Baltimore Restaurants

Kitchen Nightmares Special: Cafe Hon - Hampden, Baltimore 21211

2011-11-16T04:01:00.001-08:00

I hadn't visited this restaurant for a couple of reasons, it looked tacky and I had not heard anything nice about the owner. The food was supposed to be ok, but I could not get passed the door.

I heard that Gordon Ramsey was going to film a Kitchen Nightmare at Cafe Hon and I could not resist getting a reservation. I really like Ramsey's shows, and I was excited to get a glimpse of the famous chef and try out some of his recipes.

I went with a good buddy of mine, and left the wife with the little one (the main reason I've not been blogging much recently!). We had to wait outside for a while, but were treated to close ups with Chef Ramsey and Terrell Suggs, a Baltimore Ravens American football player. Ramsey said hello to everyone as he was rushed back and forth by the production crew. You could sense everyone's excitment at seeing the Kitchen Nightmares, Hell's Kitchen and Mater Chef star.

The line took some time to die down and for it to be our turn to be filmed entering the restaurant. I doubt we'll be shown on TV as the lady in front of us, turned and waved at the camera. D'oh. But getting on TV wasn't the main reason for going to Cafe Hon.

As I mentioned, I've not eaten at the restaurant before, but I have definitely looked inside and previously I ran the other way. I don't mind kitsch, but before it looked too much. Fortunately, Ramsey's team kept the fun nature of Cafe Hon, brightened it up and refined it. Gone are the dead Flamingos hanging from the ceiling, and other tat that looked like dust traps. There are nice murals on the rear wall, that pay homage to winners from Hon fest. It is a fun place to eat, without being over the top.

Apparently, the recipes are all from the Cafe Hon Chef, with Ramsey simply refining and tweaking them. The Chef has a great story, he is young and grew up in the neighborhood, cooking from a young age at various restaurants in the area. Denise Whiting, the owner, gave the guy a shot and has helped him develop his career. I am glad she did, because the food was great.

I had crab and shrimp rolls for starter. You could really taste the crab, which was highlighted with some lemon juice to give it a bit of acidity. The buns were light and the perfect size. A great Baltimore inspired starter.

While we waited for the main course, the waitress brought some fried Oysters. You could tell these were fresh, they were tender and a delight to eat. Whoever cooked those knew how to manage a deep fryer, not an easy task when cooking a delicate morsel like an Oyster.

It took me ages to decide what to have for my main course, everything on the menu sounded really good. But I chose the NY Strip. The steak was cooked very well, it had a nice charred taste, which I didn't expect. It remained juicy and was accompanied by a nice helping of fries. My friend had fish and chips, and surprisingly he had less chips than I did, which I found a little odd. Hopefully, that was just an anomaly.

The restaurant has a decent selection of beer, I was pleased to see the Baltimore favorite Resurrection from Brewers Art on draft. It accompanied my steak very well. But then again, Resurrection can be drunk at any time.

I hope that this is a rebirth for the restaurant, Denise Whiting has 'given back' the word Hon to Baltimore, after a long scandal when she trademarked the name in an ill-advised business decision. The food makes the place worth a visit, and it's a fun and friendly place to visit.

It certainly isn't a Kitchen Nightmare.

Carma's Cafe

2011-10-14T10:55:00.001-07:00

The rise and shine coffee is great but the frittata tasted old, it was dry and grainy. There were also flies buzzingaround which was quite unpleasant.

Given the negatives you'd think I didn't like it, but for some reason I enjoyed the atmosphere and i'm definitely going top give them another chance.

Food, ok
Price, good

Cazbar - Charles street

2009-07-04T16:23:00.001-07:00

Happy 4th. To celebrate the wife and i went to Cazbar on Charles street. I had the okra with lamb, see the picture, the wife had the mousaka. The plates are huge. We took doggy bags home. The lamb was great. Tender and well spiced. The mousaka wasn't the best. It was too greasy, and had way too much cheese. The staff are really great. They can't do enough for you and the food is good. Definitely worth a visit, but i'll probably leave sometime between repeat visits, it wont be on our regular rotation.

The Helmand – 806 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201

2009-04-04T17:56:00.001-07:00

Having been travelling for the last three weeks in East Africa and Kosovo, I was looking forward to a date night with the Wife. Our date nights usually mean a great night out at one of our favorite restaurants.

I was pretty exhausted after a week of meetings, so I let the Wife decide where we would go for our special night out. She has been to the Helmand before with other friends, so she recommended that we head there.

