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Overview of Abyssinian, The
Traditional Eritrean Ethiopian
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Related Editorial Content
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User Reviews on Abyssinian, The
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 14 comments
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| Overall |
  
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Highly Recommended |
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Food 8 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 9 |
Value 9 |
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The food is great fun to eat and the portions are very large. We have been travelling to Ethiopia few months ago and we can say this restaurant is a very good example of how the food should be.
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ellie74 -
See my reviews 1 , 21 July 2010
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| Overall |
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Below Average |
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Food 4 |
Ambience 4 |
Service 6 |
Value 3 |
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The food is disappointing as there was evidence of an attempt to make this a dining/cultural experience, the size of serves were meagre, taste and presentation was pretty average as well, considering that matt preston gave them a good crit...I can only assume they have slipped since then or saw him coming and gave special treatment. The non ethiopian sweets aka creme caramel and yogurt with berries were very nice.
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bobymol -
See my reviews 1, 12 July 2010
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| Overall |
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Highly Recommended |
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Food 9 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 8 |
Value 9 |
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Relaxed place, just go for the platter and dig in. I would seriously recommend the kifto (like Ethiopian steak tartar) as an extra. I think of that kifto and sigh! I've been there a few times, staff are always warm and welcoming and the food is consistent. The rich curries are moreish, with delicate but complex spicing, mopped up beautifully by the light and sour injeera bread. Delicious.
Although I must mention that one time our group did find the goat meat a little tough. The platters are deceptively filling, but you will have a scramble at the end for who gets that last bit of curry soaked injeera bread! Some great Ethiopian beer too. Thoroughly enjoyable experience for a group. Those of you complaining about the wine list, injeera bread and 'quirks' whatever that means this is an ethiopian restaurant. Love it.
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genevieveb -
See my reviews 1, 30 June 2010
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| Overall |
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Highly Recommended |
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Food 9 |
Ambience 10 |
Service 9 |
Value 9 |
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What a great place! Inexpensive, very different food, great service, ambience was first class. Everyone was enjoying themselves on the night we were there. We even met the owners [serving in their own restaurant] Easily accessible from Melbourne by tram, fully licensed or BYO wine from a pub just down the road. Forget about the cutlery and just enjoy. The Injera bread is different, a little sour, but blends in beautifully with the assorted curries served on top of the bread.
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Nolawazza -
See my reviews 1, 23 February 2010
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
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| Overall |
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Recommended |
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Food 7 |
Ambience 7 |
Service 4 |
Value 7 |
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My group of three all thought the food was tasty here and the young waitresses were friendly. We all ordered the banquet. Thing is, as my two friends found out, they did not like the injera bread which bulks out the banquet platters. It has a sour taste. This is how it is meant to be as I've seen it made on a documentary. So they ordered more food as they were still hungry.
This place has had a lot of press coverage lately and is a small space so you must book. We would have appreciated it if we booked our own table that we were warned we were going to be put on a shared table with strangers. When the other half of the table arrived we could see on their faces they were not impressed either.
Update: Aug 2009: When I wrote we were sharing a table with strangers we were elbow to elbow with the other people. It was not a detached table and we were under no "illusion". The restaurant's response to my comments are a turn off. It's good that the proprietor is passionate about the business and reads and responds to comments.
Perhaps, less passion and more public relations skills would be better. Try this place if you are looking for something different. Eating Ethiopian was an interesting experience. Hopefully you won't experience some of the other 'quirks' this place has.
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Response from Management:
The injera, our traditional bread, is actually made in a way that is supposed to be a bit sour, and could be a bit strange when first introduced to our food.
That is way we also have, in our menu, rice, which can be ordered at any time.
Although it is not part of our diet, rice goes very well with our food and, being not containing gluten, can easily be eaten by people with Coelic condition.
In regards to the tables, due to the nature of our restaurant, some tables are very near to each.
The table in question is actually detached, but due to the vicinity to another table might give the impression that it is shared.
We will do our utmost to reset the floor in a way that this particular table will be having some more distance from the other table so to have more privacy.
Thanks for the feedback as it helps our business to improve.
