As we drove around for ages searching for a car park, I began to wonder if there is something amazing going on in Pearce on Thursday nights that I don’t know about. Wandering across the square, we were greeted by a spirited Bollywood dance number belting out of Pearce IGA. Fess up Wodenians, is Pearce an untapped highlight of Canberra’s notorious nightlife?
Ethiopia Down Under is found at the unlikely site of the Pearce shops in central-south Woden.
I had been eager to try Ethiopia Down Under since a previous meal at Fekerte’s (the other Ethiopian restaurant in Canberra) which had been substantially built up by word of mouth and several reviews. Although the lamb was beautifully tender and the kay wat was really nice, I found the dhal bland, the service awful and the cake dry. M left hungry despite our $64.00 mains platter.
As we entered Ethiopia D-U, we were greeted by a lovely man (the owner?) who settled us in and got us started on our wine. It was so homely that I felt I had stepped into someone’s living room. The tables had prettily embroidered tablecloths and the walls were covered with posters of Ethiopia. The owner was running the front of house single-handedly, which was quite a feat considering the number of people eating.
Ethiopia D-U is BYO only, and generously doesn’t charge corkage (which instantly elevates it to hero status with students and lowly-ranked public servants alike). Entrées are $7, salads are $10 and mains range from $16 to $25 but average at $18. All meals come with injera and rice and the menu has a broad selection of curries, meat dishes and vegetarian meals that includes all the favourites.
We ordered corn and mint samosas for entrée. The pastry was flaky and nice but not homemade. They were baked, not fried but I thought they were underseasoned and a bit plain and would have liked more mint please.
Our Aregash salad of tomato, lettuce, carrot, capsicum and crispy fried pita bread came next. The dressing was lemony and oily and the salad was delicious. It was a coleslaw style salad but the veggies were still crispy and fresh and had a nice hint of raw onion that wasn’t overpowering. However, there was a fair bit of oil in it, which made it quite heavy.
For mains, M’s choice was, of course, the meat combination, which was comprised of kay wat (spicy beef), alit’cha miser wat (yellow lentils) and yayesh wat (beef with coconut). They were served together in one dish which meant they seeped into each other very quickly- the alit’cha miser wat had virtually disappeared before I could taste it discretely. Serving them separately or serving them on the injera might have worked better. The yayesh wat was particularly delicious- it had a really strong taste of coconut which I loved, it was thick and rich and the beef was really tender. The kay wat was very rich and flavoured with tomatoes and lots of spices. The beef wasn’t quite as tender, but was still delicious.
We also ordered asar tibbs (nile perch fillets pan fried with berbere spices, capsicum, tomato and onion), which was definitely our favourite! The white flesh was soft and beautifully cooked, and piping hot in a simple sauce of oil, spices and pepper. It was very delicate and we really enjoyed it.
The meals came with injera, which was light and fluffy and just nicely tangy. It was cut into quarters, which was sad because I love the aesthetic of a big round injera or a long rolled up cigar shape.
Overall, we thought our mains were great although the meal was on the heavy side.
Too full for dessert, we decided to have a coffee to end the meal. They obviously take their coffee very seriously here and even hand roast the coffee beans themselves. The coffee was poured from a large ornate coffee pot that I spent the rest of the evening coveting.
The coffee wasn’t as strong as espresso but closer to Turkish coffee- a little sludgy at the bottom. Courtesy of M’s family, I’m used to a little sludge, but this coffee was different- mild with a nutty flavour and nowhere near the sludge of Turkish coffee. With most of the room now empty, we sipped our coffee while the owner stood around chatting with us about Melbourne’s west and Ethiopian food.
Ethiopia Down Under also makes homemade ice cream which I really wanted to try but couldn’t possibly have fitted in. The flavours sounded really interesting, like cumquat & scorched almonds and Ethiopian sidamo coffee & roasted hazelnut. I’ll definitely attempt to save some room next time.
Overall, we had an entrée, a salad, two mains, injera, rice and coffee (and BYO wine) and the bill only came to $60 which we considered very reasonable. I thought the food was nice, the service was excellent, and the atmosphere was lovely and homey, and, importantly, M departed full and happy.
P.S. tune in to our wily Woden wanderings again soon when we review Rama’s, another highlight of the Pearce shops.
Ethiopia Downunder
1/70 Hodgson Crescent, Pearce ACT
Ph: (02) 6286 1659
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