Most of the food I was eating while travelling was grilled Chicken and Chips, Beef Kebabs and Chips, and grilled Fish with Rice. So, I was looking forward to some sophisticated food.

Now, to be honest I was a little disappointed with the food at the Helmand. To start we shared the Kaddo Borawni, a pan fried and baked baby pumpkin seasoned with sugar and served on yogurt garlic sauce. For entrées, I had the Dwopiaza, which is a seasoned tenderloin of lamb cooked with onions, sautéed with yellow split-peas and tossed with onions lightly marinated in vinegar. This is served with pallow rice. The wife had the Chopendez from the daily special. This is a tenderloin of beef, marinated in fresh garlic, Afghan seasonings and onions char-grilled and served with vegetables and pallow rice.

The starter was excellent, it has been a long time since I had something as tasty as that. My appetite was piqued and I was looking forward to the entrées. My lamb came out in a watery yellow gravy. The meat was tender but had very little flavor. I don’t think they seasoned it at all. The rice was well cooked though. Lamb is my favorite meat as it has such a great flavor, but I wont be ordering it at the Helmand again.

I sampled the wife's beef, which was very tasty but the meat was stringy and tough. The beef was full of flavor, it tasted char-grilled, and it was cooked excellently to medium-well. Again, her rice was excellent.

We both had a glass of malbec. The wine was quite nice until we got to the bottom, which was when we realized we were served the dregs of the bottle. I swallowed a load of grit. It was pretty nasty. When we told the waiter, he hardly acknowledged it.

Overall, this was a disappointed experience from what is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Baltimore.

Our Rating:

*** Disappointing

Roy’s - 720 B Aliceanna Street, Baltimore, MD 21202

2009-02-27T04:06:00.000-08:00

Sometimes things line up just right. We’d been waiting for ages to sort out a dog with a shelter. One placement agency wanted $350 for a puppy we had seen online. We saw the same puppy for $175 on another placement agency. Ridiculous, but eventually the little mutt was ours. The same day, we decided we would go to Roy’s, on arriving home we found a nice surprise in our mailbox. It was a Roy’s gift card for $20. Honestly, we had just made the booking that day, so there was no way they had the opportunity to send the card after we made the reservation. The stars were just in alignment!

We’ve been to Roy’s a couple of times before, mostly for the Chocolate Soufflé. This time I went with the fixed price menu. You can’t argue with such a bargain, especially with $20 off! I had Satay Sirloin for the starter, Pork Pot Roast for main, and of course the Chocolate Soufflé for dessert. The wife had the short ribs. We shared the soufflé.

I definitely enjoyed the set menu, it was a lot of food. I dont think the wife would have managed it all, so just main dish was just right for her.

I like to think of myself as a man’s man. I usually choose a pint of beer over a glass of wine. But at Roy’s the cocktails are pretty impressive, so I plumped for one. Of course, I can’t tell you what it was called, I have know idea about cocktails, honest! It had the desired effect though, it seemed strong and was quite tasty. The wife had a glass of the house wine. She enjoyed it.

The clientele is like some of the other restaurants we’ve been to recently, quite a few J Crew wearing Ralph Lauren wannabes. It doesn’t get the trendy’s like some other places. But, the atmosphere wasn’t as stuff as with some of the other recent reviews.

We will definitely be back, even without a Everything was cooked to perfection. The service was excellent, and we hope we’ll get another gift card soon.

Miss Shirley’s - 513 West Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21210

2009-02-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

I am not one for sending cards. My family hate it. They all send me wonderful Christmas and Birthday cards, but for me I don’t see the point. They get put on display for a few days, start to gather dust and you take them down. Then what? Do you recycle them or do you keep them? Imagine the massive pile of cards some people must have stored up. Will they ever read them all? My guess is no. People who display them for just a few days and then recycle them don’t look at them again either. So, what is the point?

Valentine’s Day is one of those days when we all feel obliged to give cards. They say this is to show love for one another. The cards don’t show that. They say, “I am unoriginal and feel the pressure of the media to give you this card”. It will get read once and then put in the trash.

Having said that, the wife loves receiving cards, so I HAD to get her one. The card itself meant nothing, but the what I had written inside was pure poetry! I can be smooth when called in to action.

Besides from the cheesy cards, Valentine’s Day is a great day. The day should be about focusing on your partner, letting them know you prefer them over yourself. That is a weird concept in this day and age, but something that people need to hear. My needs, feelings and emotions matter, but if anything I am doing hurts my partner, then I must prefer their feelings over mine.

