kokeb restaurant

so delicious. my sweetheart and i have been twice, but it's not often enough. i can't believe we found amazing ethiopian food served in a timely way and in such an attractive environment. apparently downtown near manitoba hydro is a new location for them. it's certainly bright and cheerful, and the staff are welcoming. but the food -- delicious, nuanced, plentiful, and priced well. the two of us have appetizers, fill ourselves on the main dishes and take home leftovers, as well as have a beer each, for about $30. highlights: samosas, especially the beef, for $1.79, and a great veggie combo platter with extra injera for

very unique. i don't know if i would want to eat this type of food frequently, but it was sure a pleasant experience because of the uniqueness. service was great. the place was packed and the overall atmosphere was super.

better than ever. the new location of kokeb, on edmonton, just across the street from the hydro building is so much nicer than the last location on ellice. there is no separation now between dining space and lounge; rather, there's a lovely bar along one side of the dining area. and word has gotten out--it was very busy on our saturday night visit. while they were out of veggie samosas, the beef were fantastic. for my main, as usual, i got the veggie combo, and it was really good, with probably 11 or 12 different items on the platter, including some freshly fried potato chips and two salads. the hubs always gets gored gored, which is nearly raw chuncks of beef in a spicy, buttery sauce, and he thinks kokeb has the best version in town. i adore the fact that they give you lots of extra injera here standard. their cappucino looked photo-shoot ready, but they may need to rethink serving such hot coffee in thin glass cups.


-----21 feb, 2010-----

wow. we arrived at kokeb at about 7:30 on friday, february 19, 2010. there is a line of 4 or 5 guest tables over to the side, and what appeared to be a lounge with tvs on the right side. the lounge was full of africans, but no one was sitting at the tables. this seemed an odd piece of segregation, but we were seated and given water right away. we ordered samosas, keye wat and a vegetarian platter, and ordered ethopian coffee for after. the samosas took about 15 minutes, and were straight out of fryer, piping hot and absolutely delicious. the vegetarian samosa is filled with black lentils and is quite spicy, but amazingly tasty. i should have ordered two. our food came about five minutes later, and was all together on one large plate, with about four additional rolls of injera. the vegetarian dishes were not really hot, but had a nice variety of lentils and split peas. the keye wat was a beef dish pretty close to gored gored, and was hot, spicy and good. for the first time ever in an ethopian restaurant, the server offered more injera, and brought out an extra roll of it for us. at other ethopian places, i find they're usually pretty stingy with the injera, but not here. to cap things off, the ethopian coffee with milk was like a tiny, adorable latte with a sprinking of cinnamon. with all that, our bill was $28.00. wonderful service, good food, and old skool cheap. i'm going to have to go in and try the vegetarian lunch buffet after this.

great new location! mmm samosas, doro tibs and chacha. this place has moved from ellice avenue to 266 edmonton street. excellent new location that is much brighter and more inviting than the previous one. it's located near the mb hydro building downtown and near the second cup on edmonton & graham. this restaurant is the epitome of canada - there was a diverse group of diners there from all different backgrounds and ages embracing this growing community in winnipeg - love it!

samosas! at $1.79 each for either veggie or beef filled samosas, these are a steal! they are large and packed with fillings, not greasy with the lightest flakiest shell ever. personally, i prefer the beef one over the veggie but they are both good. this dish also comes with the best sauce - diced hot peppers. spicy, yum and addictive!

i've had the platters before so we opted for some individual dishes this time. just remember that ethiopian cuisine is eaten with your hands. but for those who aren't comfortable with that, you can always ask for cutlery....but like the saying goes "when in rome..." or ethiopia in this case....

doro tibs - a great dish of tender, marinated pieces of chicken cooked in spiced butter with peppers, onion, garlic, tomato, a touch of rosemary and other spices. this dish is like $9 only and comes with injera bread (spongy, sour dough like flat bread) and a nice light salad.

chacha - comes in a beef or lamb option. this is a very flavouful smokey meat dish that's served on a hot plate with with onion, green pepper and other spices. this also comes with salad and injera for about $11.

our meal of 4 samosas, doro tibs and chacha came to just $31 before tips and we still had food to take home. what a great deal. we were a bit disappointed that they didn't have any ethiopian coffee that night but we'll be back to try that!

the restaurant has two sections - one large bar with big flat screen tvs showing lots of different sports shows. the bar has a huge wall of alcohol, sort of reminds me of joey's or earls' bar area. then there's the dining area that's divided by the cute arches in the middle of the room. the restaurant is bright and clean and very welcoming. service is very friendly as we were even offered some extra complimentary veggie items to pack up along with our main dinner items. though the service can be a bit slow if you don't catch the attention of the two people who were running the main dining area and bar.

parking is all street parking - best bets are along edmonton, graham or portage ave.


