kokeb restaurant

i have been going to kokeb for a number of years now. each time, i’ll bring a new friend along with me to try ethiopian food. everyone i have brought to the restaurant had nothing negative to say and many have requested me to go back with them. i think ethiopian food is quite fun to eat. the first thing you’ll notice is that they don’t eat with utensils so make sure you wash your hands! they tear a piece of injera 1 and use it to scoop up the stews and salads. their new location is close to portage place shopping centre. during the day, it is well lit, however, in the evening it can get a bit dim inside. i think it was a bit too dark for my taste, but i didn’t mind too much. my friend and i walked in at around 7:30pm and took a seat at table. we were given menus and water. something that i do have to mention is that the service is very leisurely. once you’ve received your food, most often you will have to waive down the server if you need more water or would like to order something else. i ordered the veggie combo and she got the beef tibs. we also ordered one beef samosa and one veggie samosa to try out. both of the restaurant owners know me and always include a little bowl of theirhotsauce with my food. theirhotsauce is kind of like a paste that resembles relish, but is a mixture of delicious,hotspices. (those of you who aren’t a fan of spicy food might find this sauce a bit too much.) our samosas came and my friend was eager to open them up. i warned her that they are reallyhotin the inside for a bit so we split them and let them cool some more. our food came shortly after. i’ve tried most of the things on the menu, but the veggie combo has to be my favourite. i really like the selection that’s on the plate and with the different spices they use, i tend to forget that there isn’t any meat. i really like vegetables and i find that the meat dishes don’t come with enough salad to my liking, but my friend didn’t mind. when i asked her to describe the food as

kokeb gives you great food at a great price...but you'd better be patient.. 7/10

we tried kokeb after reading strong and major positive votes from urban spoon and not surprisingly, we had just about the same experience as everyone else.

pros: fantastic food. great use of spices and extremely generous portions of everything. the value for what you get is incredible, and after a pair of samosa appetizers and a platter to share between my partner and i, we left stuffed. it's 11:37 am on the following day and i'm still full. the food washotand delicious and the green chile sauce they serve alongside everything is divine.

cons: the wait. we ordered appetizers and a meal after about 5 minutes of perusing the menu (and taking a recommendation from the waiter) and didn't see our samosas until a full 40 minutes later. there were three other groups in the restaurant and they had already finished eating, so i just assume that perhaps a mistake had been made in the kitchen, was caught, and then they had to remake our food or something. it was the only reason i could think why they took so long to make our food, and it was the only drawback to an otherwise fantastic experience.

since i don't mind taking a meal slow and enjoying the experience, i wish they would've brought the samosas even 10-15 minutes out sooner. it would've made the transition to our main course much easier and broken up the wait significantly...but in the end, it was the one reason i had to not give this place a top notch score.

overall i'd give kokeb a 7/10. the potential is there for an 8 or even higher, but until they start fixing some of the issues shown in mine and others reviews, my ranking will stay there.

all that being said, go and try this place. i know i'll be back and will look forward to exploring their menu.

consistently one of the best restaurants in winnipeg. you don't get polished, white glove treatment at kokeb. what you get is a fun, casual, laid back atmosphere, with some of the best food in winnipeg. it's just a bonus that it's also one of the least expensive places to eat.

this friendly, family-run operation has lasted for many, many years, and is a go-to place for the ethiopian population in winnipeg, along with a huge following of winnipegers who'd never before tried east-african food, but instantly loved it after a single visit.

father and son are the only ones working up front, so when it's busy, don't be afraid to speak up and remind them about a refill, another beer, or a missed item. it's all good at kokeb.

on your first visit, go with one of their mixed platters for 2 or more people, either vegetarian or non-vegetarian.......as you'll get to sample several awesome dishes at once, and can be made to accommodate any number of people at your table.

there are no utensils at kokeb, either......you eat with your hands, ethiopian-style, using injera as the method of picking up the delicious morsels from the platter. sounds strange, but once you try it, you'll find as i did, that it's the most civilized way to eat.

home of the best home-madehotsauce in town!


-----30 sep, 2013-----

arguably one of the best restaurants in winnipeg. yes, i know i've written 5 reviews of kokeb, but that's only because i've been a regular there for well over 10 years, and restaurants can change......so current reviews are helpful, i think.

anyway, i tried somethig new last night at kokeb - it's a dish simply called tibs. small chunks of beef intentionally sauted until very well done.......which gives the pieces a nice, chewy texture, with delicious hints of seasoning.

i opted for rice instead of injera for something different, too. mix the beef and the rice together, add some of their home-madehotsauce (more of a relish, really) and you've got perfection!

my lovely dining companion enjoyed her staple of stewed red lentils, with two additional orders of doro tibs to be taken home for the boys.

everything at kokeb is excellent!

service is as fast and friendly and laid back as ever.

if you're going for the first time, i strongly recommend one of their combo platters, so you can have a taste of everything, all on one plate......definitely the way to go!


