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9400 Richmond Ave
Houston, TX 77063
(713) 782-6882
www.bluenilerestaurant.com

0506 — My friend Narmeen told me about this place last week and expressed an interest in trying out some Ethiopian cuisine and I was more than happy to go with her since I had no idea what Ethiopian cuisine consisted of. A quick post on facebook and friends started to offer opinions on the food concerning spiciness and the necessity to use your hands when eating. The concept on using your hands was interesting since there wasn’t even a remote option of receiving utensils to help with the scooping duties.

After entering the place located in a slightly run down strip mall, there were only a few tables eating some food and we looked over the menu and since it was our first attempt at this type of food we went for the option of the combination plates. The vegetarian combo plate as well as the meat combo plates piqued our interest immediately along with the sambusa and shrimp as well.

Vegetarian Combination

Blue Nile Salad

(Fresh Green leaf lettuce with diced onions, bell pepper, jalapeño and tomatoes with a special Ethiopian salad dressing)

Timatim Fitfit

(Fresh tomato, olive oil, jalapeño, bell pepper and special herbs and spices, mixed with pieces of Injera)

Shirro Fitfit

(Diced onions, jalapeño, bell pepper with special peas flour, herbs and spices, mixed with pieces of Injera)

Kik Alicha

(Split peas cooked with oil, onion and flavored with spice)

Gomen

(Chopped collard green with fresh garlic and bell pepper cooked with olive oil)

Atkilt Wot

(Mixed vegetables with garlic, ginger, tumeric and olive oil)

Yefisik Beyayinetu (Meat Combination)

Tibs
(Beef cubes sautéed with slices of onions, bell pepper, jalapeño peppers and fresh rosemary)
Yebeg Tibs
(Lamb cubes sautéed with slices of onions, jalapeño peppers and fresh rosemary.)
Blue Nile Special Tibs
(Lamb cubes sautéed with onions, jalapeño peppers, tomatoes and special sauce)

Shrimp Wot (Fresh Shrimp cooked with Ethiopian spices, served with Injera)

Meat Sambusa

The best part of the meal is what started us off at Blue Nile, the Meat Sambusa was pretty simple in concept and execution, flaky crispy crust with well prepared and seasoned meat inside, unfortunately it was downhill from there for me. I came in with an open mind, but was presented a sizable dish that contained nearly $50 of “mush”. Nothing stood out as a clear winner, all the meat tasted exactly the same as each other and the shrimp was complete failure, if i was blindfolded during this meal I would have easily mistaken the shrimp for some form of beef or chicken iteration. I wasn’t very happy with the percieved value from this meal and the idea of using my hands as the only utensil available was a huge turnoff. While we can attribute that to a lack of knowledge of Ethiopian food, it was just disappointing that I had to use this crepe/pancake based “bread” as opposed to a real piece of bread that I’m normally used to.

2/5: This experience was definitely a huge miss for me, I’ve also been told to skip the coffee ceremony as well.