Addis

Way too many people have commented on the terrible service of this restaurant. That is why I find it amazing that people continue to give them too many stars because of how wonderful the food is. I agree that the food is good, but it is not exceptional. In all honesty, and in good conscience, I cannot recommend this restaurant beyond two stars. They are not only atrociously bad on service, they now tell you they don't take credit cards when they bring you the bill at the end of your meal. I have seen several people having to run out to the cash machine to pay their bills. I think it may be worth sending them a message by not rewarding this bad behaviour by giving them the review they deserve.
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Mekuria
2 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Saturday, November 26, 2011

I found Addis when I was waiting for my sister, brother in law and niece who were running late for our lunch date. Well thank goodness they were late because we really enjoyed our visit. We had never eaten ethiopian food before and had no idea what to expect. The flavours were amazing! I don't eat meat and there was a fantastic selection of vege (actually vegan) food. We really enjoyed eating the traditional ethiopian 'bread' which had an amazing lemony flavour and was a real experience to eat. My niece who is 11 months old was made welcome and enjoyed tucking into it too (she is a fairly adventurous child with her food!). The service was very laid back, which meant we didn't feel rushed, but at times we would have liked a bit more attention, for instance when wanting to order coffees, but when being served they were attentive and pleasant. Would definately return and recommend to friends.
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Natalie
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Sunday, September 05, 2010

I've eaten in Ethiopian restaurants in Europe, and they have always been an exotic and chilled-out dining experience. But this is London... where so many tables are squeezed in that you have to interupt the neighbouring table's meal and get them to move their table before you can get out to visit the toilet, and greedy restaurateurs regard employing enough staff as an unnecessary extravagance.

Which is a shame - because the food here was good. It's served on a large, thin crumpet (injera) with extra injera to eat with. I had the cottage cheese and spinach, which was nicely spicy. My boyfriend had the hot chicken stew which had a tasty sauce and also came with a boiled egg (?). (I thought his comment that there was as much egg as chicken was a bit exaggerated - although there was probably more bone than meat...) We also ordered the salad with chillies and the chilies stuffed with tomato and onion - the latter being the highlight of the meal and (at £1 for 2) good value too. 3 main courses was the perfect amount of food for 2 people.

Unfortunately, the service let the side down. The waitress brought me the wrong drink and refused to accept she had made a mistake. In the end she only took away the beer I hadn't ordered when my boyfriend pretended I was teetotal and the beer was offending my religious sensibilities! It took her ages to bring me my juice and she repeatedly ignored my boyfriend when he tried to order another round of drinks later on. When the bill came I had - surprise, surprise! - been billed with for a beer instead of a juice. They'd also added up the items wrong, so we had effectively been overcharged twice. The waiter was very ungracious about sorting the matter out and we still ended up being slightly overcharged - although we didn't leave a tip.

This restaurant is badly understaffed and although the whole 'eating with your hands thing' is fun, arguing with the waiting staff isn't... I won't be back.
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Scranhunter
6 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Sunday, May 09, 2010

My husband and myself went to this restaurant in London some time last year and we found their meat not as fresh as we expected it. When we tell the waitress about the situation, she seemed to take it so personally and was very irritated. She even suggested that we can go to other Ethiopian restaurants.The restaurant managers should make sure all their employees get training on the ABC's of customer treatment and care.
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Mekdes
4 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Thursday, July 23, 2009

Been going here for about 10 years and as ever I love it! The food is traditional, so may not be to everyone's taste, but the large numbers of Ethiopians who regularly go there attests to it's quality. The selection is limited (you won't find steak and chips!) but tasty, and well cooked. The prices are reasonable, especially for so close in to central London. You can ask for cutlery, or eat with fingers and injera (flat bread). Expect a bit of wait as everything appears to be cooked fresh, and in any case it is often busy. The vegetables fascinate me, although if I am on my own one main course is ample, so I usually go for a lamb dish. With freidns I get the chance to sample the vegetables and the fish (odd, not a lot of it but tasty and certainly ... interesting).
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Brian Easton
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Friday, April 10, 2009

Was looking forward to a good meal out in London and the Addis was local so thought we would give it a go. After a 40 minute wait on the food -(early evening and not that busy) our 3 main meals arrived. My vegetarian choice looked more like a side dish than a main meal (approx. £9). It came with a few pitta breads but nothing else. I complained to the waitress and asked if there was anything else to come. She seemed totally disinterested and just handed me a menu but never came back.When we got the bill I complained again about the poor quality and quantity of our meals but again she just said that was what they were and made no apology. Never again!! Don't go if you are at all hungry, very poor service and not cheap.
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1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Friday, March 06, 2009

From previous experience of Ethiopian restaurants, I've always found the vegetarian options very imaginative, something that Addis also claims in the notes on their menu. That said, when we asked if there was a vegetarian sharing platter for two people (like the one they offer for meat eaters) we were told this was not possible. This seems a bit unhelpful, particularly given that many people will not be familiar to Ethiopian cuisine and keen to try more than one dish.

The food itself was decent, albeit not quite as good as other places we've tried, but the slow and inattentive service really let the place down. This was probably largely because there were only two members of staff on a busy Friday but the result was that getting their attention was near impossible - it took a long time to place our orders and a even longer time to get the bill, even though there was a queue of people waiting for tables.
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JFS
6 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 7
Saturday, February 14, 2009