Bete-Lukas (Ethiopian)
March 16, 2009 by cynthia
- Restaurant website
- Location: SE Portland (Division & 50th)
- Price to stuff two people at dinner: $36
The guy behind me on Division St. was honking and carrying on so, you’d have thought I’d sideswiped his kitten but I swear I didn’t do anything. Then I stopped at the light and he got out of his car, ran up and poked his head in my window. “Your left taillight is out, ma’am. I thought you’d want to know.”
Only in Portland, I mused, as I trudged up the stairs to meet Robyn at Bete-Lukas. Shortly after I forgot all about it, because when you’re at Bete-Lukas, you don’t want to waste time on inconsequentials like nuclear war or a nice fellow driver: You just wanna eat.
The restaurant’s on the second floor of a little storefront apartment building, nicely sized and decorated. The folks inside are friendly, there’s not a lot of noise (the website is far noisier) and our waiter was glad to explain the menu and make recommendations. Robyn and I ordered a vegetarian combo and Chicken Tibs.
At its worst, Ethiopian food is a stodgy, sodden mess. When it’s good, as it was at Bete-Lukas, it’s a wonderful medley of flavors and textures.
If you haven’t eaten Ethiopian food, think Indian cuisine done light and tangy. They pay special attention to veggies–this is a great choice for vegetarians–but do very nice meat dishes as well. All of it’s served on injera, a huge spongy flatbread with a sourish taste, rather like the Indian dosa. You tear off a piece of injera and use it to pick up a mouthful of your order and put it in your mouth. You keep doing that until the injera is gone.
At Bete-Lukas it was all good; I’d like to say we licked the plate but in fact we ATE the plate.
The chicken was delightful, a bit tangy and spicy and very tender, and there were a couple of tasty lentil dishes, marinated cooked green beans and a spinach concoction (if I had to have a least favorite, it would have been this, but in fact I enjoyed it). There was a green salad in one of the tastiest dressings I’ve had in awhile. It was served with an additional injera in case we ran out (we did).
We came, we ordered, we ate, then looked mournfully at the empty platter even though we were full. Dish for dish, this is the best Ethiopian I’ve come across on the west coast, and I will be back.
We have so many Ethiopians and Somalis in the Twin Cities that you can get injera at your local grocery store. And I don’t mean your local “funky” grocery store… I mean the Big Box places. There must be a good dozen Ethiopian places within 5 miles of here.