Gojjo Bar & Restaurant

One of my favorite neighborhood bars with great food and hospitality. This is a great place on Any day of the week. Friday through Sunday attracts a larger and very mixed crowd. There is a Dj who spins, Caribbean, American, and Afro beats music. It turns into a big dance party which is fun to join in, or if you’re shy just sit back and watch. Drinks are affordable as well as the food. Great place to hang out with friends.

The food is mediocre at best; frozen, microwaved, and takes an hour to get to the table. The place isn’t much to look at. Worst of all… the owner is egotistical, abusive to employees, and terrible at customer service. I read so many reviews about him being inappropriate with female customers and personally witnessed him berating a female employee… Deplorable.

What a great bar, delicious food, and service was fast and friendly. The bar has a backyard patio where smoking is permitted. It is one of the best in west philly.

Reasonable prices, OK place to hang out

The outside deck is fun to sit at in the summer. The Goden tibs here is amazing and the Ethiopian cheesesteak is really good here. Secondly, the beef sambusas are the best I have ever had.

First off, if you want decent Ethiopian food, go to Kaffa! 4423 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19 104, its a nice atmosphere with excellent customer service. I use to love Gojjo, never for their food but more so for the night life. They had and still have great music, mostly West African reggae and okay drinks. That being said, my friends and I have vowed to never return there solely due to the owner’s ego! This past weekend, a group of us, about 15 – 20 of us, went there, we ended up leaving due to the owners terrible attitude. Although customer service isn’t something most Habesha (Ethiopian) owners are use too, this guy just took it to another level. So, if you’re okay with giving your money to an establishment that will make you feel like shit all while you’re getting hit on by someone that’s old enough to be your grandfather, go on right ahead to good ol’ Gojjo. Never, ever again for my friends and I.

Gojjo is only the second Ethiopian restaurant I’ve tried in West Philly. Because a group of friends and I went early on a weekday evening, the restaurant was quite empty when we arrived. Even when it’s full though I’m sure it’s quite accommodating (in good weather) because there is ample outdoor seating upstairs and in the backyard. The only thing to keep in mind if you choose the outdoor seating option is the mosquitos, as there is plenty of greenery around. The food we ordered (Korniece and Vegetable platter) was on par with what I’ve had at Ethio café, although I’d say the presentation was a notch better.

Great if you wanna wait an hour and ten minutes for your food, which is unseasoned and cold.

First time here. Loved the Ethiopian vegetarian platter! Service was great! Different cuisine. Never ate with my fingers that way. A treat!

I came here on a Saturday afternoon to try the famed Ethiopian cheesesteak. The cheesesteak was a unique treat, but hardly worth the price. The fact that they put «comes with fries» on their menu is laughable: there were maybe 10 small fries included with the cheesesteak. The cheesesteak might have been a decent value if it included more fries, but I was disappointed to spend $ 10 and still leave hungry.
In all, I would still come here to try their unique house dishes, but I don’t see myself coming back regularly because of the poor value.

The food here is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. The service is not so wonderful. The waiters are so friendly, but are prone to forgetting about you. I had to go to the bar twice to ask for menus. But the food is just so good that I can forgive waiting forever (about 45 minutes for just the samosa appetizers). I recommend the gored gored medium rare. I have eaten here quite a few times and it continues to be my favorite. Make sure that you try the baklava. It is literally the best that I have ever had. They also have good beer on tap and a really cute outdoor area. So come for the amazing food, but be prepared for iffy service – it is worth it, I promise!

I love Ethiopian food! The idea of it just makes me feel special and eclectic! The bread is very distinctive, and has an usual texture, which goes well with the hearty vegetables chicken dishes. Gojo is awesome! It has a nice ambiance and I think they expanded, so you can sit outside and eat in the warmth of a summer evening. Bonus! The beer is always cold and the service is always attentive. I don’t share some of the criticisms about the service and the demeanor of the waitstaff. Andrea, who is the hostess and server is awesome and very warm. I can understand how some would find the service problematic and the attitudes of some the staff to be off-​putting, this may be attributable to dinner and happy hour rush periods. But overall, this place is good! Not as expensive as if we’re somewhere like Center City.

