Chef Cafe

Warm and friendly place. Abundant delicious food for very low price. Savory and spicy. I loved it all. Been eating leftovers for 2 days!

I am so addicted to this restaurant. Good food never disappointed. I always get doro wot, or chicken tibs and veggie combo. Delicious

Visited on 12÷28÷15.
tldr; AWESOME food value (flavor, price and quantity). sketchy looking building.
Pro’s:
— Excellent food (if you like Indian food, I highly recommend Ethiopian food)
— Amount of food (curry + injera bread) — we ordered 2 dishes and left completely stuffed with enough food leftover for both of us to make a second meal.
— Price (at $ 9 a pop you get injera, meat curry and and a small salad)
Con’s:
— Sketchy looking building/​area

About as good as it is going to get for value and taste. The restaurant is very casual and small, but don’t let that stop you. The prices are much better than many of the other Ethiopian places nearby and the flavor of the dishes is on par with the best Ethiopian I’ve had anywhere. Ethiopian is one of my favorite types of cuisine so we were very pleased that our first attempt at it in the Seattle area yielded such good results. This is also probably the best food deal you can get anywhere. $ 18 comfortably fed a family of four (granted my daughter only ate the Teff bread) with generous leftovers. We ordered a veggie combo plus a fish dish. This was one of the only times I’ve ever seen fish on the menu of an Ethiopian restaurant. Flavors were really good. The Teff bread was nice and sour. My only criticism is that one of the dishes (but only one!) was a little too oily.
We didn’t notice anything amiss about the cleanliness like some other Unilocalers. Maybe they’ve cleaned up a little?

My favorite Ethiopian restaurant because the vegetarian combo is always flavorful and spicy, and the chicken and beef are tender and delicious. We like green chicken, doro wat and tibs fir fir. Casual and comfortable with extremely kind servers and cooks, this place feels like home. Great place for groups.

A friend and I had the fish with spaghetti and it came with a salad. The food tasted good specially the spaghetti. The salad is where the problem existed. The salad dressing tasted stale and definitely was prepared days before. You can taste it in your salad that it isn’t fresh. I have been sick after eating here going to the restroom several times a day. I believe the cleanliness of the way the food is prepared is a serious issue that needs to be evaluated with the food authorities. There is no hot water to wash your hand as well. Is that how the whole restaurant is operated? without hot water? No wonder why I got sick. Please prepare your food in a clean manner.

The first Ethiopian place I’ve seen fish on the menu — nice! Friendly service too.
On the downside, everything was very oily and didn’t seem too fresh. Worst of all, a cockroach running across the sink in the washroom. Good thing the kitfo wasn’t available that day.

This was a wonderful casual spot for some great Ethiopian with truly friendly service. This is not the place if you’re wanting to dress up or want a nice night out, it’s a tasty, inexpensive, hole-​in the wall restaurant.
My boyfriend and I had their vegetarian sampler platter and a lamb dish. I would highly recommend the vegetarian sampler as you get to try about 5 different dishes. Ordering the sampler and another meat dish was PLENTY for 2 people and could have easily fed 3 or 4 (we brought leftovers home). They also give you plenty of injera with your meal and have tasty African beers!

Excellent lamb a very friendly and helpful server the owners came and said hey they were very friendly as well I loved the experience and will definitely be back

I always forget to write a review because I’m so full and ready to go to sleep after leaving lol. I LOVE THIS PLACE if I’m not eating my mom’s hone cooked Ethiopian food this is where I come to. Everything on the menu is amazing and the price is ridiculously cheap and the service is great. I always get the fried fish and beg tibs spicy one oh sometimes the venue combo. In the past I have ordered the pasta and fish like I said no matter what is ordered it’s going to be great. Both the owners husband and wife are amazing chefs go try it for your self.

Never failed since the day they open. I’m glad to be able to eat such delicious fried fish at a very decent price.

Really tasty Ethiopian food. Best I’ve ever had. Put down what your doing and head over for a feast!

