[rec!] Kokeb (Ethiopian food in north London nr Caledonian Road)

[kaberett]

So I have some friends visiting, and they have a different friend visiting, and she was craving Ethiopian food, so my friends asked the internet (... in the basement at work where there is internet). They found Kokeb and it is great. It is so, so good.

It is run by auntie, right, who cheerfully self-described to us as "bossy auntie". Auntie went to university in Ethiopia and had her first daughter there, moved to Bulgaria and had her second child and became sufficiently fluent in Bulgarian to work for the Bulgarian government, and then she moved to London and set up an amazing restaurant. As far as we can tell it's an entirely one-woman show; like, she will take orders, check that everybody's ordered everything they want with cheery warnings that if you don't get in now you'll be waiting for a while, and then disappears out back until reappearing Some Time Later with food.

There were four of us; we paid under £40 including tip for Plenty Of Food and also tip.

... food. Food. The "hot and spicy" was well within my tolerance; we had weekend-special-wot (shiro - chickpeas), fule (delicious fava bean thing), ayeb be-gomen (delicious cheese thing), and lots of misc veg - misor wot (red lentil), alicha kik (yellow lentil), spinach, fosolia & carrot (I was so excited about how they use the correct green bean word), ye-atiklt wot (potato carrot misc veg thing), and four injera (delicious sour bread product). We inhaled it all and it was brilliant and we were so happy and it was so good. Like, I cannot do justice to how happy we all were about putting it our faces. I think my absolue favourite was the yellow dal or possibly the fosolia&carrot but I would really not want to have to pick just one thing.

... and as we were leaving auntie hugged us all!! She did not do that to all the customers but like friendpeople semi got into an auntie-off with her and she clearly decided to adopt us a bit? The food was brilliant & she was wonderful & just -- yes, yes I will be going back.

The only thing to be aware of is that she has a fairly strong preference for you to phone ahead so she knows how many injera to make each day so she doesn't run out (and also that the card machine is currently broken so she is cash-only) (and that it is an entirely one-woman show so service is not as fast as it might be if, you know, there was more than one of her) but aaaaaaaah need to find an excuse to go back asap. With company. The better to order EVERYTHING rather than being restricted to just one or two dishes. (Four people seems to be optimum - that way you can get pretty much every veg item on the menu and have the right amount of food without making auntie stick tables together.) So, you know, volunteers? ;)

Comments

[vass]

Mmm, injera. Now I'm hungry.

[aella_irene]

I extremely volunteer

[cosmolinguist]

I wish I could volunteer for this! But I have no idea when I'll even be in London again.

[thatyourefuse]

Why am I trapped in America?

[birke]

Saaaame

[starlady]

If and when I am back in London (hopefully next summer), YES.

[sfred]

Mmm - not sure whether that's the first Ethiopian place I went to in London, when I didn't know London - if so, yes, is marvellous and I would happily go there again. (In the meantime my needs have been more-than-adequately fulfilled by Addis, near Kings Cross, and Lalibela in Tufnell Park.)

If it's not where I've been before, I'd still happily go. :o)

[rmc28]

Oh wow it sounds fantastic.

(when can I get to London next, hmm)

[alee_grrl]

That sounds so amazing.

[me_and]

Volunteer hello yes please?

[kaberett]

GOING OUT FOR DINNER ;)

[happydork]

That sounds amazing -- and right on my daily commute!

[forthwritten]

Well, I suppose I could be convinced to cram as much food into my mouth as possible. It will be tough but I think I'll manage :D

[davidgillon]

Posts like these make me really regret not living in London.

Especially as that's less than I'd pay for anything remotely equivalent in Medway!

[mathemagicalschema]

IF ONLY. I have to head londonwards sometiiiiiime

[swaldman]

This is worth knowing, especially with a recommendation - the only Ethiopian / Eritrean[1] that I knew was the one in Brixton. And, should it happen to fit with times that I was in town, I would gladly go with you :-)

[1] I am sure that the cuisines are not the same to somebody who knows them, but I can't tell the difference.

[ex_we935]

Once we find ourselves in London we must visit (we've had Ethiopian before and have been impressed).

~K.

I looked into the Abyssinian and...

[hairyears]

Oh yes please!