-----17 dec, 2012-----

we missed you, kokeb!. it felt good to smell the smells of kokeb, again.

i had lunch at their new home on friday. the food was as good as ever, and the owners even more deligthful.

we tried one thing for the first time - the ethiopian tea. now, for the most part, tea is tea, but their tea, with the addition of several mystery ingredients (like cinnamon and several other 'sweet' spices) was just awesome!

the new digs are beautiful.....decorated in such a way that you know you're in an ethipian place, but not just crammed full of 'ethnic' nic-naks like so many other ethnic restaurants.

kokeb remains my go-to, day-in, day-out, favorite restaurant.


-----03 jul, 2012-----

temporarily closed - moving. i almost freaked out when we drove up to kokeb last night, only to see the restaurant vacant, and "demolition" signs all over the building......i thought i'd just lost one of my favorite restaurants of all time!

luckily, there were some signs on the windows letting customers know that kokeb is moving across to the other side of portage avenue, on edmonton, across the street from the hydro building, and will re-open this summer.

the new location should work well for them, as the area is much nicer, and they should be able to draw a lot more customers, especially at lunch.

looking forward to it!


-----12 sep, 2011-----

they make you feel right at home. i love kokeb. it's got to be in my top 3 favorite restaurants.

there's three things that make this unassuming little place one of the best restaurants i've ever been to.

first, the family that owns it are very nice, and will do anything to make sure you have a great meal.

second, the food is amazing. i always get a combo platter to share with one of my sons, and it's full of an ever-changing assortment of dishes that lets us try just about everything they offer on the menu. the greenhotsauce (more of a paste than sauce) is not only hot, but packs a huge amount of flavor, too.

third, the restaurant itself is a friendly, welcoming place. we walked in last night to a full house, so we sat in the 'lounge' area, where a half-dozen ethiopian gents were intently watching a soccer game on the big screen. they quickly offered to turn up the lights, switch the channel, turn it off, or whatever we wanted, since we were the paying customers..........all of which we declined of course, and enjoyed a great dinner while watching soccer.

go to kokeb. you will love it!

ps - 4th reason - dinner for 4, 2 beers, 2 pops, appetizers, $40......and we left stuffed.


-----12 sep, 2011-----

beef sambusas. the greenhotsauce served at kokeb may just be the besthotsauce on the planet. it seems to be about 90% jalapeno, plus some garlic. hot, but incredibly tasty!


-----08 aug, 2011-----

another wonderful dinner at kokeb. we dropped by around 8 on friday, ordered a mixed platter, a doro tibs, and a stewed lentil dish for the veggi-missus. we waited maybe 10 minutes for everything to be ready, and it was awesome! i think i could eat at kokeb every day!


-----17 apr, 2009-----

terrific!. food is awesome!

very friendly family-run place. try the platters, which let you try a half-dozen or more dishes all on one plate!

dinner for 4 with beverages will often be less than $40

best samosas/ethiopian coffee. we were invited by friends who are ethiopian. this is their favorite ethiopian restaurant and we can see why! everything we ate was full of flavor and the place has a nice jibe. we love our samosas and this is the best samosas i have ever had. we had both the beef and vegetarian with thehotrelish...thehotrelish is amazing! i could make a meal of the samosas alone - would be a great pre-game bite with a couple of beer or glass of wine. do not go without experiencing the ethiopian coffee- hands down it is the best coffee i have ever had in a restaurant. excellent service!

disappointed too many times. i am in agreement with many of the other reviews here. while i have raved about kokeb in the past, i can no longer overlook the terrible service. we went there before a jets game, arrived at 5:30 and were the only ones in the restaurant. we received water and a round of drinks fairly quickly, ordered our dinner and sambusas as an appetizer. 45 minutes later and starving, still no food and we never did get the sambusas which were completely forgotten about. during the 45 min wait, we had to approach the bar to request a refill on our drinks. when our food finally came, we had to rush to eat so as not to be late for the game. the most frustrating part of the entire experience was when friends of the owners arrived and they were promptly ushered out plates ofhotfood. they arrived a good 20 min after we did and were actually finished their meals before we even received ours!!! unfortunately, i've seen this happen time and time again while dining there. while the food and prices are great, the poor service and blatant favouritism towards certain customers is inexcusable and therefore i won't be giving kokeb any more chances or my business in the future.

better places out there. we will definitely not be returning to kokeb again. we live close by and have given this place chance after chance. the sambussas as amazing, but they are often out of them. we've had good (not great) kifto and doro tibs there, and in all fairness their prices are beyond reasonable - but the past few times we've been there it has been incredibly disappointing. each time we've ordered doro tibs we've received chicken with some sort of yellow curry sauce, not at all what we've had in the past and come the expect when ordering. the service has always been terrible, but that doesn't bother us at all if the food is great. being treated like a burden for being in the restaurant and trying to spend money there, however, doesn't make for the most pleasant dinner out. i'm happy to see a lot more options in the area for ethiopian food with much better service.


