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Zeni (Ethiopian cuisine)  $$

 8.25
JaT Rating

1320 Saratoga Ave, San Jose, 95129  (Directions)


408.615.8282


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Clean, friendly eat-with-your-hands restaurant with accessible menu.


Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 4/6/2006
Rating: 8.5
My photo gallery 		Terry will deny that I tried to take him to Zeni's multiple tries for the longest time. I think the whole ordeal with eating with your hands was a turn off for him. It's probably my fault since I told him the story about sharing a lamb dinner with my old Moroccan roomates, cliff notes to the story, traditional dinner, eating with hands, people were licking their fingers, scooping up food on my side of the tray, it was eye opening experience for a person like myself who has a slight OCD problem. Anyways, I didn't tell Terry we would be using Injera as our utensils :)

We landed at Zeni's because Tanto had gone through some rennovating and wouldn't be open for a couple of days. Well, a couple of doors down sits Zeni. We arrived and the waitress was going to sit us at the regular table but I was like, ahhh...no, we want to sit where the weird round looking tables with the straw tops and fur rugs. Damm, those stools are rough, my ass hurt halfway through the lunch, I have no idea how you can sit on those stools for that long. On the floor was an animal rug with plastic over the top. Hmmm...I wonder what the plastic was for?

Since I was with 2 other vegetarians, I figured I'd order vegetarian so we can all share our meals. I ordered the Misir Kitfo. If you have never been to an Ethiopian restaurant, it's pretty much a family style affair where you get to share your dishes and use this spongy type bread (injera - picture #6) as your utensils. Depending how comfortable you are with your friends, you can also scoop up food with your bare fingers. From my little experience, the small dishes/stews on the plates are called Wots/Wats. They can be made with vegetables, meats, or whatever. Some are spicy, some are not.

My Misir Kitfo was pureed lentil mixed with mitmita (spicy chili powder), butter and other seasonings. It was my 2nd favorite item on the plate, my favorite had to be Adam's Gomen Kitfo (chopped collard greens). It was greasy enough to soak through the injera but it had mad flavor. If you look at picture #7, everything but the green plate is edible. I had a technique of making a mini soft injera taco and picked 5 wots into 1 serving, fun with food. Out of the 8 or so Wots on our plate, I loved 6 of them. The cold injera salsa thingy was a miss for me and I didn't care too much for the pickled cabbage.

I'm not even a real vegetarian and I loved 80% of the food. Oh yeah, I figured out why there's plastic on the rug. It's for those flailed attempts of landing injera tacos into your mouth. I spilled 2 times with 1 brown wot landing on my shorts and the other splashing on the plastic barrier.

Zeni's ethiopian food is great stuff. It's much better than the food I've had in the past and probably deserves a higher rating. Either way, don't be afraid to trying something new, have some fun, learn about anothers culture, and dont spill on your clothes :)
 


Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 738
Reviewed: 4/6/2006
Rating: 8
My photo gallery 		Zeni was not my first choice for lunch today. But our first choice was closed, so we fell back to the wishlist request for Zeni's. I was OK with it today, as it got some pretty good reviews on the jatboard.

We walk in and the place is pretty much empty. Just a couple tables occupied. I had heard that you eat with your hands here, so was a little apprehensive, especially when sharing with Jason and his coworker Adam. Its just odd having to share food and eat with your hands while doing it. Jason shared previous stories of sharing food with people licking their fingers and digging in. Gross. I was not looking forward to that aspect of it.

I decided to go with the Vegetarian Combination and I am glad I did. While the wait was long, the food that arrived was very good. There was like 6 items and 5 of them were really really good. You are supplied with some pancake like bread to scoop with, so its not like you are scooping in with your bare fingers (unless you want to). Luckily no one did, and everything came out on 1 plate that we shared.

The best thing was Adam's Gomen Kitfo vegetarian dish. Even if you are not vegetarian you need to try this thing. Its super rich and amazingly good. I think I will order this next time. But thats not to talk down any of the other items. My combination contained pretty much all good stuff that was 8 or higher. The food almost reminded me a bit of south Indian dining.

But the whole eating with my hands thing kind of dampened the experience for me. Its not something I felt completely comfortable doing. But I won't knock down the score for it as the food was quite tasty. I look forward to sampling other Ethiopian food now that I have finally tried it.
 
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