The Best Ethiopian Food in Washington

A sunny Ethiopian cafe in Silver Spring where you pick your injera before anything else, choosing between imported (extra tangy) and local, both soft enough to do the job properly. The menu is vibrant and the cooking runs from a bubbling chickpea stew to crispy beef tibs to collards that hold their own. Show up early and order the wheat flatbread fried in butter and drizzled with honey. A James Beard semifinalist chef runs the kitchen.

1. Washingtonian #46 · 100 Very Best Restaurants
2. The Washington Post The 8 best Ethiopian restaurants in and around D.C.
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · Darmyelesh Alemu

CherCher is an Ethiopian spot that took over what was once a rowhouse living room, and the platters still arrive like someone's relatives are visiting. Expect injera for scooping, berbere-spiced meats, and a vegan combination so sprawling it could feed a small congregation. There are no reservations, so go on a weekday and bring friends who don't mind sharing from one big plate. It's casual, loud in the right way, and easy on the wallet.

1. The Infatuation #9 · Top 25: The Best Restaurants In Washington, DC
2. The Washington Post The 8 best Ethiopian restaurants in and around D.C.

1. Washingtonian The Hot List: 10 Restaurants Around DC We’re Loving Right Now
2. The Washington Post The 8 best Ethiopian restaurants in and around D.C.

The injera here has the kind of springy, tangy pull that makes you wonder why you'd use a fork anywhere else. Ethiopic is a full-service Ethiopian restaurant on a lively stretch of H Street, with a polished dining room that drew a New York Times nod for the D.C. area. Doro wat, tibs, and honey wine are the move, shared over injera with a group who all insisted on picking the spot.

1. AAA Approved
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Washington, D.C., Right Now

A Georgetown townhouse makes an unlikely but perfectly comfortable setting for an Ethiopian restaurant, with warm fabrics and earthy tones softening the colonial bones of the place. The menu moves between traditional preparations and combinations that can catch an experienced eater off guard, and vegetarians are not an afterthought. Order the combination sampler and let the injera do the work; the range of heat and texture across one plate is quietly impressive.

1. AAA Approved
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. The Rammys Finalist · Casual Restaurant of the Year

Injera arrives as both utensil and canvas in this Adams Morgan Ethiopian restaurant, where tearing off a piece to scoop up a lamb stew feels like the right way to eat. The room is bright and unhurried, with booths along one wall and artwork that earns its place. A full bar runs alongside the dining room, which keeps things convivial well past dinner. The kind of neighborhood spot that quietly outperforms its surroundings.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Yellow metal chairs and walls packed with art set the mood at this sibling-run Ethiopian restaurant on Ninth Street, where the kitchen is staffed almost entirely by women cooking from memory and intent. The family platter is the move: a spread of vegetarian and meat dishes across a wide sheet of injera, sour and spongy enough to handle the berbere-laced stews that follow.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Time Out #5 · Best restaurants in Washington, D.C.

1. The Washington Post The 40 Best Restaurants In and Around D.C.

Lentil samosas so popular they now ship frozen from this Columbia Heights Ethiopian cafe tell you something about how this place operates. The injera-lined platters arrive loaded with lamb wat that falls apart on contact, fiery red lentils, and earthy beets doing the cooling work. The vegetarian spread holds its own against anything on the menu with meat in it, which is saying something.

1. Washingtonian #70 · 100 Very Best Restaurants

1. The Washington Post The 8 best Ethiopian restaurants in and around D.C.

1. The Washington Post The 8 best Ethiopian restaurants in and around D.C.

1. The Washington Post The 8 best Ethiopian restaurants in and around D.C.

1. The Washington Post The 8 best Ethiopian restaurants in and around D.C.

1. The Washington Post The 8 best Ethiopian restaurants in and around D.C.