My wife and I eat here quite regularly — it’s a wonderful little family-owned restaurant located on Broadway, about twenty metres east of Fraser Street. The owners are a treat, sharing huge smiles and warm hearts for everyone who comes through the door. Often, the daughter of the house will play (don’t worry, she’s quiet!) in the corner while mom and dad shuffle back and forth from the kitchen to the front of house.

We tend to have a meat dish and the vegetarian combination (a huge plate of flat, sour bread called injera with five different dishes). A couple of our favourites are gomen (steamed spinach with onion, garlic and ginger), doro wat (chicken stew) and shiro wot (pureed chick peas in berbere sauce).

I recently tried Tej for the first time. It’s a honey wine, similar (sorta) to the honey mead popular in Europe a few hundred years ago. The first taste was intense, but after that, yum!

For value, Fassil is outstanding. Our last visit, we shared the veg combo, for just $11, and were both happily stuffed to the gills. A table of four can easily get away with just ordering three entrees; with a beer each, tax and tip, it will still come in at around sixty bucks. For not much more you can throw in the strong, but lovely coffee (I recommend the extra dollar for the ‘ceremony,’ which includes a pleasantly pungent incense.)

Fassil Ethiopian is located on E Broadway near Fraser st. – a shady part of town according to my friend Chrissy. I had read great reviews of this place on Dinehere.ca and it certainly lived up to its rep, from the friendly service to the delicious home cooked food. I had never eaten Ethiopian food before but the place was full of Ethiopian people so surely this is a good sign of its authenticity. We were particularly looking forward to their much talked about TEJ – or home brewed honey mead, but sadly the lady who makes it was not working that night so we had to work with water. As for the food, everything was very tasty. You have to eat with your hands at Fassil and I was expecting it to be very messy, but it wasn’t as messy as I thought, once you learn to pick up the food with the ENJERA they serve. Enjera can best be described as a sour dough crepe with a sponge like texture. Dishes are meant to be shared with the entire table and are served together on a large platter. We ordered a sauteed fish, a spicy beef stew, and a chicken dish. Everything was great, but the fish was outstanding – tender pieces sauteed in NITTER KIBBIE (clarified butter), lemon, onion and green peppers. I don’t even like fish that much but I loved this dish – much to my friend’s dismay since we kept on eating her order. (sorry) I think next time I would like to try one of their vegetables dishes – lentils, chickpeas, spinach – since we ordered too much meat. Another great part of the meal was the bill – this place is cheap! I think we averaged around 15 dollars per person, including tax and a generous tip.