As someone who loves food, I'm always looking for new restaurants to try wherever I'm situated. Most recently, I decided to try a cuisine that was new to me at Lucy Ethiopian Cafe on Mass Ave.
For the majority of the year, I'm fortunate to go to school in Boston. My bank account sometimes hates me for it, but I have a long list of restaurants to try before I graduate.
Where
Situated right above the Symphony T stop, only minutes away from the BSO and the unmissable Christian Science church, you'll find Lucy Ethiopian Cafe. It's a quaint and casual spot among a number of other small businesses in the area.
When you step inside, you'll notice that the place isn't huge, it's decorated with Ethiopian art and various cultural items.
The food
To start, I ordered a peanut tea. Sounds out of the ordinary, but I had done a little research beforehand and everyone raved about it.
The peanut tea was unlike anything I've ever had before, in a good way. It was served with some milk already mixed in, and tasted almost like peanut butter. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and the perfect accompaniment to the spices in the food we ordered.
For food, we decided to share two dishes amongst the three of us. The menu featured several vegetarian dishes, some appetizers and a few beef dishes. One of the dishes we ordered was Lega Tibs.
It features beef sautéed with onions, green peppers, jalapeños, tomatoes, garlic, rosemary and awaze, which is an Ethiopian hot sauce. We chose how spicy we wanted this dish, and since one of my friends isn't fond of spicy food, we went with mild.
Even at a mild spice level, the Lega Tibs packed a punch. It was spicy, and I could definitely sense spices in the dish that I'm not accustomed to eating. The dish was served with injera, which is a huge staple in Ethiopian cooking.
Injera is essentially a flat, spongey bread served with nearly all Ethiopian dishes. It's meant to not only accompany your food flavor-wise, but also be your utensil.
If I had to compare it to anything, I'd say the composition of it is a cross between a crepe and a pancake. The flavor is slightly sweet yet slightly sour. It was a great accompaniment to the flavors of the beef, plus skipping out on using utensils was a fun experience.
The other dish we ordered was Che'Che'Bsa with eggs. Che'Che'Bsa is essentially a crumbled up sweet bread mixed with butter and some spices, served topped with honey and yogurt.
Again, I felt like I was trying something incomparable to anything I've had before. The Che'Che'Bsa was sweet but savory, and the breading reminded me almost of cornbread. Being more on the sweet side, the Che'Che'Bsa was a nice switch-up from the spice of the Tega Libs.
Highly recommend
Overall, it was unlike any cuisine I've tried before, and I would recommend Lucy Ethiopian Cafe to anyone looking to expand their tastebuds. Best of all, it wasn't super expensive and the portions were large.
We split two dishes between three people and still had a bunch leftover to take home. Altogether, we spent around $35. If you're looking for a cheap, adventurous eat in Boston, Lucy Ethiopian Cafe is the spot for you.