Please reopen, we miss you.Excellent food, service is friendly/knowledgeable/helpful/great. Very attentive to any dietary restrictions/needs as well.The kitfo, fish dullet, awaze tibs, vegetarian combination, tea, coffee, all of it is top tier.Have done take out and dining in here now a few times and it's always a great experience.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Shea Anderson
This place has the best Ethiopian food around. The people are kind, generous and eager to to meet the needs of their customers. Rachel and Hamlet are simply wonderful. In fact, the entire staff is friendly.
Christian Hughes
Great vegan food and fantastic service. Loved the mushroom stew
Toadvine
Great spot with very friendly staff. The bartender gave me a taste of sparkling mead while I waited. Good for takeout, even better for dine-in.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jonathan Elliott
When your ever craving or just want the best Ethiopian food that DMV area has to offer, well there's only one place for me and that's Cafe Utopia . My favorite dish there is called kifu. I don't know how it's made or what they put in it but it is absolutely delicious I don't even want to know because some secrets are best kept quiet..lol. Make no mistake you must try the garden salad which probably looks like a regular garden salad but it comes to life after their special blend of dressing that's drizzled over it. Yum yum absolutely delicious can't wait to get myself back in there.. and thumbs up to the very pleasant owner, she is as sweet as they come.
Kevin Weschler
Help support your local businesses. Rachel ordered $543.05 worth of beef and refuses to pay her bill. It has now been 5 months. Please boycott this restaurant.
Ilana S
I can’t recommend this restaurant enough. Amazing food, amazing staff, amazing experience. When my parents were visiting a few months ago, I brought them takeout from this restaurant and when they just came back last week, they requested it as their first stop on the way home from airport, before even dropping their luggage off!It’s my favorite restaurant in the area by far. Definitely try the vegetarian combo and the meat lovers dish!!!
Caitlin Wang Fleisig
Very friendly atmosphere and great food! Always happy to eat here :)
Malik Moore
I decided to treat myself to Ethiopian food since it had been a while. I saw all the reviews saying this place was the best in the DMV by far. I was skeptical because every decent restaurant has a review that says that. Having grown up being introduced to Ethiopian food by my neighbors and also eating Ethiopian food throughout the rest of my life, I’ve enjoyed the local spots like Hawwi and Shagga. I couldn’t see what could make this place any better, so I decided to give them a try.EASILY Cafe Utopia has become my new go-to spot. From being offered absolutely delicious tej (similar to mead but with far better depth and complexity of flavor), to the employee Rahel being thoughtful and considerate enough to ensure I had enough food in my stomach while trying the tej, and the flavor of the food being stellar. I have three reasons alone to say this restaurant is worth anyones visit. If they were open on Sundays, I’d have visited two days in a row.
J
The best Ethiopian food in the DMV, and maybe the USA. Lovely people. Get the honey wine!
We went about a month ago and we had never tried Ethiopian food so we were a little nervous about how to eat it and how spicy it'd be. We ended up getting one of the players between the 4 of us and the food was incredible, will definitely go back.
Tyler Jones
This food was delicious! This is absolutely one of the BEST Ethiopian restaurants I went to. This one maybe the best, to be honest. The honey wine was delicious and pleasant to drink. Compared to other Ethiopian restaurants, I’ve had honey wines before that had a strong fermented bitter taste and others that were very strong. This honey wine was very smooth and pleasant to drink, with no hardness or fermented bitterness whatsoever!!! It’s perfect. I want to buy a bottle. I ordered the veggie combo with teff injera. Everything was flavorful, even the teff injera. i loved the lentils, cabbage, but my favorite was the SHIRO!! So flavorful!!!! I could eat that by itself! I cleaned the plate. My only complaint is that I wish i had more!!!! But this is about the food… delicious!
Laurie Hyland Robertson
Unfortunately we didn't take a "before" photo...This was the best meal we've had ANYWHERE in a long time. Extra-savory Ethiopian favorites, done perfectly—get the vegetarian/vegan platter and the mushroom stew!
Mike M.
Tried to go here 3 times in the last 4 months. I arrived between 11:15 and 11:30 only to find doors locked. Google says they are open at 11:00 but obviously that isn't the case. Can't go to the website because it keeps giving me forbidden error. Will give 1 star because when I was able to come here a year ago the food was very pricey but very good. Don't know what has changed but honestly it is a big disappointment.
