Cafe Colucci

I went here for dinner with four friends. We ordered the meat sambussa, sega tibs, veggie combo, and meat combo. It was our first time eating ethiopian food so we didn’t expect that we were going to be eating family style and with our hands.
Rather than having individual dishes for everything we ordered, they put it on one large tray and gave us a basket of bread. The bread they gave us was interesting in texture since it was spongey and tasted like sourdough bread, but it went really well with all of the dishes we ordered. Since everything was on one tray we had a bit of a hard time distinguishing what was what. All in all it was a fun experience and would go again!

The dinner prices seem to have gone way up although the quality is still top notch.
We had dinner earlier this year with our friends, K, M and P. P was a newbie and LOVED it.
I don’t remember what K, M and P ordered – meat dishes…
It was pretty busy but the service was prompt and our sever was as sweet s can be.
Mr Rinky asked her how she was handling the crowds… and she replied, «Oh I’m just doing great! This is where I come to relax… I’m a preschool teacher during the day.» We all chuckled .
Mr Rinky and I took his sis here for lunch a couple of months ago. «J» too was a newbie, also a veg head. She loved it too.

Met up with some friends here for a weekend lunch. It wasn’t crowded so we were able to sit anywhere.
I LOVE eating with my hands.
Amongst the 4 of us, we had the Veggie Combo and the Meat Combo! YUM! This is great if you’ve never really had Ethiopian before. Some of the flavors were a little more sour than what I expected, but it was so good. I loved using the injera to pick everything up. You can pass on the tea though, it was just ok. This was more than enough for the 4 of us. I would definitely be back to try other things found on the menu that other people recommend.
Warning: You WILL smell like deliciousness upon leaving and probably for the rest of the day.

Minchet Abish Wot. I’m really just writing this review to remind myself that this is my favorite item on the menu. This incredible spiced ground beef that fools me into eating unhealthy amounts of injera and then suffer the consequences of a severely distended belly. Totally worth it every time.
One meat combo and one veg combo is a pretty hefty amount of food for four people to split – we usually end up with leftovers – and is a nice sampling of the cuisine.
Definitely my favorite Ethiopian restaurant. Every time I try a new place, I find myself wishing I was at Café Colluci instead.

Best Ethiopian food I’ve ever eaten.
The whole menu is sublime, but the item that really stands out is the mushroom tibs — chunks of brown buttons seared with peppers and onions. A great way to round out the usual veg and meat combo.
Very generous portions of delicious injera — never need to order extra.

I had a great experience doing take-​out here recently. The staff could not have been nicer, and were super pleasant over the phone and even while I was waiting for them to finish everything up. This restaurant has such a neighborhood feel; everyone who walked in was treated warmly, and it was obvious that they have a number of regulars.
I love Ethiopian food and enjoyed the dishes I tried from Café Colucci. The lamb tibs were my favorite, and I got them juicy so I could reheat them a little when I got home without having them go dry. The kitfo was also very good. I also liked the veggie combo, but wasn’t as in love with it as I was with the meat dishes. The injera was plentiful and tasty, too!
Both the interior and the exterior of the restaurant were welcoming, and I think I would have enjoyed eating here. Alas, I had to hoof it home, but I would return the next time I’m in the area.

Delicious Ethiopian food off of Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley! They open pretty late which is nice– went there to celebrate my fiancé’s birthday last night around 9pm and it was still crowded. Got the vegetarian combo and the garbanzo bean combo. If you order two dishes, they combine them into one of those large platters. It was delicious! Also always order the warm milk with honey for a tasty soothing drink.
Also, the Injera (Ethiopian «bread») is served in these adorable little rolls that reminded me of cute little hand towels so +1 for that.

