Cafe D’Afrique

Ordered a vegetarian combo and was pretty disappointed with the quality of food. All the side dishes lacked flavor and tasted very similar.

Yes, I am a fan already!
I have had Ethiopian food only once before, so this was my second time.
We went there very late at night (around 10pm).
No customers in the restaurant so it was quiet:) And nice music was on.
And as soon as we entered, noticed that the whole restaurant smelled so good.
Food must be good here!
We ordered combo and lamb stew as the server suggested.
We got so excited when we got the plate. It was big!
Everything on the combo plate was amazing.
Lamb was juicy and tasty without being too oily.
The server gave us more rice. I really loved their rice.
We shouldn’t have finished the plate since it was late night and the plate was huge, but we finished it anyway. Was soooo good. We will come back:)

A lovely little spot. Went with a group of friends and had the vegetarian combo. The flavours were fantastic and the portions were generous. The injera bread was nice and sour and the server brought out more for us without charging extra.

I REALLY wanted to like this place more then I did.
The appy Sambussa was pretty good. Then downhill. My Moroccan Lamb Tagine was boring. Very little lamb. Same with the Beef stew and Moroccan Chicken Tagine.
Service was odd — waitress would take an order for a beer — walk to the bar and sit down and chat with the cook /​other customers. Maybe … 8 minutes later she would grab a beer and bring it back. We’re talking 15 feet here. She would deliver plates of food and push empty plates beer bottles aside but not actually remove them, So our table ended up pretty cluttered until we asked.
I almost want to give it a 3^rd star for the chef’s trying to be a great place.

I’ve tried many Ethiopian restaurants, and this one is my favourite — yet hardly known in the city. First, it’s very quiet and cosy. Then the food — I don’t know who else can cook that well for the price. Chicken and lamb dishes are so flavourful and soft, and the mixture of spices is incredibly rich.

Ethiopian food is a great choice for a date night out. So in my case, we would normally visit Red Sea Café but since they have closed, we haven’t ventured for our fix on Ethiopian food. Last night, we decided to try Café D’Afrique after it was recommended by a friend.
Upon arrival, you get assaulted (in a good way — if there is ever such a type) by the wonderful smells of the various spices. Ethiopian food is a wonderful way to explore various spices, and if you ever have decided to venture out and create it, I would suggest against that as ethiopian food can be quite complicated. From making the berbere spice paste to just the amount of work, it is better to just go out and enjoy the food. Whenever I go for ethiopian, I typically only get the veggie platters as i love the lentil mixes. Unfortunately for us, last night, they were sold out of two of the four veggie dishes so we decided to get the chicken stew (Doro wat) along with the spinach (Gomen wat) and the cabbage/​carrot (Atakilt wat). With this, we also received a cold lentil and rice salad and a cold potato/​beet salad.
The injera was nice and fluffy, with a slight rubbery texture. The sourness was there as should be (the flour ferments which causes the bubbles in the injera). When we asked for more injera, the hostess supplied us more for free.
The doro wat came as a chicken leg and thigh (with bones and skin) and a hardboiled egg. The berbere spices were quite prominent and I do suggest (as this is finger food) to wash your hand carefully afterwards as you will be smelling the mix for a while. The chicken was tender and moist and quite flavourful.
Overall it was a delightful experience and i will visit again.

We are from out of town and ate here when we saw they don’t use wheat flour in heir injera, like many other Ethiopian restaurants do. The food and service did not disappoint! We ordered (and subsequently inhaled) the vegetarian combo for two, and everything on it was delicious. Our server, who was also the chef, said its hard to get people to try Ethiopian food because it’s unfamiliar to many. I suggest to everyone, try this place! You will be glad you did.

Fantastic Ethiopian food! Ethiopian is a healthy mix of curried vegetables, beans, rice and their interesting bread that it is all served on. I would definitely recommend trying the bread– event though it has an odd taste at first, slightly unusual, it grows on your taste buds. The bread compliments the meal in a way you will really appreciate.

I am so happy that I’ve found a restaurant in Vancouver that satisfies my occasional craving for north African food. The Ethiopian food here stands out amongst others in the area and the whole experience from beginning to end was delightful.
It’s family run and the owners personally run you through the menu and explain the items if you’re not familiar with them. We started with imported beers — the Kenyan Tusker beer is the one to order if you’re not sure.
For dinner, we went with the vegetarian combo and a Moroccan lamb tagine. The vegetarian combo is a no-​brainer — delicious, colourful, and goes down easy. Just a warning — don’t eat the injera bread too quickly. It expands once it’s in your stomach and then you won’t have room for dessert which was our mistake!
The lamb tagine was different from what I expected having visited Morocco. The leg of lamb was tasty but not as tender as I would have liked, It was cooked on a bed of rice and veggies in a rich coconut sauce which was seriously addictive.
There is so much more to try on the menu and no doubt that I am coming back and bringing friends!

