Food Review: Rosalind’s Ethiopian Cuisine

If you like spicy food and you like to share, then Ethiopian cuisine is the perfect food to diversify your palate and spread the joy around the table.

Of the many fine Ethiopian restaurants in Los Angeles’s Fairfax area, one of the best is Rosalind’s Ethiopian Cuisine, at Fairfax and Olympic.

Ethiopian dishes are cooked in a thick spicy stew called a wot, presented on a plate made of a sourdough bread called injera.

Everyone around the table can share the joy by each using one hand to wrap the injera around some wot before consuming.

Rosalind’s menu may look intimidating at first, however ordering from the combinations section is the best bet for any first-timer.

When ordering the meat combinations, be sure to get the dish that includes a sampling of lamb, chicken legs and beef for variety.

For the fearful newcomers, Rosalind’s also has a helpful staff that is ready to show you how to eat if necessary.

There are also some hut-like structures that seem more like props than places to eat, but, as a waitress kindly explained, they are just other attempts to recreate authenticity.

Besides the meat combinations, it is also a good idea to try the Trout Tibs, a fried-fish plate that is both delicious and loads of fun to try and eat with injera.

If nothing else, the vegetarian combination offers a sample of lentils and greens cooked with the distinctive berbere chili powder. One of the most flavorful dishes is the plain old steamed veggies drowned with alicha wot, with optional sourest injera bread for those who prefer a more tangy taste.

Perhaps the best way to describe the food is not so much spicy but tasty, as it works on the senses of salty, sour and sweet at the same time.

There is also the Castel, an Ethiopian beer. Although perhaps too creamy for some, it was sweet and subtle.

The atmosphere is relaxed and bohemian, and despite the apparent exotic nature of Ethiopian food, dining out at Rosalind’s is not expensive.

One could sensibly order two combination plates and an extra dish like a sambussa or a kitfo for a group of four or five and get away with spending less than $45.