I think almost every decent restaurant, with decent food, decent staff, & a decent ambiance will get a 4-​star. Even restaurants which have decent food and large quantities will get four star. There’s always something special needed to give it a little kick over the edge into the five star arena. I believe this Ethiopian restaurant meets that criteria.
The X Factor is some sort of a combination of authenticity and originality. Just before you walk in, the exterior of the building is displayed beautifully, trimmed with some sort of dry grass hanging from, and surrounding the entrance. So does the quasi door that leads you into the restaurant.
There is spacious outside seating, and spacious inside seating, despite the compact area. The layout is very intelligently done. As you walk in, there is a very soft glow of light, reminiscent of a late sunset. Coupled with that is the lovely exciting smell, you feel like you have entered somewhere foreign and far away from Oakland and Berkeley. The feeling is almost surreal.
The food just doesn’t scream «delicious, who’s hungry!?» it says, «welcome to a very different experience.» you can see the chefs in the kitchen, working like crazy to keep up with business. And everybody seems to be genuinely smiling. This is the type of business that genuinely appreciate their customers. It’s not some contrived corporate smile, it is genuine excitement that people are coming into THEIR business, and they are excited to share it.
The food is cooked with that same appreciation. It is made with love and, seemingly, high quality ingredients. I believe every dish on the menu is made by order. Even their most elaborate platters are made one by one. And you can get quite an extensive platter.
Ok they have appetizers and salads or whatever. But when you come here, you have to go with a group other people, and you have to eat family style. They have many dishes, but I strongly suggest starting out with vegetarian stuff. The meat is good, but the vegetarian stuff has the most flavor by far.
The food ranges anywhere from vegan, vegetarian, too a delicious spiced meat lovers wet dream. And it all tastes good, all of it. I’ve had every single thing on this menu. I must have been here like 12 times already. Whatever dishes you decide, comes with this freshly made wet sourdough called Injara.
It’s not quite bread, and it’s a little thicker than a tortilla, and it’s a little wet. But just wet enough to provide a good consistency, and keep the bread flexible. On its own it’s delicious, it tastes like the best sourdough bread you’ve ever had. But when you combine this bread with your choice of entrees, something amazing happens. You didn’t know these tastes existed!
For anybody attending this, you have to go with a group, thus revelation is so much fun as a group, the entire group gets excited that they’re tasting something they’ve never tasted before, and it’s amazing!
Not only is the food exciting, but it’s so fairly priced. If you eat there alone, it might be a little pricey. But if you grow with a group of 5 or 6 people, you can get soooo much food, and usually it comes down to $ 8 a person.
If you are looking for somewhere that brings a new experience, you have to try this place! You have to be adventurous. It’s something so new! They even have a decent honey wine that complements the delicious spice of the food perfectly.

This is good Ethiopian food. I had the fried fish and my friend had chickpeas and…
We really enjoyed it. The service was good and friendly. We liked the ambiance.

Big fan of this place, even if service is slow. The servers are often chatting with people in the front room, but it’s a friendly place, so no ding for that.
Meat combo is a perfect amount of food, and everything hit my Ethiopian buttons.
Table art is great, and there’s plenty of stuff to gawk at.
The little markets next door sell African art and big bags of berbere for you to make some Ethiopian at home.

I love Café Colucci! I’ve sampled the many other Ethiopian restaurants in the East Bay, but I keep coming back to Café Colucci. I recently took my cousin and her daughter there (they’d never had Ethiopian food before) and they looooved it as well. The injera is the perfect level of sour for me, and the buticha is my favorite dish of all time. After years of getting both the veggie combo, and the meat combo I wandered into other parts of the menu and tried the Sega Tibs (sauteed beef) and the Doro Tibs and they are delicious as well. I also recently tried Tej (honey wine) and was surprised to find that I enjoyed it even though I’m generally not a fan of slightly sweet wines. I love the cozy dining room, the staff is always friendly and welcoming (and fast). I’m going to have to start trying the breakfast here as well!

Solid Ethiopian food. I had the veggie and meat combo – good amount of food for 2 – 3 people (depending on your appetites). The dishes were flavorful. The meat was tender. My friend thinks the injera could have been a little more sour, but I had no complaints about it.
Was it the best Ethiopian food I’ve ever had? – no, but it seems like a reliable place. There’s also a good amount of seating. And the service was great.

Oh my goodness this was the absolute best place for me to first try Ethiopian food. We ordered the Vegetarian/​Vegan Platter and it was more than enough for 2 people, we even had leftovers. The flavors were out of this world. At first I thought it would be weird to eat with my hand but it was not weird at all considering your using the Injera/​Ethiopian Bread to pick up the items from your plate.
I am totally hooked to Ethiopian food. I was in town visiting my brother so my only wish is that Café Colucci hasn’t set the bar so high that I can’t find a comparable Ethiopian restaurant in Long Beach where I live.

My boyfriend and I shared the Veggie Combo and Shouro Combo for dinner. Everything was delicious! This was our second time having Ethiopian food and we were again reminded that we’ve been missing out! We first had Ethiopian food at Ensarro. We both felt like the dishes at Ensarro were more flavorful, but the ambience and staff were better here at Café Colucci.

Just had my fourth ethiopian food experience, and my first time at Café Colucci. I found the place by parking right in front of so I could check out the random used furniture store down the block, and the restaurant caught my attention. What caught my attention was that the people eating here looked they they really knew what they were doing.
The food was awesome. Not just the best ethiopian food I’ve had in the past thirty years, but some of the best food I’ve had in a restaurant in quite a while as well. Also, the tea and desert were amazing and beyond expectations. Everything was beyond expectations.

