Addis Red Sea Ethiopian Restaurant

Reviews 3

SA

Sachin Sawe

Overall: Okay, Service: Not good!, Kid Friendly: Totally not! -Takes a long (more than 30 minutes) time to receive the food after you place the order. We visited on Sunday evening. There was hardly any customer so its not like they had lots of requests or anything. -Totally Kid Unfriendly. Did not have plastic cups for kids. We asked the waiter for plastic cups, because kids might land up breaking a glass mug. He said no problem. He then asked us,"do they do the same at home?" Of course he does not have experience with kids :) -Restrooms were not pleasant. Locks from inside were questionable if they worked :( One has got to go downstairs for restrooms. This can be an issue if you have anyone with disability or older person who cannot probably walk up and down to go to the rest room. This wasnt a case with us but good to know. There was also something stinking downstairs near rest rooms! -This restaurant has a strange policy they mention on their menu card. This is that if you dont order enough for party of X. (Meaning say X entrees for X people). then they charge you extra $7 for a shared dish. This is really bad! Many a times you would have people in your party for e.g. children or anyone with not so great appetite and you would not want to order too much anyway. And its not like we order a Buffett. For Buffett it would be understandable, if restaurant says that one must order as many as there are people in your party. For us, this was not a problem because we did land up ordering as many entrees as adults in our party. However, I clarified their rule before we ordered because we had two kids with us. We generally dont order any individual dishes for kids unless we know they are super hungry and they are going to eat what we order. Otherwise it really goes waste. In case, watch out for this rule and if you go there,clarify before you order. -Their cash register was not working. However they tell us this only in the end at the time of billing. The lady said to us, sorry, our system is not working so cash only please. I had to go out to the ATM to get cash. -Can you believe the lady asked for the tip! As I come back from ATM I went to pay at the cash counter. I was thinking of leaving the tip in their basket before leaving so paid the lady only the total amount. I could not believe the lady asked me "And the tip?" I understand I would be expected to leave the tip. But if I am not happy I may choose not to tip either. In either case I was going to leave the tip in the basket but did not expect her to outright ask me for the tip. I told her well I was thinking of leaving it in the basket. Since she asked I paid her right there. Positive: FOOD was really tasty ! Its only for the FOOD that I gave this restaurant 3 stars. Otherwise I would have given zero or 1 star. Throughout the time we were there, there was no one paying attention to the customers. Ladies at the cash counter were busy on their cell phones all the time! Bottom line: If you dont care for service and kid friendliness then visit this place as their food is really nice. But otherwise its all thumbs down!

A

A Private User

Best to fly to Ethiopia. My friend and I found this restaurant through an online search for ethiopian in Boston. This review is intended for the branch location in Cambridge. Addis was the first listing on goodle, and so decided to give it a shot because of the 4+ star review this place recieved. I must say I was very dissapointed and felt decieved by this rating. We traveled through a snow storm, and got ice crystals engraved in my face but decided to continue the quest for some Doro Wot. We finally got there soaked, cold, and ready for some Doro Wot. We were escorted down the stairs to an enclosed space with no windows, where diners were shoulder to shoulder. I could hear the conversations on both ends, and I felt very distracted by all the gossip. The waiter came in with two glasses of water in two random mismatching glasses (looked like it came from someones kitchen...was a bit weird), but I did not give it much care because I was very excited to get the Doro Wot that I had risked getting frost bite for. I could not wait to order and get my tummy filled with that yummy. I also could not wait to get my hands dirty with the Injera and dip it in my Dodo Wot. Unfortunately, I did not get the opportunity to get a sniff or taste of the Dodo Wot becuase the service sucked. I felt invisible, and the waiters passed by many times and did not offer to get my drinks or ask if I am ready (which I was born ready for that Doro Wot). My friend and I waited for a good 30 minutes before we decided that our stomachs could not hold anymore...so we put on our coat, hat , gloves, scarf and went up the stairs to leave. The guy at the door who seats people did not smile, talk to us, or ask us how our meal was. We had to seek him out and say there was no doro wot for us tonight because of no service. He offered to give us a free appetizer, but at that point we lost our appetite for doro wot and any ethiopian food. Bottom line, I wish I had the opportunity to taste the food, so I cannot be a judge of that...but the service was very poor. I would not reccomed this place to anyone...I hear there are ehtiopian restaurants going the other way on Mass Ave...perhaps I can get my doro wot there sometime. Another thing I did not like, was that on the menu they said they would charge an extra $7 if you wanted to share a dish. This is not right..unless they were planing to put more food on that plate. If you want culture and ehtiopian delights, then I recommend that you fly to ethiopia and back. It will probably be faster and cheaper (not including the ticket) that wasting your time and money at this place.

A

A Private User

Very disappointed. Ive been to one of the best Ethiopian restaurants: The Blue Nile in Berkeley, CA. Ive also been to many in the Fairfax district in Los Angeles. I live in Boston now, and wanted some great Ethiopian food so I gave this a try. Dont waste your time. This is some of the most bland food Ive ever tasted from ANY restaurant. Its almost like they are not adding spices anymore in the bad economy, to save expenses. My grandmothers dish was served cold, literally cold. I know it wasnt supposed to BE cold because I got the same thing in the vegetarian sampler and mine was warm. The chicken dishes are so bland and thoroughly unappetizing I felt sorry for the place. There was ZERO seasoning of any kind. Just torn up pieces of dark meat and gristle with some wet looking tasteless "sauce". I could have made something tastier at home. The vegetarian dishes were boring, collard greens needed some extra umph, lentils barely had any flavor and no sauce to them at all, just a pile of lentils. The cracked wheat was just okay. The "chickpeas" were a cold crumbly mess of what looked like hardened cottage cheese. I thought I was getting chickpeas? The chairs were way too hard, and the food took too long to get to us. The only good thing was that we found a parking space right outside the front door (parking on the side streets is allowed only by permit). Anyway, I will not be returning to this restaurant. THOROUGHLY disappointed. And to think we drove into the city for this!