed before. My date said the meat was kind of dry and he enjoyed the salad most, because it seemed the freshest …
This meal was kind of like the dying flower arrangement on our table leaving something to be desired, even with our Unilocal deal.

Friday I had the great pleasure of lunching here w/​Nobbi and Jack. The weather was warm enough that we sat comfortably on the back patio. Nobbi «interviewed» me to determine my food preferences. I knew that he and Jack had much more robust tolerance for spicy heat than I did, but they knew how to deal w/​that. We ordered an abundance of food, from kitfo, the finely chopped raw beef, to a chicken dish to a lamb dish to a vegetarian combination. Nobbi requested spices on the side to add. Everything was delicious, although the lamb was a little bland, probably an overcorrection on the spice level. The kitfo, even w/​o the added spice had too much of a kick for me. The chicken was flavorful, just verging into the realm of spiciness. The vegetarian dishes carried no spiciness and were a feast of varying tastes and textures. Injera was plentiful, a new basket being brought when the first one started to get low. Nobbi and Jack had beer and I drank water.
I love Ethiopian food and this was a treat. I love having small bites of different tastes and textures. Ahadu is relatively new and is right across the street from Café Colucci, which remains my sentimental favorite. The owner stopped by to chat w/​us and was very friendly. This was a lovely new find and a delightful interlude w/​friends.

No longer living in the east bay (our home is now in Germany though I work in Folsom) I’m a little out of touch with all the new culinary delights available on our old stomping grounds. So by perusing Unilocal I found the listing for Ahadu right across from Café Colucci which for many years was my favorite before I discovered Ensarro and Messob.
Since I love trying out new places I came here for lunch. To sample more than one dish I ordered my usual: raw kitfo and the vegetarian combination which, of course, was way too much for me alone. The kitfo was perfectly done and came with eyeb. The combo was very plentiful with more than just the usual few dishes: salata, kik alicha, gomen, atakilt, misir wot plus buticha, azifa, inguday tibs, and fasolia. It was all great.
They had Harar beer and a a cozy little back patio with shade. Service was nice. My waitress asked me several times why I «didn’t eat»? I told her I can’t eat much at once, but I’m not sure she believed me. Oh well! Next time I’ll have to bring some of my friends who gobble up everything!
This one is definitely a winner!