Loved the sambusas, flavourful and not too greasy. Lamb tagine: solidly tasty and generously portioned. Beet & potato salad an excellent (coolilng) complement to spiced dishes. Tej, authentic Eritrean/​Ethiopian honey wine, lovely for those who enjoy dessert-​style wines, definitely sweet but made from honey after all. Ginger beer also was sweeter than expected, but superbly and nose-​ticklingly gingery. Casual, comfortable ambiance, quiet when we were there. Highly recommend this place, absolutely will return.

The food at this warm and friendly place is delicious — prepared and served with heart. We had a platter of injera with the chicken with berbere sauce (red/​spicy!) also the vegetarian sampler (fantastic lentils, greens, pickled beets and potatos, savory rice) and tried a chicken tagine with lime/​coconut sauce. We also enjoyed chatting with the friendly staff about the cuisine and how it is prepared here and in Africa. We look for Ethiopian food whenever we travel– this restaurant is a treasure. We plan to return and we recommend it to you!

Inspired by my craving for an authentic lamb tagine last weekend, I scoped out Unilocal for a Moroccan restaurant and found Café D’Afrique. While the number of reviews were few, almost everyone has rated this little joint pretty high and I definitely can see (and tasted!) why. I had the vegetable combo which was an Ethiopian sampler dish. Now this is not my first time having Ethiopian food and I was impressed by the vibrant flavors of each dish and how well they melded with the taste and texture of the injera (a sourdough flat bread with the consistency of a Dutch pancake). Of course, I had to have my lamb tagine and the meat was nice and succulent but the best part was the coconut-​infused rice! The rice is just plain heavenly! Definitely a must try for anyone wanting authentic African food in Vancouver.

My husband took me here it was excellent. It was impromptu and late on a Monday night, the waiter was very wonderful and the food was an aromatic pleasure!
For gluten free people I recommend this place as the vegetable platter is awesome too, so also good for vegetarians. I will go back, with friends and family, as we were the only people there and I bet the atmosphere is lovely when full of people.
I hear the lunch time special is a great deal. I had the Lamb Tagine for dinner, served to me steaming hot, in a pot with a wonderful coconut aroma delicious rice, cabbage and other vegetables.
Definitely the best dinner out in town recently, as Vancouver has so many great Ethnic restaurants and just when I think I have had the best, I came across Café D’Afrique.

I had passed by this place quite a few times on my way to work, and mentioned to my boyfriend that it might be worth checking out. We like to get out and try different types of food.
It has a nice quite atmosphere, very clean, and not cluttered.
They have a good selection of beers, including a few from Africa which we tried. Smooth, and easy to drink!
We started with the lentil Sambussa. It came out hot and fresh served with a very flavourful chutney, and an even more flavourful hot sauce. Couldnt decide which one I liked better.
For dinner we planned to order a meat dish and a veggie dish. We decided on the Lamb Tagine, and and our server recommended we order the vegetarian combo for one so we get a little taste of all the dishes.
Veggie Combo: Spicy lentil stew, Spinach Stew, Carrot and Cabbage Stew, Split Pea Stew.
I enjoyed all the dishes, they were all nicely seasoned and each packed their own flavour punch. I think my favourite was the lentil stew.
Lamb Tagine: AMAZING! Came out PIPEING hot! The flavours in the sauce were indescribable and filled your whole palette. The lamb served on the bone was very tender and pulled right off.
All meals were served with their special bread and a potato salad, as well as a bean salad.
Great value, and huge serving sizes! We were so full by the end of our meal we didnt even have room for dessert :(
This is definately some where I will eat again!

Came here after not staying at nearby Thai Son due to their lack of seafood/​vege choices. Nice place with attentive staff. A couple of Stanley Park beers on tap as well as a selection of various bottled beers, etc. we shared the fish stew and the vege combo between the two of us and had leftovers for the next day. Would go again, although it was very hot in the restaurant – authentic heart of Africa feel?

