Massawa
121 Osborne Street
(204) 284-3194
December, 2009
Massawa, named after a port city in Eritrea, quietly sits on the second floor of the west side of the Osborne Village strip. This long-standing restaurant serves exclusively Eritrean and Ethiopian foods. Their menu may be a little challenging to newcomers, although the accompanying descriptions are mostly self-explanatory. As a simple guide, here are a few necessities:
- “Wat” refers to spicy dishes in traditional sauces.
- “Alitcha” refers to mild dishes in the same sauces.
- “Injira” is the spongy bread.
- “Tibs” are grilled or sautéed meats.
- “Atkilt” are vegetable dishes.
- “Doro” means chicken.
- “Siga” is beef.
- “Yebeg” is lamb.
- “Awaze” is a condiment consisting of hot peppers, garlic, ginger and various spices.
That should be enough to help you navigate. Massawa only offers two appetisers, and I highly recommend that you do not skip the appetiser course. Massawa emphasises that they do not start to cook your meal until you order it; they do not believe in precooked and reheated foods. They warn that you may have to wait two hours for your meal to arrive, although I find the average to hover between 60 and 90 minutes. The appetisers will come between 30 and 45 minutes after you order them; hopefully they will carry you over until your mains arrive.
Massawa only offers two appetisers. The sambussa is a baked dough dumpling filled with vegetable. If you think that it sounds like a samosa, you’re absolutely correct; it’s pretty much the same thing. Although tasty, Massawa’s sambussa doesn’t offer anything that any quality Indian restaurant can come up with. The other appetiser, ayob spinach, is the one that I would go after. The spinach and cottage cheese stuffing is rolled tightly and cut into bite-sized pieces. Reminiscent of the Indian Palak Paneer, this sublime appetiser left a table-full of carnivores fighting for the last pieces. Don’t skip this one!
While waiting for your mains, Massawa offers several adequate but unexciting wines to sample. They also have some acceptable beers on hand; you won’t be forced to suck on the usual drivel as you would in some African restaurants.
I suggest that you go to Massawa with a group of people. Their extensive menu covers many items and the more people you have, the more you can sample. Traditional Ethiopian and Eritrean dining involves no cutlery, so be prepared to (literally) dig in with your hands. Most of the dishes come on the injira and you gather up the sauces with the bread. The bread looks and feels like a thinly sliced sponge. Inevitably, the sauce will soak through the bread and cover your hands. Several dishes come on the same (very generously sized) plate. Ethiopian dining traditionally shares the bread, meal and dishes to emphasise the bonds of friendship and loyalty. Gather your friends, tell them to wash their hands, and dive into the menu. Six of us ordered eight menu items, which is an adequate amount, even for us gluttons.
In the traditional wat sauce, we order the Kay Wat (spicy beef) and the Yebeg Wat (lamb). The deliciously earthy and complex sauce bursts with flavours but for chilli heads like us, it isn’t very spicy. Because the wat sauce has such strong flavours, the essence of the beef and lamb are pretty much lost in the sauce; you can tell the difference between the beef and lamb mostly by texture, rather than taste. This is one of the few occasions where the sauce tastes so good, that the meat merely acts as a conduit for the goop. We also try the Doro Tibs (chicken in an onion, tomato, pepper sauce) and the Awaze Tibs (beef in the awaze sauce). These dishes come in sauces that vary from the wat sauce but they maintain the same, delicious earthy essence. Again, it doesn’t matter much to me what meat you order with these sauces, just try the sauces! The Sigana Atikilt consists of lamb pieces cooked with string beans, potatoes and carrots in a light sauce. This is the mildest of all the sauces that we order but that doesn’t mean that this dish doesn’t have outstanding flavour.
We order several vegetarian items, which is a statement in itself for this meat-eating based bunch. The Kik Alitcha is a split pea stew in the milder form of the wat sauce. Generally, the earthiness of the meat dishes carries forth in the vegetarian dishes, but in a milder form. While my companions dive back into the meat dishes, I find the vegetarian dishes superior to their meat cousins. The stew better incorporates the flavours into the spirit of the split peas. Delicious. We often refer to the Fule “fava bean spread” as “yellow mush” as it has the consistency and appearance of baby mush; however, if this is what baby food tastes like, I might never eat adult food again! This spread completely saturates every receptacle of the injira as it delivers a power pack of spices into your mouth. As your meal carries on, the injira becomes a commodity as you want every last morsel to sop up the bottoms of the plates.
All of the meat dishes have a considerable amount of fat and grease. If you’re on a diet, that probably goes out the window with this meal. Even the vegetable dishes have quite a bit of grease and are by no means low-cal. The Misir Azifa is a cold lentil salad that acts as a nice buffer between the heavier dishes. This refreshing salad comes in an (again earthy) dressing like none that you tasted before. Because this item is quite a bit lighter than the rest, you can have it as a pre-dinner salad but I prefer to use it as an in-between break.
The prices are reasonable, the atmosphere is minimalistic, and the service is adequate—but in the end who cares. When the food tastes this good, nothing else matters.
****½ /5
This is a free product that I'm happy to bring to you. If you enjoyed reading this, please consider clicking on the accompanying ads. This is the only payment I receive for offering this public service. Thank you as always for reading.
