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All Reader Reviews of...

Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant

468 W. 47th St., New York, NY, 10036
at Tenth Ave.
212-664-0520

Avg. Rating

7
Food: 8
Service: 6
Décor: 4
"Recommended"

Average Reader Rating on a Scale of 10.

80% would go back.

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Good for vegetarians

By erasco on 9/18/2009

  • Overall Rating: 9
  • Food: 10
  • Service: 8
  • Décor: 5
  • Yes, I would go back!

Been here dozens of times over the years and thought it was time to give them the great review they deserve. The food is consistently good and the prices are just right. I always get the vegetarian combo and have never had a complain about it.

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45 out of 87 people found this review helpful.

Enjoyed the food

By Sansh on 2/27/2009

  • Overall Rating: 9
  • Food: 9
  • Service: 8
  • Décor: 8
  • Yes, I would go back!

This was our first visit to an Ethopian restaurant and we were pleasantly surprised. We had the honey wine (e.g. liquor license must be back) and tea and the variety of vegetarian & meat dishes. Really enjoyed the atmosphere, though on a cold winter's night they could up the heat a bit, had to remain in coats for the duration of our dinner. Would defenitely go back for the food!

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53 out of 102 people found this review helpful.

Happily Surprised

By whiskerpudding on 6/27/2008

  • Overall Rating: 7
  • Food: 8
  • Service: 8
  • Décor: 1
  • Yes, I would go back!

My friend and I decided to try something new. We were quite taken with the cuisine at Meskerem. The food was fresh and interestingly prepared. Service was good as well. No liquor license was the only glitch as we were hoping to try the honey wine. We will definitely return.

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53 out of 115 people found this review helpful.

Unfair review of Meskerem

By ebuchana on 3/23/2008

  • Overall Rating: 8
  • Food: 10
  • Service: 6
  • Décor: 6
  • Yes, I would go back!

Wanted to counter the previous review about Meskerem because I think it's totally unfair. We have eaten at the location in Hell's Kitchen probably a dozen times or more in the past 3 years and each time we go the food is wonderful and totally consistent. The Meskerem platter is a delicious taste of favorite Ethiopian dishes...add the Doro Wat chicken stew and Lega Tibs lamb dish and you have ample food for a party of four for less than $60. Although there's not much atmosphere in the restaurant itself, the act of sharing the food and eating with your hands via the injera bread is so worth it. I'm glad Marcus Samuelsson is doing Haute Ethiopian at Merkata 55, but for inexpensive, great authentic Ethiopian, Meskerem is the place to go. The restaurant lost its liquor license, making it BYOB (yet there is no uncorking fee), but when we went last night, they told us that they'll have beer and wine again in the next week or so. Overall, great friendly restaurant where the food is the star.

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48 out of 91 people found this review helpful.

Pure Hell

By Aloha on 8/11/2007

  • Overall Rating: 1
  • Food: 1
  • Service: 1
  • Décor: 1
  • No, I would not go back!

There are not enough words to describe why you should not eat here. I've eaten Ethiopian often, and rate Ghenet and Queen of Sheba as the best. I avoid Meskerem, because their dishes are onion-heavy. But today, Queen of Sheba was packed, and Meskerem was next door. And empty for a reason. It had closed, then reopened, SANS liquor. (Also sans flavor, sans service, and sans food.) Good food can make up for slow service. But here, we six waited 30 minutes to order, waited 45 minutes for it to arrive. We were required to order 4 entrees to eat there. They no longer carry many items. When we asked for extra salsa-sauce, we were told "let me ask about that first." It's a teaspoon of salsa, for Chrissake. The food was inedible. The Injera bread, normally tan, light, fluffy, was white, uncooked, doughy. When we eat Ethiopian, the platter is always licked clean. Here, we wasted all the food. We were so disappointed, and voved to write negative reviews, because not only was this horrible Ethiopian food, it was disgusting food, period. Go to Ghenet, or Sheba. And make a reservation.

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61 out of 117 people found this review helpful.

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