Fasika

I love this place and miss living right down the street. Still dreaming of their vegetarian platters…

I love love love this place. I used to live right around the corner on Allison, and I came here once or twice a week for the incredibly cheap food and friendly service.
My then-​boyfriend and I would get a veggie lunch combo, which came with 5 or 6 veggie dishes and definitely cost less than ten dollars. We almost always got a third meal out of our leftovers.
I’ve never liked the little salad Ethiopian restaurants often serve with their veg platter, so they happily substituted another dish for it. Cabbage and carrots was fantastic, and is reliably my favorite Ethiopian food. Berbere lentils and yellow split peas were perfect, the rotating other sides were reliably yummy. Their injera is perhaps the best I’ve ever had. Overall, the food is so flavorful — not just spicy, but flavorful. Injera is soft and fluffy but can stand up to the food.
In a city with tons of Ethiopian restaurants, I really think Fasika is the best one. Tiny little hole in the wall with basically no ambiance, but the staff (a mom and two daughters, I think) were always so friendly and lovely. Highly, highly recommend this lovely little neighborhood place.

This is some of the better Ethiopian food I’ve had in a very long time, and I live in Silver Spring, the land of Ethiopian restaurants. It was super flavorful, well cooked, but not overdone, and overall just very tasty. It’s well priced and never crazy crowded, so easy to get in and out of the restaurant. Highly recommended!

I cannot believe I havent written a review for Fasika, as her & my Ethiopian beautician who has a salon one block away from here, are very good friends. And, as many times as I have come there, she has hooked me up with dishes that she intends to try on the public in addition to my order that I may’ve already placed! I have gone here COUNTLESS times after leaving the hair salon or if I just want some good A$$ Ethiopian food! I will travel to Fasika’s over Dukem any day! I am just so mad that I live so far away & she is not closer! :-)

Best Ethiopian food. All the usual suspects plus some great stuff I haven’t seen other places (lentils with some kind of horesradish sauce for example, delish). Also great baklava. But what really puts it over the top is the great service. Where ever your home is it will feel like home. If you’re in Petworth don’t hesitate.

Amazing food and amazing folks who work there! I always go with the vegetarian platter; such a delicious array of flavors and types of veggies/​proteins (3 types of lentils, green beans, greens, spinach, potatoes, etc).

I’ve never (EVER) had «bad» Ethiopian food nor «bad» customer service while dining at Ethiopian restaurants, so Fasika instantly earns cool points for their intensely flavorful dishes and warm service-​with-​a-​smile. Not to mention, the distance from my front door to theirs is a cakewalk – a total neighborhood dining staple for a quick alternative to cooking, delivery, and sit-​down dining (I’ve only dined-​in twice out of seven or so visits). I simply call-​in my order and walk over for pick-​up when it’s ready. Nice. Easy. Yummy.
So why only four stars? Cuz I’m the BIGGEST FAN of clean restrooms – they’re the unsung, unofficial spokesperson for an establishment – and, unfortunately, Fasika’s flush facility could use some, um, brushing up, wiping down, and disinfecting. In the mind of an analytical consumer like me runs the antagonizing question, «Does the restroom in any way mirror the kitchen?» Dear God, I pray not.

There’s lots of Ethiopian in DC, so you gotta be good. The server was really nice but a bit slow at times. It’s a neat combination of restaurant and café — one person was chilling with the free wifi. The food was OK. Just to make sure I wasn’t being unfair, I actually ordered a big take out for a house party a few weeks later. Again, the food was pretty good — but that’s about it (and there were Africans among the guests). The value for the catering order was very good, although the salad was small and uninteresting… lots of iceberg lettuce involved.
My advice: change where you get your ingredients even if you have to charge a little more. In this up and coming strip of restaurants, people will take notice. I’d like this place to succeed, but they need a nudge.

I eat Ethiopian food at least once a week, so I’ve been around. I don’t understand why Fasika isn’t crowded every minute of every day. For starters, the food is almost free. I asked if I could order a side for my toddler and the owner said she’d just give it to me. The food is really good. It’s not as good as Dukem or Addis Ababa in Silver Spring, but it’s at least as good as Queen Makeda, Etete, Abysinia, Lalibela or Langano, which are good but twice the price. Sure, it’s not cozy, has ugly furniture, and instead of Ethiopian music you dine to the soundtrack of the DC Lotto, but when two people can eat good food for $ 14, the rest is manageable. It’s clean, the bathroom won’t make you gag, and the owner and staff are super friendly and fast. We get the veggie combo and it’s well worth it. Highly recommend!