-----31 jul, 2010-----

warm service, good food. i have to admit that i am not familiar with ethiopian cuisine so i was excited to try kokeb. it's a small restaurant on ellice avenue, across from the lc on ellice. decor is pretty plain, it's also very dark inside, there are about 8 tables on the left hand side and a small section of lounge seats near the tv. there is a vegetarian lunch buffet available for about $8 or so and it serves rice, lentils, split peas, potatoes, beets, cabbage and injera.

we opted for the mixed platter (meat and vegetables) to maximize the amount of food we'd try. they also serve a vegan platter too. the food is quite filling and it is more than enough for two people. it was hard to identify what the items on the platter were since the server didn't tell us. i'm sure we could have asked but we just dived right in. you can figure it out after tasting it but it would've been nice to know which a la carte item it corresponded to. the mixed platter was about $20, and provided all of the vegetarian dishes from the buffet along with a hardboiled egg, chicken, beef and another lean beef item - the platter was served on top of one big injera. and the platter also came with three individual injeras; injera is a large flimsy thin crepe like flatbread that has a sour taste that's similar to sourdough bread. fyi, no utensils are used here as you break off pieces of injera to scoop up your food; it's not too messy if you're careful. so yes, make sure you and your dining partners wash your hands before you dive in! also, if you're not the type that likes to share food on a platter with others scooping in, then stick to the buffet or a dish that you can have to yourself. there's no side dish to use so you scoop the food from the platter and just bring the food to your mouth. it's a little different to get use to but that's what makes it fun.

the food is good but i was definitely expecting more spices and stronger flavours. so many of the items tasted a bit more subdued from what i expected. not saying it was bad but in my mind i expected something different - that's all. it's good food and the flavours aren't as exotic as one would think. i tried to convince a few people to try this place but somehow the thought of ethiopian food intimidates a lot of people. in terms of spices and flavour, i'd say indian food is probably more exotic for most people than ethiopian food is.

we also tried a vegetable samosa (lentils, green onions, green chillies, cilantro and spices), it was piping hot so eat slowly! i don't normally eat samosas but this was very delicious because it came with a yummy spicy sauce that was made of jalapenos and garlic. it was spicy and delectable so i'd order that again! the staff were nice that they gave me an extra portion of the hot sauce to take home along with a good portion of leftover food from the platter. i'd love to come back and try the special coffee ceremony and the veg lunch buffet.

back and better than ever! the newly renovated restaurant (now on edmonton and graham) is much brighter and more modern than the old location they now do breakfast, and dessert! food is as great as ever with many new meat additions and a new veggie addition. love this place!!!

they're back better than ever!!!. we love kokeb for their vegetarian combo (we're vegan), their authentic injira (real yeast, no baking soda), and their generous bottles of ethopian beer. we had two out of three last night in kokeb's new upscale location at 266 edmonton street. the vegetarian combo had been improved in terms of variety and taste, the injira was as delicious as ever, and the ethiopian beer we were told will be back by next week. prices are still very reasonable but i predict this funky restaurant will be busier than ever because of its proximity to the convention centre and large office towers such as manitoba hydro. highly recommended!

alive again!. after a few months of sampling the other ethiopian fare which our fine city has to offer, the originators have returned. their new space located on edmonton st next to second cup and the magic room is quite an upgrade featuring contemporary decor.
do not worry...the food has been untouched if not improved (if even possible). the freshness and love in kokeb's food has been remarkably consistent over the years. in my opinion, they are the kings of ethiopian food in winnipeg.

still closed - june 23 to present. no sign of life at their new location since their last day (june 23/12) at their old location. old location torn down (building expropriated). using modern nearby on portage as a backup until kokeb returns. dinner for 2 at modern this evening cost us as much as kokeb - and modern's food was good. service at modern was better than kokeb.

your ethiopian home cooked food.. kokeb is like visiting your ethiopian family friends next door. they are consistent with the flavours and make a homemade hot sauce that keeps me coming back at least once a week.

try layering your injera bread as the base and build up using a base layer of bebere red lentils then salads / rice. mix & match flavours and top off with hot sauce, you won't go wrong.

