Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

Enssaro Ethiopian  (lunch)
366-B Grand Ave., Oakland, CA
http://www.enssaro.com/menu/menu1.html 
Review date: April 2012

When Carlos and I first moved to the East Bay in 1991, the moderate-cost dining culture left a lot to be desired. Coming from the restaurant-loaded Richmond district of San Francisco, it was a shock of major proportions for us.

Well, you could get decent BBQ at Doug's or Flint's (except that Carlos isn't that fond of the stuff), or a truckstop breakfast at Oakland Grill. You could find MSG-laden sweet and sour pork at far too many cheap Chinese restaurants. But beyond that, you were left with the indifferent likes of Buttercup Kitchen and Kaspar's Hot Dogs (all of which are still around). Domino's and Round Table were as close as you could get to artisanal individual pizzas.

Thank God for Ethiopian food.

One of the few Oakland ethnic restaurants to rival anything found in the City was the original Asmara Ethiopian in the Temescal. For over a decade it was the sole restaurant to be found there, which made street parking a thing of ease. Now that the Temescal is the "hot" place for restaurants it's hard to imagine this. But 'back in the old days' all that was around the intersection of Telegraph and 51^st were a lot of grimy dark bars, one IHOP imitator and a Carl's Jr., for a mile in any direction. 

No Korean, no Spanish tapas, no artisanal pizza, no Bakesale Betty, no upscale Mexican....just a modest storefront that hid a pleasant restaurant where the owner/chef of Asmara Ethiopian delivered stunningly good, spicy food with fabulous injera. 

When Asmara went downhill a few years ago (our last review November 2008 detailed a terrible dinner), we had to find another place for our injera and tibs fix. Admittedly we don't go often for Ethiopian, and now that Carlos' mom lives with us it's even harder, because Ethiopian food is too far from her comfort zone. 

Fortunately all Ethiopian places are open for lunch as well as dinner. We've tried a few, but been disappointed – Messob, reviewed February 2010 and YaYu, reviewed September 2010 (plus a couple of others earlier on, before I started writing these reviews). None of them were what we were looking for. 

Enssaro's been open for quite a long time. Carlos tried it early on with a co-worker when it first opened, and thought it was terrible. So we never went back together. But while recently perusing Yelp, I noticed it rated quite highly. Since Asmara's gone through at least two ownership changes in the twenty years we've been in Oakland, I figured it was possible Enssaro had also changed hands. With Inez away, we went in for lunch.

It's a small restaurant, nicely decorated with the usual art and folkware. The young waiter is very friendly and efficient. We ordered a starter of the beef-filled samosas. There are four triangles, quite large with a nicely seasoned filling of finely-ground beef. There's also a vegetarian version on the menu. These are the only two appetizers.

The filling itself isn't spicy, but the red chile sauce they serve it with, is. I used it in drabbles; Carlos slathered it generously over every bite. They were fresh from the fryer; I was afraid we weren't going to be able to hold them in our fingers and eat them before our main course came! But we nibbled around the edges as they cooled, and finished them off. 

Our verdict: A-. We'd definitely order these again, although they're filling enough to be shared by four people.

I ordered the gommen but added lamb (a $3 supplement; you can add chicken instead). I love braised collard greens and they're always better before the summer heat turns them bitter. Carlos chose the lamb, yebeg tibs. 

We discussed the spiciness level with the waiter. We chose extra-spicy for the tibs and regular for the gommen. Tibs is made with berbere, the wonderful cayenne pepper spice mix the Ethiopians use in abundance and everyone else uses with great caution. Compare, if you will, the berbere recipe on http://www.ethiopianrestaurant.com/recipes.html to the far more innocuous one at Food.com: http://www.food.com/recipe/berbere-13953. 

As there were two of us, the food was served communal style. A round platter held the injera pancake. The tibs was on one side, the gommen on the other. The usual chopped romaine salad – this one had not only diced tomatoes but sliced green chilis – with their usual dressing. 

Carlos, who is not fond of vinegar, asked me afterwards what type they had used, because he found it mild and not at all offensive. I told him I wasn't sure, but it was similar to the white balsamic vinegar some stores carry, or the Filipino palm vinegar. Ethiopians are famous for tej, their honey wine, and no doubt it would make a great mild vinegar. 

Also on the platter were small dollops of the messer wot, stewed red lentils, and ata kit, the cabbage/carrot/potato mix that is always tasty no matter where you go. Additional injera had been cut into wide strips and rolled up.

Injera is what Ethiopian food is about. If you don't like the way the restaurant makes injera, you aren't going to be happy no matter how good the food is. We like our injera stretchy and mildly sour, and we're not pleased if it falls apart when soaked with gravy. 

Enssaro's injera passed our test with flying colors. The gommen was a little on the sweet side – next time I'll ask for a bit more heat. The collard greens were indeed fresh, roughly chopped, but even the tough stems had been properly cooked. As Carlos had also ordered lamb, I probably should have requested chicken instead. Still, both were good, and different from one another.

The tibs was in a tasty sauce that lacked a bit of depth, but was nonetheless satisfying. I found the heat level in it fine; Carlos thought it was wimpy. The messer wot, stewed red lentils, were just okay. They lacked salt, and needed more cayenne heat. 

The one flaw Enssaro's kitchen has is that the food, although braised, isn't really stewed long enough to develop more complex flavors. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our lunch. Carlos remarked this was the closest we had come to the "old" Asmara so far. 

We still have a couple of other places to try. But we will be happy to come back here to try some of the other dishes, something we can't say about the previous places we've been to. 

One issue to note with Enssaro is that at night, the parking is a lot harder than in the daytime, when it's metered (and the meter maids are diligent around here!). It's across the street from our favorite Japanese restaurant, Ta-Ke Sushi, and we've learned unless you get there before six p.m., it can be frustrating trying to find a slot nearby. On weekends, it's worse! You are forewarned.

Two people: one starter, two entrees, with tip was $51.