Went to Fasika last night with four family members. We’re not Ethiopian food connoisseurs, but we know our way around injera. Compared to similarly priced places that I’ve tried, Fasika was unimpressive. Some of the foods were lukewarm — others were absolutely delicious. If you’re local, it’s a cheap place to get reasonable Ethiopian, but I wouldn’t travel past another restaurant to get here.
The atmosphere deserves mention as well: awful. On Saturday night from 7:30 to 9pm, we were the only seated customers. One or two takeout orders were filled, but other than that, it was like eating at a greasy-​spoon pizza place. The bathroom was smelly and dilapidated and some of the chairs were torn. Not a date spot, unless you’re being ironic.
I hope Fasika improves and earns its way to more customers and better ratings!

Seriously one of the best ethiopian restaraunts i have ever been too. The food is amazing, the service is gret, the portins are huge, it’s cheap. What more could you ask for?

Great find — they have an awesome vegetarian combo dish. Service is fine — the staff are friendly but are not attentive (which I actually like). They also have great coffee.

This place is nice and is vegan friendly, but there is not very much seating. However, because it’s wicked close to my neighborhood, which is lacking Ethiopian options (though they’re plentiful north and south of me), if I’m hungry hungry and need Ethiopian, this could be a great choice.
The service is friendly, but not attentive.
The atmosphere is laid back, but not traditional.
The food is satisfying — nice lentil sambusa, good spice and some potatoes, not all pastry, thankfully. The vegetarian combination is good, but the salad was, well, awful. That salad + lack of attention to our needs (there were only 4 tables of people there) gives it 3 stars. BUT, the food was very tasty other than the salad. I really liked the kik alicha and the tikil gomen, yum! The mesir wat also had a greater depth of spice (not heat but flavor) than probably any other place in DC; it was not hidden behind saltiness and heat, which was nice. The shiro wat was also pleasantly spiced, bringing paste-​like food to another level, thank you.
Also, the amount of food was fair, but not as plentiful as some other places. Don’t get me wrong, we were still totally stuffed! Plus, the price here for 2 people ordering a vegetarian combination was super fair. It’s definitely a steal for 2 people to eat here. Pricing for sambusa — way cheap ($ 2 each?)!
Will I be back? If the price were lower, definitely, as I would use this place for takeout for 1. For 2 people in a bind — yes, I would go here, or if I’m feeling like I want a good deal without a coupon. For ambiance? No. For service? No. For 1-​person convenience when hungry and pressed for time: yes.

Best Ethiopian chicken I’ve eaten. Ordered that and the vegetable dishes not-​spicy for the kids — which the kind people at Fasika were able to do – but the food was very flavorful and delicious. A welcome addition to the neighborhood!

By far the best Ethiopian food and inexpensive. I would recommend fasika to anyone!

If you want another reason to start hanging out in Petworth, Fasika’s is a great place to go. It’s the first Ethiopian restaurant I’ve ever been to, and boy was it quite an introduction to the feast.
Let me start by saying that Petworth is starting to get nicer restaurants in the area, like Domku. The ambience in this establishment needs a little work, with few tables scattered around. It’s fairly dimly lit, which is nice if you want to have someplace a little romantic. There are only five tables when you enter, so you know that it’s a restaurant just starting to get its feet wet.
The food… oh the glorious food. We had the special — the veggie combo and the Awaze Tibbs (lamb). For two people, this was a heck of a lot of food! Check out the picture… it was beautiful. The injera is made at the restaurant, so it’s fresh and very fluffy. We made it through half of the meal before we gave up…
If you’re looking for service, however, this place isn’t it. We went early on a Sunday evening, and the only customers there, and the service took forever. So go if you want great ethiopian food, for a great price, it’s awesome.

Hello amigos,
I have been to Fasika’s a couple of times because I am addicted to her tea. She adds some sort of cloves or something. I also tried her food and it’s amazing ethiopian food and at an affordable price. Will definitely go there again.

Pros: I like to support little neighborhood shops like this one. The owners also run the Uneeda Market convenience store at 4400 Georgia, and you can buy big packages of freshly made injera at either place. Plus, it’s cheap – it was $ 23 including tax+tip for 2 people – veggie combo platter, juice, and sambusa appetizer.
Cons: They don’t have a lot of business, so some of the food didn’t taste very fresh.

Dude, love it when I discover a new joint in my «little hood that could.» Literally around the corner too!
I had the Awaze Tibbs-​Sauteed strips of Beef cooked with onion, tomato and awaze paste (Hot and Spicy). Boy was it yummy, spicy and a lot of food.
Service was a little slow but it’s all good because I can smell and hear them cook it in back. If that’s not freshness I don’t know what is! For the space that they have, they did a good job with the décor, with vibrant colors and kept clean. Wonder if the owners live there too?
Truly hope this place does well!