We didn’t know what to expect and came in with open minds. The decoration and atmosphere was cozy and welcoming, it felt like we’d stepped into someone’s home. The music was great!
Never had Ethiopian before, so we tried the vegetarian combo for one, and the goat curry! While I wasn’t super fond of the vegetarian combo, it was lovely to be able to try the different varieties and compare the textures, tastes and spices used. The goat curry was AMAZING!
We will definitely be back.
PS: the mango icecream cake was surprising! It smells and tastes mild when you first put it in your mouth, but as you let it melt, the lingering flavor of mango was delightful.

This afternoon a friend and I were walking towards Hime Sushi on Broadway when this lil gem popped up outta nowhere. The vegetarian lunch combo caught our eye and after hmmming and huhing we decided to give it a go.
SO happy we did! We both had the vegetarian combo and my friend had a beer africana. My lentil stew was so tasty! The bean salad refreshing. I was even happy to find out the injera was GF. Super cheap eats. AND the service was excellent and so very friendly.
So please try out this special lil family run restaurant — it was worth it and I am so happy we stopped in. We’ve got to support the lil guys out there!
Enjoy! I’m taking my bf there now for some goat curry!
NOM NOM.

We stuffed ourselves on the tasty and colourful vegetarian lunch special. We ordered all four of the dishes on offer, and each one was very good. The beet and potato salad was a surprise, as my non-​African bubbie made this on a regular basis. Delicious here, and very cooling if you are having a spicy dish.
The injera is gluten-​free, so you can do a total vegan, gluten-​free, non-​dairy meal.
The lentil salad was spiced just right for my dining partner, although I would ask for the heat level to be ramped up if I were not sharing. The lunch plate is a good deal.
Why we will return:
–Kidist Gebremariam, owner/​chef, is just so darn charming!
–to try the tagine
–because the spiced tea and coffee is very good
–to try the pecan pie
–the place is clean!
–in the ‘hood!
A great mom and pop café with friendly service.

As a huge fan of Red Sea Café, I tried really hard to go with an unbiased palette. The staff were very pleasant, accommodating, and made us feel very welcome. They also have African beer, which was pretty cool.
—
On the table, and burning its way through my stomach lining:
Kitfo –Ethiopian style ground steak tartar seasoned with herbed butter sauce, korerima (cardamom) hot chili powder, served with cottage cheese. ($ 14.00)
Spinach stew –Chopped greens cooked in vegetable oil with onions and green peppers. ($ 9.95)
Moroccan Lamb Tagine ($ 16.95)
—
It wasn’t on our menu, but we overheard another table ask about kitfo so I had to order it. It came with a side of cottage cheese –and believe me, this was a godsend. The kitfo itself was very very delicious, but HOLY HELL DID IT BURN. Although I’m really wimpy when it comes to spicy, I’ll usually soldier through it for the deliciousness. I managed to make it through more than half of the kitfo before I turned a suspicious shade of purple.
Great taste, but not for me. Far too spicy — I’m sure spicy food lovers would be all over this — but the cottage cheese was a nice touch.
The two stars removed for the bland and boring spinach. Having had the one from Red Sea, I was expecting this to taste incredibly flavourful, but it wasn’t.
The lamb tagine came with coconut milk rice, and incredibly succulent chunks of lamb. Unfortunately, my face was burning so much from the kitfo that I couldn’t bear to eat any more. I would definitely return for their tagines.

Excitement moderated by a little disappointment, then rescued by pure yum…
First of all, very excited to have the new incarnation of Nyala to move into the hood. So excited, I went twice in two nights.
On my first visit, I ordered the goat — the flavor was excellent! Ginger, onions, yum! The goat itself was a sad specimen, though. Almost entirely bone and fat. There were only a couple of mouthfuls of meat in the dish.
I wanted to give them another chance, so I went back the next night to sample a vegetarian dish. I had a lentil stew. It was delicious — spicy and oh so flavorful.
The greatest treat this night, though was the music. I inadvertently walked into a grand opening populated by members of the Ethiopian community — there was a DJ playing fantastic Ethiopian music. Soooo good!
The server told me they will probably be featuring different musicians frequently in the future.
As a surprise delight, the server brought me a sample of one of their deserts — Brandy pecan tart. It was incredible.
All meals come with injera (an Ethiopian flat-​bread that happens to be gluten free — yay!), and a couple of salads (one lentil and one beet). Sadly they do not offer honey wine, but they’ve only been open two weeks, so maybe this will change? I will definitely be back. I’m excited to try more of their other dishes as these were so tasty… And maybe the other meats will be of a better quality…