Nile Ethiopian Restaurant: adventurous cuisine, mediocre taste

Aleena Inthaly
Contributing Writer

Looking to try new cuisine in the Richmond area, but don’t want to travel far?

Nile, a quaint restaurant located on Laurel Street across from Chipotle and Panera Bread, serves customers delectable flavors straight from the heart of Ethiopia.

Nile is a great first venture into the world of traditional cuisine for adventurous foodies, but for new customers with traditional taste buds, it can be a disappointing discovery.

Ethiopian food is a popular choice of cuisine because of its rich spices, elaborate vegetarian options and flavorful slow-cooked meat dishes. Though Nile stays true to its Ethiopian roots, it has some imperfections that are hard to ignore.

The Nile’s menu is an extensive list of stewed, spicy vegetables, meat and seafood, or Wat. Many of their selections are gluten-free and vegan-friendly.

The back of Nile’s menu explains all of the Ethiopian terms which can be helpful to a new customer not familiar with the cuisine.

To start, I ordered an appetizer of vegan chili and an entree of Nile’s special combination which included Yedoro Wat (chicken), Yesiga Wat (beef), Yebeg Alicha (lamb), Dinich Wat (potato) and Ater Kik Alicha (yellow split bean).

Nile serves Injah, a spongy sourdough flatbread, with all its meals. It wasn’t particularly flavorful, and the waiter pointed out that Nile does not add extra flour to its Injah, making it more traditional, but also very flat.

Aside from the bread, the stew was exceedingly bland. It seemed to lack spice in the Wat. Also, one would expect the meat to be juicy and tender, but frankly, it was not.

The vegetables were not fully cooked, and the potatoes were a little hard. I finished my bread but left most of the other dishes untouched.

Though everything else was mediocre at best, the beef was excellent, both in flavor and texture.

To quell my disappointment, I ordered a palette-cleansing dessert of strawberry and lemon sorbet, which turned out to be delicious.

It should be noted that Nile’s brand of cuisine is not cheap; a quick lunch could cost anywhere between $13 and $17.

Although Nile does not measure up to other local ethnic cuisine, it is still worth a visit for vegans and gluten-free customers in need of variety.

Nile Ethiopian Restaurant and Café is located on 309 N. Laurel St., Richmond, VA 23220. For more information visit www.nilerichmond.com.

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Photos by Amber-Lynn Taber