African Palace is an Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurant just west of Shaw Street on Bloor West.
You know it when you find it. Everyone has that one type of food that you never get sick of, no matter how many nights in a row you gorge yourself or no matter how many times you remind yourself that it may well end up being painful. For me it's Ethiopian food.
Put tikil gomen in front of me and I'll pull the injera (the delicious spongy pancake made from teff) out from under it so quickly it'll appear to have suddenly fallenl through a trap door in the plate.
We're lucky to be rather spoiled in Toronto with clusters of Ethiopian restaurants on both Danforth and Bloor West. Supplementing these are a scattering that includes the excellent Ethiopian House downtown and the all-vegetarian M&B Yummy in Parkdale, to name just two.
African Palace has a friendly, cozy atmosphere (there are about 7 tables in the whole restaurant) and we're warmly greeted when we arrive.
As we've all looked at the online menu in advance and have a shortlist of choices that far exceeds what three people can handle in one sitting, our server suggests ordering a three person platter. This involves the six most popular vegetable dishes as well as three meat stews for the extremely decent total of $28.
The beet tibs cooked in onion, jalapeno and garlic are delicious with the shiro wot, a pea stew in berbere sauce (chili with a blend of spices).
The kikel fitfit is usually made with lamb but the chicken that they're substituting it with tonight still works well in it's ginger and garlic sauce.
I was especially looking forward to the dero wot, a chicken drumstick and hard-boiled egg smothered in berbere sauce, as it was the first time I'd tried it.
The most popular meat dish in the restaurant, the beef tibs (sauteed beef in awaze sauce, a spicy pepper paste) nicely rounds out the chicken and vegetable selections.
The other vegetable stews were the spinach staple gomen wot, cooked with garlic and carrots. Yekik alicha, a turmeric-y yellow pea stew goes with everything well, as does the tikil gomen (my personal favourite) a cabbage, carrot and potato mix cooked in turmeric sauce. The azifa, a lemon spiked green lentil composite is pretty damn good too.
As we were initially told not to be shy if we wanted more injera, we ask the owner for a couple more.
She brings them out and then shows us how to load up the pancake pieces so that we don't get too heavy of a pancake to filling ratio (we're too embarrassed to say that we'd actually initially nibbled away most of our pancakes because we couldn't restrain ourselves while the platter was being photographed from all angles).
As it's a welcoming custom she feeds the loaded demonstration pancake to my friend, unfortunately too quickly for us to get a picture of the hungry pelican impression that ensues.
Before she returns to the kitchen, she jokes that we can't leave until everything on the plate is finished. We don't need an excuse to do this but it's nice to have one all the same.
Politeness has never been so rewarding.
Photos by Emma McIntyre
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Let's see here... I'll take a tikil gomen with injera, some beet tibs and shiro wot smothered in berbere sauce and a kikel fitfit, some dero wot, yekik alicha and azifa, but can I get the awaze sauce on the side?
Ha! I don't know anything about this food, but I want to visit based on the names of the dishes alone.
Great one Charlotte/Emma!
Gomen wot is made with collard greens, not spinach.
Kat,
At African Palace they make it with spinach, but I've had it with collard greens at Ethiopian House. Kale too, depending on the place.
This place is my fave of the Bloorcourt Ethiopian strip. They have this one veggie dish I hadn't seen elsewhere - a spicy tomato purée that I wish I could buy in bulk.
I'll head there, but man, am I ever sick of the way Toronto never seems to have any African restaurants other than Ethiopian and Moroccan ones. It's so narrow. Where are the West African dishes?
I had dinner here tonight and it was really fantastic! The wait staff was courteous and friendly, and the food was really delicious. I highly recommend visiting. My date and I had a combination platter for dinner, it was a great introduction to the cuisine.
We have been patrons at African palace for just over 1 year. i initially stumbled upon this place walking past it this one evening. The smell was so incredible i just said "were going in here" . We had just moved into the area and were looking for a place close by. African palace delivers and Mary (the owner) is extremely passionate about her food.
In fact this review has caused me to drool all over my keyboard. im going there tonight for dinner!!!
Best Gored Gored in the city (fresh, moist, soft, perfectly flavoured). Fresh Awaze sauce, and the cottage cheese was perfectly blended with a fresh herds (first time I had seen this - really nice touch). Presentation was excellent, service and friendly and even fun, and the owner even came to check on us to make sure we were enjoying everything (we were!). Not so subtle looks at other peoples plates and smiling faces suggest it is not only the Gored Gored that is excellently prepared. Looking forward to multiple return visits. With nearby Lalibela losing its passion, Queen of Sheeba all but giving up on atmosphere and quality, and a few others still working to establish themselves, AP is extremely refreshing and incredibly satisfying. Have not been this pleased with an Ethiopian restaurant for quite some time.
...meant to say "fresh herbs" in 2nd sentance above.
yesterday i went there , it's perfect! the serve is so friendly. in a word, i love there~ i will always go there~ and the food and the coffee is also awsome!
IT's really very smart place and i like to the owner, she is ready to serve ppl by making full polit and actually i love the inside life on african palce so pls continue like that we r always with u------dear merry sister.