Posted by Jim at February 5th, 2005

Prior to moving to Grand Rapids, my experience of Ethiopian food was non-existent. Up until five years ago, the same could be said of virtually all Grand Rapids residents (in fact, now that I think of it, that’s probably still true). Nonetheless, relatively speaking there’s been an explosion of Ethiopian cuisine in Grand Rapids.

“Explosion” may be an overstatement in that Grand Rapids has gone from having zero Ethiopian restaurants to having two.

For those of you who have never had Ethiopian food, I’ll mention a couple basic facts about the cuisine. First of all, you eat with your hands. There are no utensils. You rip off pieces of injera (a flatbread similar to a pancake), grab the food with it, and place it in your mouth.

The food ranges from vegetarian (beans, cabbage, squash) to meat (lamb, beef, chicken). More often than not, it turns out to be stew-like and can be quite spicy.

There are only two Ethiopian restaurants at present, but I’ll list all three that have ever existed in Grand Rapids:

Gojo Ethiopian: Located on Monroe mall, Gojo served a mix of meat and vegetarian entrees. Unfortunately, the owner of the building in which Gojo was located wanted to redocorate and told them to find a new place when their lease expired. They decided to close instead.

Little Africa: Located at Diamond and Fulton, Little Africa serves vegetarian food only. This is not because the owner is vegetarian. Loul Negesh (the owner) just isn’t convinced that it would bring in enough business to justify the expense. Little Africa’s the first place I ever ate Ethiopian food. I never missed the meat.

Ibex Ethiopian: Located in the strip mall on Kalamazoo near 44th street, Ibex serves both meat and vegetarian entrees. Kristen and I got take-out from there last night. It’s good. I may say more when I’ve had a chance to experience more of their menu.

One great thing about Ethiopian restaurants in general is that they’re pretty cheap places to eat. Entrees range from 5-10 dollars and you’ll definitely get full on even the cheapest meal.