I thought the Asa Gulash was wonderful. The service is great but the place seems a little bit dirty and it had a strong smell of spice as we entered the restaurant. I still think it’s worth it because the quality of the food is great and they give a lot for the price.

the food here is delicious and really reasonably priced. I would recommend sharing the veggie combo (its huge and like $ 9)
me and my boyfriend got this to share and still had leftovers.

I looked for and did not see any cockroaches.
The place needs a serious paint job, and floor cleaning.
That said, the service was very nice. The food was excellent. I had the Asa Gulash which was excellent. The injera was excellent and well fermented. I thought the food value was very good (excluding the physical condition of the restaurant itself). I’d give 4.5 stars if it was cleaner and kept in better or even reasonable physical condition.

I’ve been here a few times, each time hoping it’s better than the last and then my hopes are dashed (a hope-​clone of my desire to like KFC when I was a kid.)
To my senses, their main seasoning is Italian dressing. You know, the powdered stuff popular in the 70s & 80s that came with a cruet in which to mix in the oil, vinegar, and water? That’s the overarching flavor of the foods and that’s what I smell on my upper lip the rest of the day after eating here. It’s disturbing, actually.
I’m more likely to eat at the worst Magic Dragon I’ve been to, up the street. And that place is terrible.
Sorry, Chef Café, Next time just use the plain MSG as an enhancer.

It pains me to write the review because the food here is so delicious. However, my experience today ruined everything that is good and wonderful about this restaurant.
As my boyfriend and I were finishing our lovely lunch this afternoon a cockroach ran across the table in front of me. I freaked out, and in the process managed to kill it. I called the waitress over and explained what happened. I even showed her the dead cockroach! She grabbed the napkin, walked away, and then came back with the bill. She said they have sprayed, but the cockroach came out because it smelled the food.
I have never been so grossed out in my entire life. I have felt sick to my stomach all day. If this is happening in the dining area, what in the world could be happening in the kitchen?!?
I would have at least expected the owner to come and apologize and perhaps comp my meal. However, neither happened. There were no apologies, but instead dirty looks from the kitchen as I paid the bill.
There is no excuse for cockroaches in a food establishment… especially running across the table while I am eating. I will be contacting the health department tomorrow and I don’t recommend eating here until this issue is taken care of.
Sadly, I will never be coming back to this restaurant.

If they didn’t have roaches I’d consider returning, especially after my last visit. Oh Chef Café, how I crave you :(

Do NOT eat here! A friend and I went today and assumed it was a seat yourself restaurant because nobody approached us to be seated.
We selected a table and the other patrons stared at us the entire time. We looked over the menu and decided we would order the vegetarian sampler, which is my general go to at Ethiopian Restaurants. After choosing our meal we placed the menu back on the table, which we thought was the universal symbol that we were ready to order. We waited for at least 10 minutes and were not even acknowledged by staff members!
To add insult to injury we noticed an unidentified insect, which very closely resembled a roach, crawling across the floor.
Needless to say we immediately left without placing an order. Horrible service and could use some help in the cleanliness department as well. I wish I could give zero stars…

We went here for dinner as a group of 5 tonight. The service was friendly and the food excellent.
We started off with a Katenga which is an injera, toasted until it’s crisp and chewy, coated with clarified butter infused with ginger and spices and berbere – a mix of spicy spices typically including chili peppers, ginger, cloves, coriander, allspice, rue berries (from an evergreen subshrub), and the caraway-​like ajwain. It was absolutely delicious. Must try.
We ordered the daro tibs (chicken) and the yebeg wot (lamb) to share among 2 and 2 veggie combos among the other 3. My friend and I who were very hungry devoured the chicken and lamb and had about 3 injeras between the 2 of us. The other barely managed to finish half an injera each and we had plenty of leftover veggies to pack to-​go. Each entrée comes with 3 injeras which I do think is just too much for one person to finish.
The chicken and lamb both were delicious; spicy and bursting with flavor they are definitely worth a try. It also comes with some crumbled cheese and an iceberg lettuce salad. The veggie combo had a lot of variety and was not too bad but lacked that spicy «wow» that the meat dishes had. A lot milder but pretty flavorful.
Overall I’d say this place has excellent food, massive portions, affordable prices, cheerful staff and a very friendly chef. Will definitely love to go back here sometime.