B English
First time trying Ethiopian food and it did not disappoint! Very flavorful. I don't handle much spice, medium had all the flavor without the heat. Had a meat tray with chickpea, miser and cabbage & potato for and couldn't finish. Very nice, helpful service.
Please reopen, we miss you.Excellent food, service is friendly/knowledgeable/helpful/great. Very attentive to any dietary restrictions/needs as well.The kitfo, fish dullet, awaze tibs, vegetarian combination, tea, coffee, all of it is top tier.Have done take out and dining in here now a few times and it's always a great experience.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This place has the best Ethiopian food around. The people are kind, generous and eager to to meet the needs of their customers. Rachel and Hamlet are simply wonderful. In fact, the entire staff is friendly.
Great vegan food and fantastic service. Loved the mushroom stew
Great spot with very friendly staff. The bartender gave me a taste of sparkling mead while I waited. Good for takeout, even better for dine-in.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
When your ever craving or just want the best Ethiopian food that DMV area has to offer, well there's only one place for me and that's Cafe Utopia . My favorite dish there is called kifu. I don't know how it's made or what they put in it but it is absolutely delicious I don't even want to know because some secrets are best kept quiet..lol. Make no mistake you must try the garden salad which probably looks like a regular garden salad but it comes to life after their special blend of dressing that's drizzled over it. Yum yum absolutely delicious can't wait to get myself back in there.. and thumbs up to the very pleasant owner, she is as sweet as they come.
Help support your local businesses. Rachel ordered $543.05 worth of beef and refuses to pay her bill. It has now been 5 months. Please boycott this restaurant.
I can’t recommend this restaurant enough. Amazing food, amazing staff, amazing experience. When my parents were visiting a few months ago, I brought them takeout from this restaurant and when they just came back last week, they requested it as their first stop on the way home from airport, before even dropping their luggage off!It’s my favorite restaurant in the area by far. Definitely try the vegetarian combo and the meat lovers dish!!!
Very friendly atmosphere and great food! Always happy to eat here :)
I decided to treat myself to Ethiopian food since it had been a while. I saw all the reviews saying this place was the best in the DMV by far. I was skeptical because every decent restaurant has a review that says that. Having grown up being introduced to Ethiopian food by my neighbors and also eating Ethiopian food throughout the rest of my life, I’ve enjoyed the local spots like Hawwi and Shagga. I couldn’t see what could make this place any better, so I decided to give them a try.EASILY Cafe Utopia has become my new go-to spot. From being offered absolutely delicious tej (similar to mead but with far better depth and complexity of flavor), to the employee Rahel being thoughtful and considerate enough to ensure I had enough food in my stomach while trying the tej, and the flavor of the food being stellar. I have three reasons alone to say this restaurant is worth anyones visit. If they were open on Sundays, I’d have visited two days in a row.
The best Ethiopian food in the DMV, and maybe the USA. Lovely people. Get the honey wine!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
We went about a month ago and we had never tried Ethiopian food so we were a little nervous about how to eat it and how spicy it'd be. We ended up getting one of the players between the 4 of us and the food was incredible, will definitely go back.
This food was delicious! This is absolutely one of the BEST Ethiopian restaurants I went to. This one maybe the best, to be honest. The honey wine was delicious and pleasant to drink. Compared to other Ethiopian restaurants, I’ve had honey wines before that had a strong fermented bitter taste and others that were very strong. This honey wine was very smooth and pleasant to drink, with no hardness or fermented bitterness whatsoever!!! It’s perfect. I want to buy a bottle. I ordered the veggie combo with teff injera. Everything was flavorful, even the teff injera. i loved the lentils, cabbage, but my favorite was the SHIRO!! So flavorful!!!! I could eat that by itself! I cleaned the plate. My only complaint is that I wish i had more!!!! But this is about the food… delicious!
Unfortunately we didn't take a "before" photo...This was the best meal we've had ANYWHERE in a long time. Extra-savory Ethiopian favorites, done perfectly—get the vegetarian/vegan platter and the mushroom stew!
Tried to go here 3 times in the last 4 months. I arrived between 11:15 and 11:30 only to find doors locked. Google says they are open at 11:00 but obviously that isn't the case. Can't go to the website because it keeps giving me forbidden error. Will give 1 star because when I was able to come here a year ago the food was very pricey but very good. Don't know what has changed but honestly it is a big disappointment.
First time trying Ethiopian food and it did not disappoint! Very flavorful. I don't handle much spice, medium had all the flavor without the heat. Had a meat tray with chickpea, miser and cabbage & potato for and couldn't finish. Very nice, helpful service.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5