As a restaurant, Gojjo is pretty good.
Lentil soup had a good flavor to it, but I wish that it had more lentils in it.
Kachumbari (Tomato Salad) was very tasty, a lot of flavor in what looked like a fairly simple dish. Tomato, peppers, onion, and some vinegar.
The Gojjo Special Tibs (Spicy) was a bit smaller than I am used to, I would recommend getting an extra side or two of vegetables. The flavor was very good, spiced beef with peppers and onions, the spinach that went with the meat was well seasoned. Again, I would have liked some more vegetables, but the dish was otherwise very good. Served with injera (spongy rolled bread).
Spilt Lentil (Spicy) this was excellent. The flavor with the lentils was terrific, the lentils were thick with a flavorful sauce that paired very well with the injera.
Service was pretty slow. It didn’t seem like they had enough staff for the crowd that was there.
Outdoor seating is terrific, and I would recommend if you want to get away from the loud bar.

Gojjo’s is a reliable neighborhood bar. Their Ethiopian/​Eritrean food is good, if a bit pricey. Avoid getting fries, wings, and other American food. Literally 10 fries in the order, totally ridiculous portion. Their Ethiopian cheesesteak is a must-​try, however!

I like this place and the atmosphere. I even like the fact that they literally kick you out at closing. I will come back since it’s around the corner. Be aware of Moroccan men who will sneak kiss you!!! He got me!

The management of this establishment don’t respect women and the autonomy of their bodies.
A group of friends of mine were celebrating a birthday party on the upstairs level of this bar, and since there was no bartender upstairs we had to go downstairs to buy drinks.
A very intoxicated man made unwanted advances to a friend of mine and touched her multiple times. She told him she wasn’t interested and to stop touching her and told the management about the situation.
The management did not immediately kick this man out of the bar and a fight almost ensued as a result.
Why he wasn’t kicked out I do not understand. Never in my life have I heard of bar management «trying» to kick someone out or «working on» kicking an offending or highly intoxicated patron out of a bar. That is code for «we don’t really care that he’s done this to you, but we’re trying to save face». That’s what was told to us when we asked why he was still sitting at the bar, trying to order drinks.
I will never be returning to this establishment, and I’m going to tell anyone and everyone I can never to return as well. There are other Ethiopian restaurants with bars in the neighborhood where you can be more certain that if you are touched inappropriately by a stranger, the management will act accordingly.

The ownership is a disaster.
I saw the owner ask a patron to leave simply because he claimed he did not like the way the patron looked at him!
Yes, it’s an Ethiopian ownership and the owner is Ethiopian, but in the US this is no run a business! Yikes!

Gojjo has been my favorite West Philly Ethiopian restaurant for several years now. They have a fine selection of traditional dishes — even fish dishes — served with good injera (the fish dish was, however, a bit bland, which I suppose I should have remedied with a side of hot sauce, which they do provide upon request).
In addition to traditional Ethiopian dishes, they have Ethiopian (i.e., berbere-​spice infused) takes on Philly’s classic cheesesteak (both beef and chicken versions are available). I’ve only tried the chicken version, and it was very good. They might even have regular pub fare, but I never bothered looking at that part of the menu.
To help you wash down the delicious and filling food, Gojjo has a very good selection of beers — including some tasty and very-​hard-​to-​find Ethiopian brews (by hard to find I mean I’ve never seen them at any beer distributor or bottle shop).
Service is … laid back, so don’t show up ravenous and cranky; it will go (and perhaps end) poorly.
The prices are in line with, and generally a bit less expensive than, average for Philly’s Ethiopian restaurants.
There are lots of seating options. When the weather is nice, there is a lovely back yard with both ground-​level seating and a second floor deck (though the outdoor furniture is mostly kinda flimsy plastic). Inside, there is bar seating and tables on both the first and second floors. The upstairs tends to be closed on slow nights.
On some nights they have a DJ that plays ridiculously loud music on the first floor. Your eardrums will rightly hate you if you expose them to it (until they implode, that is, which they might; I didn’t try to find out).

Only went here once so far, but I did like the décor inside. The doro wat was pretty good with a good amount of spice to it. The injera was slightly different, a little less pugent than I’m used to getting at Queen of Sheba, not in a bad way. Service was pretty quick, prices are good. Not exactly the best selection of beers on tap, mostly just the big major brands and Yuengling, if that counts. Bar area is pretty small & compact, it looks bigger from the outside. I didn’t ask about bottles. I’ll try this again next time I’m in the mood for Ethiopian and see.

$ 11 pitcher of Victory’s pale ale. Sweet. Only one bartender serving entire restaurant, but it was empty and we were in the back – I needed to go up front to the bar to get it. I didn’t mind, the bartender was nice.
We were clearly there in hours that weren’t very busy, with the nightlight getting started later on complete with a DJ.
Didn’t try food.