The Twin Cities are blessed with an abundance of Ethiopian restaurants. Unfortunately, some of them suffered major property damage in the recent unrest. Addis Ababa on Lake Street and Bolé in St. Paul were both destroyed by fire. The latter exceeded its $100,000 fundraising goal to rebuild (heck yeah, Minnesota! 👏); we haven’t heard about fundraising efforts for the former yet. Fasika in St. Paul was impacted as well, but has since reopened at 50 percent capacity.
Another 🇪🇹 eatery that flies a bit under the radar is Meseret Ethiopian Restaurant on Minnehaha. It’s a one-woman show named after owner Meseret Asfaw, who does all the cooking, serving, and phone answering. Asfaw used to run an African grocery store in Minneapolis but transitioned to food service less than a year ago.
Her cooking is some of the most delicious we’ve eaten since moving to Minnesota. It’s so layered with flavor — like, good luck saving leftovers. Our go-to order right now is a veggie platter for two, plus sambosas and lamb wot (extra spicy, please). The Meseret dining room opened at half capacity on June 10, but it’s still running a tight takeout ship. We highly recommend supporting this immigrant woman-owned small local business! Your mouth will thank you. 😋
Meseret Ethiopian Restaurant
3867 Minnehaha Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN; 612-354-4419.