And so on Valentine’s Day we went to Miss Shirley’s and I did something that I abhor. I shared my brunch with the Wife.

Usually, I tell her that if I wanted to eat what she was eating, I would have ordered it. But on this special day, I decided to prefer my wife over myself.

After reviewing the menu, I decided I wanted the Chicken and Waffles. But then because I was sharing I settled for the Bayou Omelet. The Wife picked a short stack of Banana Pancakes.As would be expected from Miss Shirley’s, the food was excellent and in big portions.

The mixture of Young, Old and Family diners is something that only Miss Shirley’s can pull off. The place feels trendy and homely at the same time.

Some of the Wife’s friends have one or two issues with one of the Waiters, but on this occasion the service was excellent. I don’t recall ever having an issue with service any time I have been there.

We really enjoyed our Valentine’s Day brunch at Miss Shirley’s. Sharing the meal showed my Wife I prefer her over myself. And fortunately for me, the portions are big enough for me to have a regular full sized portion of what I want, and to share the rest!

Our Rating (out of 5*s)

**** Very good, but portion size and calorie content stop us from eating here too regularly!

Petit Louis – 4800 Roland Park Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21210

2009-02-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

Travelling for work is such a pain, means I have to leave my wife, stay in hotels and eat plane food. Usually, I go to developing countries, which means the hotels are not always that great and the airlines serve rubbish food.

This latest trip was to France. I was so excited. I got to fly BA, go through terminal 5 and have good food ALL week.

BA serve the best food out of every airline I have ever flown. It actually tastes like proper food and the have great drinks. The best G&T I have ever had was on a BA flight back from Tanzania. I still remember it. Wonderful.

Every time I fly now, I am only going to fly BA and through terminal 5. T5 is the newest terminal in Heathrow and it is bigger than most airports! You wont believe the shops they have there. And the restaurants are something else. Mind you, I only ate at the Gordon Ramsey Plane Food restaurant. The food was awesome. On the way back I took my boss there. He was blown away by the quality of the ingredients. You might think because it was Ramsey’s restaurant that the prices would be sky high. Well, you would be wrong. You’d pay more for a cup of coffee and sandwich at Starbucks.

While in France we were staying at a ‘Retreat’. Very very relaxing. A large open fireplace in the main room, wine and cheese ‘on tap’ during the evening. We wanted for nothing. The food was homemade and seriously good. Which, besides the time sharing with my colleagues, made the week for me.

So, coming back from France, I was very excited to see the Wife had booked us in at Petit Louis for the night before Valentine’s Day. Who can get enough French food?!

This was our first time. My Sister In-Law came to visit from the Cayman Islands and went to Petit. She was very impressed. It wasn’t looking promising. The wife tried to find new reservations, but given the date, everything was fully booked.

Reluctantly, we turned up at the restaurant. We gave our name at reception and got directed to the busy bar area and told to get a cocktail. Given that we had booked, we didn’t expect to hang around too long, and so we held off the cocktails. What we didn’t expect was the entertainment!

The Head Waiter had to strong arm an older lady out of the restaurant! We have no idea why, but it was pretty funny!

We got sat in a pretty nice spot where we could watch the other diners. This is not our usual crowd. You can tell it isn’t downtown because the pearl necklace brigade was out enforce!

I had the sweatbreads, the wife had magret duck breast. Both were excellent. To drink I had a couple of Bass pale ales, and the wife had the cote de Rhone. Again, both were excellent.

We both enjoyed our food and drink, but the restaurant felt like it was trying too hard. This is a tough one to call, the food was great, but it felt like Disturbia.

Our Rating

**** Excellent Food and Drink. Just needs to be more relaxed.

Marie Louise Bistro – 904 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

2009-01-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been a long time. December was a nightmare for me. I went to Cambodia at the beginning of the month, then back to the US for a few days before flying to Kosovo. It didn’t stop there. For Christmas we decided to DRIVE to Toronto. 9 hours of picking our way through snow and some of the worst drivers in the world. Seriously, how do they get their licenses? And how can some of the rust buckets they drive be allowed on the road?

Some of the road signs were very very funny, like “Watch out for Drink Drivers”. Why should I watch out for drink drivers? Why not say “Don’t Drink and Drive”? Have the police given up trying to STOP people from drink driving, instead we all have to watch out for these idiots?