i'll be there next week.

was expecting better from reviews here and word of mouth. 4 of us shared a combo platter and it wasn't bad, but some of it was stone cold. would be willing to try it again though. and crazy cheap to eat here.

quite disappointing. having had only 1 delightful experience with ethiopian food in my life, i decided to go again but wanted to try a different place--so a group of 4 of us decided to try kokeb for the first time this weekend.
the evening got off to a poor start when we stood in the entrance for several minutes before we were noticed and seated. then we waited another few minutes until we received empty glasses, then another few minutes before the glasses were filled with water, and another few minutes until the menus were brought. compared to the only other ethipoian restaurant i've been to (harman's cafe) this one seemed to have more options. my bf and i each ordered a sambusa because i had read on us how good they are. for dinner we wanted a combination platter to share. there was one available for 4 people and when asked what it had the server said chicken with egg and beef and a bunch of vegetarian ones, but he didn't go into detail. when he came back a few minutes later to take our order we asked for him to clarify what meat dishes in particular came on this platter--this time he said chicken with egg, and then pointed to a lamb dish (which he definitely did not say the first time). one in our group really does not like lamb, so we asked if we could get beef instead. the server said no. we then saw on the menu a different combination plate that was $28 for 3 people and contained no lamb. we asked if we could get it for 4 people--he said yes. so about 20 minutes after we ordered (we were all starving) the 2 sambusas came. i had the lentil one and my bf had the ground beef one. they were both hot and super flavorful. i also loved the sauce it came with which reminded me of a salsa with hints of cilantro and garlic. refreshing at first--but then the heat hits. overall it was a really good hot sauce. about 15 minutes later our platter came out. while i enjoyed the larger selection and the flavors were there--a lot of the dishes were cold. i wanted to love the homemade potato chips that were on the platter but they were cold too and so was the injera. there were no condiments served with the food and we just used the bit of leftover hot sauce from the sambusas. i also was disappointed that we had to ask for water refills and after we got the first refill no one ever came back to give us a second or offer us coffee or anything else (we stayed awhile after dinner chatting). so the poor service and long wait time combined with cold food turns me off enough to not want to come back here. the best part of the meal was definitely the sambusa--so if you go here make sure you have them! overall, for food quality, time, and hospitality i was rather disappointed and definitely prefer harman's.

lunch buffet. love this daily vegetarian lunch buffet with 3 kinds of lentils, potatoes, and 2 cabbage dishes.
my favourites were the tumeric lentils and the spicier berbere lentils. the potatoes simmering in a delicious gravy were also very good. the beet and cabbage dish was nice especially since i love beets...the other cabbage dish was a little under-cooked for my taste. there was also white rice and injera available.
it's a buffet so you get to serve yourself. they also have a wicked green house hot-sauce that packs some nice heat. the owner/ server came around with water and was friendly and polite. buffet will set you back a measly $9.01 including tax ! a really great meal for the price !

perfect for lunch with friends. between christmas and new year's, when most people were trying to recover from eating too much, i visited this restaurant with 3 friends that used to work with me. we all had the buffet so i can't speak for the rest of the menu. we were too busy talking to get the names of the dishes but i believe everything was vegetarian. certainly there were lots of vegetable dishes and lentils and of course there was injera bread to pile everything on. everything was delicious and we all loved it. when i went to pay i was amazed that they wanted to give me back change from a $10 bill.

endeared to injeera. kokeb boasts advantages and disadvantages over the other ethiopian restaurants in town. the food is not as fresh as massawa, but the selection is wider and the service quicker.

if you like heat, order the stuffed jalapenos to start.

to end, i highly recommend the coffee ceremony. not unlike espresso, the process is educational. and beautiful.

service is fast and friendly and the food is delicious. as per the style of cooking, the menu features wat, ethiopian stews served on a traditional flat bread called injeera.

kokeb's particular takes on these seems to offer far more fixins than that of massawa for instance. you'll find slices of boiled egg embedded in the beef, or fresh herbs garnishing the chicken. you'll also find a wider range of proteins, respecting and reflecting a wider arc of the cuisine.

this does make for some challenges, especially if you've never eaten this kind of food before. but isn't that half of the fun...part of the adventure?

and unlike massawa, the menu descriptions much more clearly distinguish one dish from another.

veg platter is the way to go. the vegie platter is so amazing. i crave the red lentils constantly and the yellow beans are great too. and i can eat the injera because it is made with teff flour and is gluten free!