Fasika

510 N Snelling Avenue
St. Paul, MN
(651) 646-4747
http://www.fasika.com/

Category: Ethiopian

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 9
Service: 4
Ambience: 4

Recommendation: Excellent Ethiopian food! Delicious Ethiopian curries, meats, and vegetarian entrees make this restaurant a must try.

Although this restaurant is not much to look at (dingy, dark, torn seat covers, menu full of spelling errors), you forget all of this soon as your senses are engulfed with the smells and aroma of the various spices…cumin, garlic, spicy peppers, and more. There is small bar as well but we’d recommend staying away from the Ethiopian wine.

We would recommend going in a large group so you can try different dishes in the Combo platters - the portion sizes are very large. Start off with Mango, or Guava juice..both are excellent although a little heavy. The menu is large but essentially uses similar spices/sauces to prepare various types of Lamb, Chicken, Beef, Fish, and Vegetarian dishes. The base of every dish starts with Injera; a light, slightly spongy, pancake-like bread. You either love or hate it…there’s no in between. If the bread is not your thing, you can order rice instead. The dishes are served in a huge plate over the Injera bread. Ethiopian cuisine is best enjoyed with your hands so lose the silverware! The dishes come with extra bread on the side and you literally cut the bread and grab portions of your meat or vegetables with it.

We’ve been to this place a couple of times (in both cases with large groups) and have tried many dishes from the menu. This is one of the fewer places where you can’t go wrong with anything you order. Some of our favorites are:

Key Wot (#1) $9 – Beef Stew cooked in Berbere sauce (very strong spiced flavored sauce containing peppers, garlic, onion and other spices).

Ultimate Combo (#22) $26 and feeds 3 – Beef, Lamb, Chicken, Veggie sampler. The Combo contains 3-4 different types of each category for a total of 12-15 different dishes. Excellent way to try a bit of everything on the menu. All the meats are flavorful, soft, and simmered in spicy sauces. The Veggies include Curried Vegetable Stew, Greens, Split Peas, and Lentils.

Veggie Sampler (#32) $11 – A variety of 5 different veggie dishes – Curried Vegetable Stew, Greens, Split Peas, and Lentils.

Yebalager Tibs (#15) $14 – This is the only dish we wouldn’t recommend. Although it tastes great, the curried dishes above are much better options. This dish is dry compared to the wet curries. Its smoked Lamb tibs served on a hot skillet. Flavors are great but we found it too dry.

The servers are polite but the place is totally understaffed. There is free parking in the back of the restaurant. Excellent for large groups.

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