Anyway, I still haven’t got my US license. I need to get off my butt and get that done. I have no idea why I must go for four hours of drink and drug awareness. It needs to be all the drink drivers who should go. Insane.

Thank goodness for Baltimore Restaurant Week for bringing back some sanity. The Wife and I took the opportunity to enjoy Marie Louise Bistro in Mount Vernon.

This place is fantastic. If you have read my other blogs, you will know I do not rave about anywhere! But this place was great.

We ate off the set menu for Restaurant Week. You can’t go wrong with $30 for three courses. And this place went above and beyond. The service was spot on, friendly but not kiss ass. The food was wonderful. Deserts from Patisserie Poupon, and tea from Harney & Sons. Harney and his boys might not be English, but they still do actually know something about tea.

This is a new restaurant I am actually interested in going back to. Thank you Baltimore Restaurant Week for making it fun to go try new places!

Our Rating

***** Looking forward to coming back.

Tapas Teatro - 1711 N. Charles Street, Baltimore

2008-11-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

I love watching a good movie. I am very excited about the new James Bond film, Quantum Of Solace. The trailers have looked very exciting. Initially, I was concerned about having a blonde guy trying to be the tall dark and handsome Bond that I myself aspired to be. But Daniel Craig's first portrayal of Bond was really engaging. I think this next movie is going to be a cracker.

I know Quantum Of Solace is going to be shown in lots of theatres when it releases, but unfortunately, I do not like the majority of cinemas. The sticky floors, people talking through the movie, and overpriced soda and popcorn. The Wife and I went to watch a movie at AMC Towson Commons once. One girl shouted another down, and asked the B*$%h to step outside. We haven't been back. Thankfully I have been impressed by the growing number of independent and 'boutique' movie theatres that have been arriving in Baltimore.

We really enjoy the old school Senator, it provides a refreashing step back in time. Old school elegance with a hightech (ish) movie experience. The new Landmark Theatre in Harbor East is much more modern, and like the Senator you can take your drinks in to the movie. But I do take objection to drinking out of a plastic cup. So that leaves The Charles Theatre at 1711 N. Charles Street. This is the epitome of cool. They show arty films for film lovers. I don't know what it makes me, I went to see Borat there. But it is a great experience. It is a shame they do not have Quantum Of Solace lined up to play.

I would highly recommend that you visit 1711 N. Charles Street though if just to go to Tapas Teatro.

This trendy restaurant is very popular, and for good reason. The service is always polite and prompt. The drinks are well mixed, with great wine and beer selections. Their tag line, small plates big pleasure, really is true. The quality of ingredients is very difficult to fault. This is a restaurant you can rely on for consistently good food.

The restaurant has just started a new scheme to use local produce. This doesn't only mean the quality of produce can be easily monitored by the restaurant, the menu will be even more seasonal, they will be helping local farmers and their carbon footprint will be reduced significantly. We often forget the thousands of miles our produce often travels and the impact that is having on our environment.

The Wife and I are big fans of restaurants that support local farmers and are environmently friendly.

I chose the Sprouts with Truffle Parmesan sauce, and Lamb Meatballs. The wife chose New Potatoes and Beef Skillet Steak. The wife said the Sprouts were the best she has every had, the new potatoes were fresh and really tasty.

To be honest, I felt a little let down by the steak and meatballs. Often we have the Lamb Cutlets, but we stepped outside our box, and they were not as tasty as the Lamb. Still excellent, but slightly dissapointing for this fantastic restaurant. I felt there was a little too much cumin in the meatballs, and the steak was a little over cooked for our taste.

Overall we love Tapas Teatro, and we know we will be going back time and time again. Maybe next time we will have a meal and then head to the cinema.

Our Rating

**** given our usual experience it should be five.

Kalis Meli - 1636 Thames St, Baltimore

2008-10-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

So, not being from the US Halloween is a bit lost on me. Adults dressing up in costumes and getting so drunk that they can't see. It doesn't really appeal. Don't get me wrong, us Brits know how to drink. But the whole adults dressing up thing, that really confuses me. In Baltimore, it looked like Fells Point was the place to be if you were dressed up as the joker or a slutty nurse.

The Wife and I were grateful for the refuge that was Kalis Meli. The restaurant was a stones throw from all the 'action', but it seemed like a world away. Entering through the patissere, the restaurant and bar area has a very cool and sexy atmosphere. We were invited downstairs to the lounge area which was much more laid back than upstairs. The other diners, were young, hip and sexy. Some of our friends were there too. We decided we could hang out here.

