I love Ethiopian food, and often have found some of the best of it at Dukem. The place does a particularly nice job with combination platters – usually for around $11, you can try out anywhere between three and seven dishes to see whether you like them.
My friends and I picked up 2 combo platters and another dish Friday evening. I can say that I enjoyed every dish I sampled. As a rule, you can’t go wrong with tibs – beef or lamb marinated in various sauces. We tried the goden tibs, short ribs in a light marinade. While not the most convenient of dishes to eat sans utensils, the steak-like little bites were delicious, slightly crispy and flavorful. We also tried a combo platter with lamb wot, a spicy stew, as well as minchet and regular tibs. Outstanding, though the wot’s later impression wasn’t as favorable as the first few bites.
Particularly high praise should go to the vegetarian combos that Dukem offers. I tend to shy away from vegetarian dishes at many places just because I’m not sure they’ll be assertive enough for me. Here, the variety of flavors and choices left me more than satisfied. I’d recommend the veggie combo #3 – it’s one of the only ways you can sample Dukem’s delicious chickpeas in spicy sauce, which I’ll take over hummus any day.
All the dishes come with Dukem’s injera, which is fluffy with just the right touch of sourness. The honey wine is a bit sweeter than other varieties I’ve had, and I’d probably order a less cloying beverage on my next visit.
If only our service had matched the efforts from the kitchen. Flagging down a waitress was a constant problem, and there was a particularly long delay for drinks and between drinks and our main course. In addition, a friend’s mixed drink was served in a broken glass with mysterious black flecks floating inside. My restaurant standards are usually food-driven rather than service-driven, so it wasn’t enough to put me off the place, but a friend was definitely less than impressed. You’ve got a wonderful product here, Dukem. Sell it like it deserves to be sold.
Dukem
U St and 12 St NW
Washington DC
202-667-8735
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23Oct
7 Responses
You’ve sold me. I’ve been meaning to get here forever – good excuse.
I was at Dukem on Friday night myself. We made a reservation, were seated promptly, and ordered a vegetarian combo. I’m not sure which one it was because we had along an Ethiopian friend who ordered for us in Amharic. I had a nonvegetarian combo from Meskerem last Friday night, so it’s tough to compare, but I tend to prefer the nonmeaty dishes.
I go to Dukem a lot and order the veggie platter with fish. The fried fish is only $2 extra. 🙂 I don’t like their honey wine either.
Oh…make that $4 extra for fish. I was thinking of Etete…which is my preferred ethiopian place now.
Dear god. DC is the only place that allows Ethiopian food to have any credibility. Ethiopian food looks like someone vomited on your plate and gave you sour, wet sponge bread instead of utensils. Then you eat it, and it tastes worse than it looks. Then at the end, you have to pay for it! Jesus christ DC food is a joke.
Sandra, while there’s certainly no reason to argue with you over whether the food is enjoyable – we all have our own tastebuds – it’s not really true that DC’s the only place that legitimizes it as a cuisine. Sure, it’s probably more prevelant here than elsewhere, but there are certainly respected Ethiopian restaurants in NYC and LA, to name two locations. It took awhile for it to grow on me, but now I love it. Maybe you should give it another shot!
Has anyone eaten at Cactus Cantina (Wisconsin Ave., NW, DC) recently? I was there last week and for the first time ever I was dissapointed with my enchilladas. They changed their sauce, it tasted BBQ-ish. Anyone else noticed this lately? I was going to say something but didn’t. Maybe there was a mistake in the kitchen that day.