121 Osborne Street
(204) 284-3194
December, 2009
Massawa, named after a port city in Eritrea, quietly sits on the second floor of the west side of the Osborne Village strip. This long-standing restaurant serves exclusively Eritrean and Ethiopian foods. Their menu may be a little challenging to newcomers, although the accompanying descriptions are mostly self-explanatory. As a simple guide, here are a few necessities:
- “Wat” refers to spicy dishes in traditional sauces.
- “Alitcha” refers to mild dishes in the same sauces.
- “Injira” is the spongy bread.
- “Tibs” are grilled or sautéed meats.
- “Atkilt” are vegetable dishes.
- “Doro” means chicken.
- “Siga” is beef.
- “Yebeg” is lamb.
- “Awaze” is a condiment consisting of hot peppers, garlic, ginger and various spices.
That should be enough to help you navigate. Massawa only offers two appetisers, and I highly recommend that you do not skip the appetiser course. Massawa emphasises that they do not start to cook your meal until you order it; they do not believe in precooked and reheated foods. They warn that you may have to wait two hours for your meal to arrive, although I find the average to hover between 60 and 90 minutes. The appetisers will come between 30 and 45 minutes after you order them; hopefully they will carry you over until your mains arrive.
Massawa only offers two appetisers. The sambussa is a baked dough dumpling filled with vegetable. If you think that it sounds like a samosa, you’re absolutely correct; it’s pretty much the same thing. Although tasty, Massawa’s sambussa doesn’t offer anything that any quality Indian restaurant can come up with. The other appetiser, ayob spinach, is the one that I would go after. The spinach and cottage cheese stuffing is rolled tightly and cut into bite-sized pieces. Reminiscent of the Indian Palak Paneer, this sublime appetiser left a table-full of carnivores fighting for the last pieces. Don’t skip this one!
While waiting for your mains, Massawa offers several adequate but unexciting wines to sample. They also have some acceptable beers on hand; you won’t be forced to suck on the usual drivel as you would in some African restaurants.
I suggest that you go to Massawa with a group of people. Their extensive menu covers many items and the more people you have, the more you can sample. Traditional Ethiopian and Eritrean dining involves no cutlery, so be prepared to (literally) dig in with your hands. Most of the dishes come on the injira and you gather up the sauces with the bread. The bread looks and feels like a thinly sliced sponge. Inevitably, the sauce will soak through the bread and cover your hands. Several dishes come on the same (very generously sized) plate. Ethiopian dining traditionally shares the bread, meal and dishes to emphasise the bonds of friendship and loyalty. Gather your friends, tell them to wash their hands, and dive into the menu. Six of us ordered eight menu items, which is an adequate amount, even for us gluttons.
In the traditional wat sauce, we order the Kay Wat (spicy beef) and the Yebeg Wat (lamb). The deliciously earthy and complex sauce bursts with flavours but for chilli heads like us, it isn’t very spicy. Because the wat sauce has such strong flavours, the essence of the beef and lamb are pretty much lost in the sauce; you can tell the difference between the beef and lamb mostly by texture, rather than taste. This is one of the few occasions where the sauce tastes so good, that the meat merely acts as a conduit for the goop. We also try the Doro Tibs (chicken in an onion, tomato, pepper sauce) and the Awaze Tibs (beef in the awaze sauce). These dishes come in sauces that vary from the wat sauce but they maintain the same, delicious earthy essence. Again, it doesn’t matter much to me what meat you order with these sauces, just try the sauces! The Sigana Atikilt consists of lamb pieces cooked with string beans, potatoes and carrots in a light sauce. This is the mildest of all the sauces that we order but that doesn’t mean that this dish doesn’t have outstanding flavour.
We order several vegetarian items, which is a statement in itself for this meat-eating based bunch. The Kik Alitcha is a split pea stew in the milder form of the wat sauce. Generally, the earthiness of the meat dishes carries forth in the vegetarian dishes, but in a milder form. While my companions dive back into the meat dishes, I find the vegetarian dishes superior to their meat cousins. The stew better incorporates the flavours into the spirit of the split peas. Delicious. We often refer to the Fule “fava bean spread” as “yellow mush” as it has the consistency and appearance of baby mush; however, if this is what baby food tastes like, I might never eat adult food again! This spread completely saturates every receptacle of the injira as it delivers a power pack of spices into your mouth. As your meal carries on, the injira becomes a commodity as you want every last morsel to sop up the bottoms of the plates.
All of the meat dishes have a considerable amount of fat and grease. If you’re on a diet, that probably goes out the window with this meal. Even the vegetable dishes have quite a bit of grease and are by no means low-cal. The Misir Azifa is a cold lentil salad that acts as a nice buffer between the heavier dishes. This refreshing salad comes in an (again earthy) dressing like none that you tasted before. Because this item is quite a bit lighter than the rest, you can have it as a pre-dinner salad but I prefer to use it as an in-between break.
The prices are reasonable, the atmosphere is minimalistic, and the service is adequate—but in the end who cares. When the food tastes this good, nothing else matters.
****½ /5
This is a free product that I'm happy to bring to you. If you enjoyed reading this, please consider clicking on the accompanying ads. This is the only payment I receive for offering this public service. Thank you as always for reading.
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