Nine years after my first review, I still love the food at Café Colucci. And this time, for my own benefit, I’m going to document in my Unilocal review which dishes I loved the most. Because I always forget in between.
Appetizer
Denitch tibs — basically handmade potato chips with a wonderful seasoning. Everybody likes these, you may have to order a second basket even though the first one was quite generous.
Meat
Sega Wot Banatu Fitfit — Savory cubes of beef in yummy sauce with bits of injera mixed in
Minchet Abish Wot — A ground beef in a tasty sauce
Veg
Mitten-​Shouro — A sauce made of chickpea flour. Just get it.
Gomen — Those collard greens are always good
Service is still leisurely, but very friendly and helpful.

I know there are other great Ethiopian restaurants in Oakland but it’s hard for me to stray from Colucci. I’ve been here probably 10 times and love the food as well as its affordability.
My go-​to order is the veggie combo (so you can try everything), the begue tibs (amazing lamb with rosemary and jalapeños), and the kitfo special (minced beef, beautifully flavored). For two people, getting the third dish might be a bit too much, but if you’re a group of 3 or 4, definitely add it in and order it raw!
The only cons are that the service can sometimes be very slow. Go here on a night when you just want to catch up with friends or fam over a colorful circle of ‘enchanting meat and vegetable edibles’ as their menu describes because they don’t dote on your table or rush you out. You may need to grab someone’s attention for extra injera a couple times during the night but they’re always very pleasant, accommodating, and give great recommendations.

Okay Ethiopian Restaurant. My wife and I were invited to grab a bite with some friends at this local place. Sadly I was expecting more but received less. The staff is very friendly and the vegetarian dishes are good but the meat dishes weren’t tasty. In fact, we barely leave meat left on our plates and left most of the doro wat.
The Dishes: Denitch Tibs were awesome. I really enjoyed the freshly sliced potato chips that were cooked with minimal oil. I think I could’ve easily eaten only these for the night. We ordered a series of vegetable dishes that were well spiced and satisfying. The Doro Wat did not taste good at all. In fact, I question if it was made fresh and the sauce was darker than what I am used to. My wife, who loves doro wat, had only two bites and called it quits. We had another meat dish, lamb, that tasted a tad better. The waitresses were very nice to bring us more injera when we ran out.
Drinks: I loved the freshly squeezed mango juice. Our friend drink some Ethiopian honey wine (I believe) that tasted good too.

I can’t believe I’ve gone my whole life without Ethiopian food!
What an awesome dining experience this was. I walked in knowing next to nothing about Ethiopian food and walked out feeling cultured! And full. SO VERY FULL.
The menu was not surprisingly very foreign. I was extremely appreciative of the GLOSSARY I found on the back page!
Some important expressions to know…
– Wot = sauce or stew with Berbere sauce (spicy)
– Tibs = sautee usually with onions, fresh rosemary, garlic
– Fitfit = mixing fresh injera pieces in sauces, stews, & salad mixes
– Injera = Ethiopian bread, AKA your only utensil for the meal!
From what I understand, if you’re in a group and you intend to share your food, they will put everything you order onto one glorious huge round plate. But, if you want to order your own, I saw individual-​sized dishes as well. I would highly recommend the group-​eating experience — it was just so fun!
I was in a group with 4 other girls and we ordered the Veggie Combo (a little bit of each of their veggie offerings), Mushroom Tibs (mushrooms sauteed with bell peppers & onions), & the Saga Alicha (lean beef in tumeric & ginger). It came on a huge platter and we dove in… hands first of course!
I enjoyed some of the veggie types more than the others, but I don’t know the names since it was all on one plate. I would not order the mushroom tibs again because it came with wayyyyy more bell peppers than mushrooms. Overall, the spices and flavors of the food went REALLY well with the sourness (almost like sourdough) of the Injera bread.
PROTIP: I’d definitely come here for a date! I can just imagine your hands accidentally brushing as you’re scooping up some sauce on the injera ;)

Met the fabulous Rinky & Mr Rinky at Café Colucci & what a treat all around! First of all, I heart Rinky & absolutely love her vegan recommendations, so we’d had Café Colucci bookmarked for quite some time… but the good things are worth waiting for! Secondly, it was high time to put a face w/​a name… been way too long!!!
We started off with the veggie sambusas & their homemade potato chips — delish!
Not long after we licked the plates from the appies, the main attraction came out… Veggie combo, Shurro combo & mushroom tibs… needless to say that serving dish was ginormous!
Combining all kinds of lentils, potatoes, lettuces, cabbages, mushrooms, peppers & who knows what else, this was a feast… the Mr & I more than happily stuffed ourselves to the gills
The injeria bread had its work cut out for it & they happily supplied more & more
To the point of having to waddle out of there, we parted ways w/​lovely friends, yummy food & maybe a doggie bag (or 2)
Best Ethiopian the Mr & I have had & BIG THANKS goes to Rinky for enlightening me to yet another fabulous spot — this goes on our regular rotation for sure!

SO GOOD! Mitten Shuro!!!