The waitress promptly took our drinks order, the Wife chose a glass of red, and because the place was very cool and sexy I chose a martini. If Bond can get away with it, then surely I can too?

Looking through the seasonal menu, we found it hard to decided what to eat. I went with the Duo of Duck and the Wife went with the Lamb Shank. Very difficult to choose though.

Not long after ordering, our drinks arrived. I don't think James would have ordered my martini. He definitely could have pulled it off. I didn't feel so comfortable drinking from the leopard print glass. Not very macho. The Wife's red wine looked much more manly. After getting passed the glass, the drink was nicely mixed, strong enough to know it was alcoholic but not blow my socks off.

The food didn't take too long to arrive, they clearly have the system well organized. The portions are pretty big, they probably could cut the size down by a quarter and keep people happy. We may then also have room to order dessert.

My Duo of Duck was cooked perfectly. It was juicy and slightly pink. It came with a nice side salad, that had orange marmalade running through it and was topped by a quails egg. Being a duo there was a leg and breast with a rich reduction gravy. The flavours were very well balanced, and I can highly recommend this dish.

Dining with the Wife is great, she is so small it is rare that she finishes a meal. Given the large size of the portions here, I was in for a very special treat. The Lamb Shank was very tender. The meat just fell off the bone. I could eat this everyday. Another meal we could highly recommend.

With the great atmosphere and food, there wasn't anything scary about the restaurant. It was the perfect hide out from Halloween.

The Wife's Rating

****

My Rating

****

* Are you Joking?

** A Horror Show

*** Trick or Treat?

**** Candy Apple Sweet

***** Light my Lantern

India Tandoor - 2101 North Charles St, Baltimore

2008-10-24T17:50:00.001-07:00

The wife went out with girls tonight, Kali's Mezze. I wish I had gone. I was all excited about ordering Indian take-out. I thouhg tI would have a man's night in. Beer, sport and curry. Read how my night went below.

I ordered my food at 19:12 online, they said that the food would be delivered at 19:45. It is now 20:50, so they are an hour late. Very annoying.

Now 21:12 two hours from when I ordered. I have no idea how many times I have called the restaurant but they have stopped answering their phone.

21:30. Still no food. The driver called at 21:20... he would be 3-4 mins. Last time I called the restaurant, they said his cell battery had died. Why lie? Why not just tell me the trough... you can't run a take-out restaurant.

Restaurant called to say they can't refund my purchase. I had given the driver a hard time, the restaurant told me to negotiate with him. No idea what that meant. So I just went off on a tirade about how late he was.

Driver called again, 2-3 mins, that was 21:32. Let's see when he arrives.

21:42. So that is ten mins then?

Open order. Plain rice not the saffron rice as ordered. No garlic naan. Idiots. Giving them a bad review everywhere and phoned foodler to say take them off their site.

Never, ever, order from India Tandoor.

My Rating
No Stars.

Order from India Tandoor on Foodler

Dukem (again!)

2008-10-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

Back to Dukem on Friday. Man, that place is good.

We went with some friends and their 1 year old baby. Because we knew he would get grumpy we decided to have an early dinner. Getting to the restaurant at 18:30, the place was packed! We have been at about this time before and it has been nearly empty. News must be spreading.

Everone had a lot of fun. The baby got stuck in with his hands and a big smile on his face.

The Wife and I had the same thing as last time, our friends had our usual. I was very jealous, the beef tibs are not as good as the lamb. We are definitely going to have the lamb next time (next week?!).

No need to write more about this place. We love it. It rocks. See our previous review.

The Wife's Rating
*****
My Rating
****
* Dukem Schmukem
** Injured Injera
*** Say Wat?
**** Sweet Nectar
***** Fit for the Queen of Sheba

Little Italy - Germano's, 300 South High Street, Baltimore

2008-10-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

So, tonight wife and I visited little Italy for the first time together. We thought we would try Germano's Trattoria on S High Street. We are always excited to try new restaurants.

As you know, we are well travelled. We will try food in any restaurant anywhere. Often, it is 3 hours drive from the nearest town. I am convinced I ate monkey in a small Liberian village. The soda was warm, but the meat was tender, the peas cooked to perfection, and the rice was delicious.

Wife got dressed up today. She put on a very sexy number. Certainly lit up the restaurant.