Update:
Thanks again for your comments. It was not my intention to offend you by saying that the tables are actually detached and surely i did not say you had an "illusion".
It might be that i do not express myself clearly as English is not my first language.
I cannot imagine why my response would be a turn off to you and i am sorry for that
We did, after your comments, reset the floor and now all the tables are very well detached from each other.
I would appreciate to know what do you mean by "other quirks" my place has.
Would you send me an email at info@theabyssinian.com.au so that i can learn about this other quirks and improve?
Thanks and best regards
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cutesunbear -
See my reviews 34, 26 August 2009
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
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| Overall |
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Not Recommended |
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Food 2 |
Ambience 4 |
Service 3 |
Value 2 |
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What a disappointment this place turned out to be. The food is bland, poor quality and certainly not prepared with love. As food lovers, we went to the Abyssinian hoping to discover the delights of Etheopian cuisine, but left wondering is this Flemington eatery touting bland as the new cool?
The first downfall of the restaurant is the waitstaff speak limited English and are incapable of explaining what the dishes actually consist of. When asked to recommend a few dishes that would give us an overall taste of the cuisine, we were met with an apathetic response of “all of them, maybe you should have the mixed platter”. So we took her advise.
Big mistake, the platter seems to be filled with the poorer of the menu’s dishes, which is most likely boils down to sheer economics. The platter had contained 3 meat options of chicken, lamb and goat. All of which were poorly cooked and bland. The goat was inedible due to the toughness. The platter was a huge disappointed.
We tried to pass on the feedback to the waitress in a very diplomatic and calm manner, but were then confronted by the kitchen staff who became rude and hostile to us simply because we didn’t like her food. The staff and senior staff seem to adopt this arrogant stance of blocking feedback by simply stating “if the food is not so good, then why are we busy”. You get a sense of the senior staffs defensiveness in his response Walter1 below.
To add insult to the poor food and dismal service, the restaurant slogs you $8 corkage per bottle, even through we opened the bottles and poured the wine ourselves. Lastly a good restaurant can always pride themselves on clean bathroom facilities. Unfortunately, the hygiene of the restrooms at the Abyssinian leave little to be desired.
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Response from Management:
We do employ a delightful girl that might not be excellent in English, but that she has a great smile and try her best to give all assistance to all client every night.
She might not know how all dishes are cooked or what kind of spices are there, but she gives her best shot in giving suggestions that can make a client happy, and 99% of the times it works very well.
The suggestion of the platter is obvious as it is designed to give a first taste of our traditional food.
There are 9 different kind of samples in the platter including chicken, fish, lamb, goat, 2 different kind of lentils, cabbage and carrots, pumpkin and salad.
Each of this dishes have a different range of spices; each dish has a taste by itself, original and tasteful.
I would suggest to read a random comment on
http://www.tomatom.com/2009/06/the-abyssinian-freedom-fighter-food-in-kensington/
so to get a complete different prospective from another client (by the way, a food critic) about our food, or from Matt Preston's article on The Age last year, or from other hundreds of comments we get from all kind of people we do serve every day that do appreciate what we do here, despite we might speak good English or not
I do remember this table: three people, two gentlemen and a lady.
I do recall one of them complaining to the waitress about the goat, and only the goat.
The waitress passed the feedback onto the kitchen, prompting the chef, Rahel, to come out so to listen to the complain.
As`soon as she approached the clients, one of them in particular became very vulgar with his language and showed no respect for the chef that, although very busy, found time to come out so to listen to the clients.
The $8.00 corkage per bottle is written into the menu and if the gentleman did not want to pay the fee he should have not opened the bottle.
We do leave the choice to open the bottles and pour the wine by the clients themselves as we did discover thought time that is something the clients appreciate: opening their favorite wines.
The fee is not for the actual act of opening the bottle, but for allowing the client to bring in and enjoy their own favorite wines.
Our establishment is fully licensed, and BYO wine only is an addition so to please the clients.
Our bathroom is usually very clean and we are proud of it; we might, on a very busy night, sometimes be late onto keeping it very spotless, but we do go to out utmost to keep it as clean as possible.
I do remember the tables near by listening to the conversation and actually looking at him in a very surprised way.