-----04 sep, 2011-----

great african restaurant. we went there on a busy saturday night and grabbed a table in the lounge. service was quick, the food was very fresh and pipinghot(which i've never seen in an african restaurant), and came quite quickly. we had the doro wat, which was similar in flavor to others i've had in the city, except it had quite a lot on lemon in it, which was nice. it was also a plus that the chicken was served bone in, instead of the little chunks of white meat that the other african restaurants in the city tend to serve. the beef samosas were very crispy and generous with filling. the sauce it came with was extremely hot, but it was an amazing cilantro, garlic, pepper sauce. the tibs was also really good, comparable to any in the city, and the injera had a nice touch of lemon in it. i would definitely recommend kokeb. two people, two dishes, two samosas, a glass of wine, and a beer came to just over $30!

best veggie platter in the city. the sambussas are good, especially thehotsauce that comes with them.

reliably good food and a great value. anytime i can count on a vegan buffet, that is both good and very affordable, i will become a regular customer. kokeb is consistent in both food quality and cost effectiveness. the vegan lunch buffet is smaller than some but still has more than enough variety for me. it is self service but the host is prompt with water and the delicious home madehotsauce. as for the buffet, the injera is cold but fresh. the red lentils are by far my favourite with the beet cabbage coming in second. the rest of the offerings, particularly the yellow peas are very mild and may be considered bland by some. if you like spice, the yummy and super flavourfulhotsauce adds a lot. lunch for two is $20 for good quality, healthy food. can't beat that.

love love love this place. i am completely addicted to kokeb. my gal pal and i go at least once a month. the food always comes out pipinghotand delicious. the stewed lentils are probably my favourite. and the price is great. 9 dollars for the veggie platter, which could feed a couple. the atmosphere is good as well. very casual and relaxed. don't expect to be waited on hand and foot though.
also it does take a while to receive food. i'm completely fine with that, so long as its fresh. i'm not for sure on this, but i think ethiopian food generally takes a while to make. i've tried massawa on osborne, and that place was much longer than kokeb.

decided to try this place before a jets game and its a place that should be tried as its no typical canadian eating experience. they have tv's showing sports and the atmosphere is very sparse but clean. it felt like we were in vacation as most of the patrons are native habitants of ethiopia. we started with beef and veggie samosas, the green condiment that comes with it ishotbut addictive. these were very tasty but we wouldn't have needed them to fill us up as the combo platter we got was huge. there are no utensils; just flat bread that comes as your eating device. you get a huge plate if their native bread, i'd compare it to carpet underly with a sour dough bread taste. the food isn't full of flavor, it was nice there was coleslaw and pickled beets on the platter to give more taste dimension. me and my husband are good eaters and we had to work to finish this combo. my husband ordered coffee with cream and he received what must have been espresso, not his idea if a good coffee but i'm sure coffee lovers would like it. i appreciated that my pop came in a vintage glass bottle. certainly a place to try with friends as a fun evening out

i have gone to kokeb a few times in the last five or six years and always enjoyed myself. this week i had the chance to try their lunch buffet for a second time. it is also the second time that i have been to their new location (their old one was closed because the building was demolished for the construction of centrepoint). the new spot is a beautiful and well lit location across from the hydro building. it is nice, but it doesn’t have the ambiance that the other place had.  the owner is friendly and always offershotsauce in small cups, which i would accept because the neither the sauce nor the food is very spicy (to my level of tolerance). it’s a buffet so don’t expect a server fawning over you. the food was true to buffet form: there were good options (8 dishes?) and better than anything else, i could try them all. a vegetarian buffet is something of a miracle of gluttony for me.  injera is available so that you can eat with your hands in the trad

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 suchhotcoffee 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, pipinghotand 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 - dicedhotpeppers. 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 ahotplate 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 pipinghotso 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 thehotsauce 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.

your ethiopian home cooked food.. kokeb is like visiting your ethiopian family friends next door. they are consistent with the flavours and make a homemadehotsauce 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 withhotsauce, you won't go wrong.

i'll be there next week.

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 bothhotand 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 goodhotsauce. 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 leftoverhotsauce 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.