The hostess at the bar was polite, ish. My accent clearly threw her. But then, I am sure not many Europeans visit Germano’s. She recommended the Chianti Straccali, half price of course. Half price? Well, only if a $9 bottle is worth $36. Which, it isn’t.

We waited, waited a bit longer and then waited more. Eventually, we decided we were hungry and couldn’t wait longer. Ordered the calamari fritti. It was bland, to put it mildly. It came with a tomato based sauce. Actually, I think it was water based. It may have seen a tomato, once. Not that night though.

We ate the entire appetizer. We had waited a long time, and by that time had drank most of the wine.

Taken upstairs, we could not understand why we had been waiting for so long. The place wasn’t packed out, even though the queue outside the door suggested so. In fact, upstairs the place was HALF EMPTY. This was not looking good. Either they were trying to create an ambience in the tired main dinning room. Or the chef wasn’t up to the task.

We sat next to a group of young kids celebrating someone's birthday. They struggled to sing happy birthday and were given some free profiteroles for the birthday girl. They didn't eat them. This should have rang alarm bells, who leaves free profiteroles?

The décor is what you would expect for an Italian restaurant trying too hard. Terracotta walls. Old posters. Sponge worked stencils and the obligatory grimy, dirty carpet.

Reviewing the menu (again), we chose the Seafood Risotto (Wife) and Beef Shank (mine). What we didn’t expect was the bagged salad, with plastic tomatoes, ground pepper and what I am convinced was giant brand parmesan. Wife says it wasn’t even that good.

Finally, the food. I ate half, the wife ate less. Bland. Don’t bother going. We have the left over’s in the fridge. We both said, we don’t think we can face them. I wish we had a dog.

The Wife’s Rating
No Stars

My Rating
* But only for the ‘Half Price’ wine

No Stars: Who do you think you are?
* Really? That's it?
** No Grazie.
*** The Mafia eats here.
**** Luigi and Mario own this place.
***** Si, Si, Si, SI!

Dukem - 1100 Maryland Avenue, Baltimore

2008-10-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Wife and I are creatures of habit. We like things to be done in certain ways. This often leads us to have little arguments. The other week it was about my laundry. The Wife had graciously put my clothes in the wash. But instead of checking the pockets of my jeans, she just threw them in the washing machine. With my passport.

Now, that would have been fine if the passport wasn't just a few weeks old, and I was travelling to Europe two weeks later. To put it mildly we had a little argument about the best way to wash our clothes. I like to throw my clothes in the basket, and then check everything before being washed. She puts clothes in the basket and then throws them in the machine. No checking. Needless to say, I now have a separate laundry basket, and I am responsible for my own washing.

This can be extended to any number of daily tasks in our house. Washing the dishes, cooking, cleaning. We both have our different ways of doing things.

One habit we both share is enjoying the great tasting food at Dukem Ethiopian restaurant. The Wife especially like Dukem, I have the feeling she would go every week if I let her. We did go every week for about five weeks once. Often, eating the same meal. It is that good.

The restaurant has been open for quite a while, they offer authentic Ethiopian cuisine. Thankfully there isn't anything American-ized on the menu. They have a lot of Ethiopians who eat there regularly. A sure sign they know how to cook proper Ethiopian food.

There's not much to look at inside. The restaurant is pretty basic and laid back. No need to get dressed here. The waitresses are very friendly and efficient. Upstairs is quiet, downstairs can get a bit drafty with the busy door opening and closing often.

The Wife usually has a glass of Chardonnay, and I have the Harar lager. Both are excellent. Even the Wife who detests beer, likes Harar.

As I mentioned, we have our favourites we stick to. The Dukem Special Lamb Tibs and Dukem Special Veggie Combo (3). Don't have the fish, that is Dukem's only weak spot. The wife is an Island girl and knows a thing or two about good fish.

The lamb tibs are definitely tastier than the beef ones. I have heard other customers ask to have the jalapenos removed from the tibs. Don't do that. Have them as they come, as the chef intended. You use an Ethiopian bread called Injera to pick up the food. Injera is also spread underneath the food. It sits there absorbing the tasty juices, waiting for you to eat enough to get access to all the sauce.

This is a great social place, also very romantic to be eating with your hands. Become a creature of habit like The Wife and I, visit Dukem regularly.

Grab lots of injera, be brave, dig in and enjoy.

The Wife's Rating

*****

My Rating

****

* Dukem Schmukem

** Injured Injera

*** Say Wat?

**** Sweet Nectar

***** Fit for the Queen of Sheba