To our dismay, one person in particular was very rude and vulgar and also racist towards our culture by saying repetitively "in what kind of country people eat this s...food" , something we do not accept in our restaurant, whatever comments you might have about the food.
I would like to reiterate that out of the three sitting at the table, only one person was continuously speaking and complaining while the other two keep to themselves.
We do understand that the all point was not to give a feedback, but to gain some kind of discount of even not to pay the bill, which he did not obtain and that is way everything now about our restaurant is not up to his standard.
And to his statement just before leaving the restaurant: "Don't you know that the client is always right? " i did reply, and i am absolutely convinced about this: " The client is always right when he is really right"
We do not need this kind of clients in our restaurant.
We do appreciate feedback if they are real and honest, but mainly told in a polite manner which was not the case this time.
And . as a sign in our door strongly states : Racism is not accepted here.
Thanks for not coming back
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goodtaste -
See my reviews 10, 19 June 2009
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| Overall |
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Highly Recommended |
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Food 9 |
Ambience 8 |
Service 9 |
Value 10 |
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Amazing food! And as the owner says "it taste better if you eat it with your fingers'
No cutlery here! just dig into the injera bread and scoop up all the curries that are brought into a very large plate.
The mixed combo is the way to go, whatever number of people you are. Good fun to be with your friends and to enjoy the atmosphere, the African music and the food. Perfect place to pass an evening out in a group, but I'll be back there with my boyfriend for our anniversary.
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fran24 -
See my reviews 1, 19 June 2009
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| Overall |
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Average |
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Food 5 |
Ambience 6 |
Service 6 |
Value 3 |
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This restaurant wants to get your last dollar. BYO corkage is $8.00 per bottle. The owner had to take our bill back because he had only charged for 3 not 4 bottles. Their wine list is not that good. They also charge 15% surcharge over the total bill for public holidays-this is not NSW or QLD. For larger groups they charge an extra 20%!! Most places would be offering a discount for groups and be happy doing so. I can't see why this place always seems to be busy. There are better dining options elsewhere.
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Response from Management:
Corkage and BYO is not a must for a restaurant; it's a choice.
We give a choice to our customers to either use our wine list, which we might agree is not excellent but it is not pretentious too, or to bring they own.
If they do bring their own, they also should appreciate that we are granting them the pleasure to have the wine they most like and we are giving away our potential profit on the wine itself.
We also notice that this customer had given us a 5 for the food, but did not really comment on it; and they base the value at 3 just because of the corkage. We do not think it is fair.
In relation to the 15% surcharge on Public Holidays, it is a very common practice everywhere, and actually although it is written in our policy, we did never applied as we always forget :-)
In regards to 20% additional for larger groups, it is not true and we feel it is not fair to just write lies.
If we are very busy all the time we owe it to our extensive base of loyal customers which love to come here not complain abut the corkage but to enjoy the atmosphere, the food, the music and have good time with their friends.
The large majority do. but there will always be somebody that is not happy. It is in the nature of the human being.
We do suggest those very small minority to join the happy people and enjoy life until they can... or to go to some other "better dining options" that Merlbourne is famous for
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walter1 -
See my reviews 1, 18 December 2008
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| Overall |
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Highly Recommended |
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Food 9 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 10 |
Value 8 |
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Excellent food, staff and ambience. A must try, but book ahead.
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Response from Management:
Thanks !! We do appreciate and hope to see you back soon!
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janeyhume -
See my reviews 1, 18 September 2008
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
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| Overall |
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Recommended |
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Food 8 |
Ambience 7 |
Service 8 |
Value 7 |
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Happened to be walking past with some friends looking for somewhere to eat one Friday night, and the Abysssinian was the only place around that was full of diners. Always a good sign, we thought - and how right we were!
We got the last table in the place, and thoroughly enjoyed everything about our meal - the wonderful service from the husband & wife team, the ambience, the fantastic food (highly recommend the platter!) and great African beers. And the price - around $40 each for mains, dessert and a couple of bottled beers is hard to complain about. Highly recommended!
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kiwifoodie -
See my reviews 1, 25 July 2008
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