The best restaurants Addis Ababa

Excellent French restaurant acclaimed for its quality cuisine and attentive service. A good address from breakfast to dinner. The spacious villa, with its small garden, offers an elegant setting, with a retro decor in a nod to France, outdoor tables and a very friendly owner. On the menu you'll find local specialties: beef tartare (compare with Ethiopian kifto ), duck breast, onion quiche, cheese platter, chocolate soufflé... Dishes accompanied by bottles of Bordeaux.

This is the best cultural restaurant in Addis Ababa, renowned for its quality Ethiopian cuisine and continuous evening performances of dances from all over the country. All the great Ethiopian classics are on the menu, and the food is very good and well prepared. The place is certainly touristy, but attracts mostly locals. Live music and atmosphere every evening, in a symphony of colorful costumes, traditional music and dance. The singers move around the room and interact with the audience, creating an authentic atmosphere.

One of the two institutions in Addis where you can dine in traditional Ethiopian style and discover the songs, dances and costumes of the different regions, which are performed on the small stage while you eat around a convivial table. The food is decent without being extraordinary (it's better at Yod), but we're seated on convivial low tables. The show is really beautiful, with lots of costumed dancers and singers.

One of the many traditional restaurants in the capital offering excellent traditional dance shows. Furniture, staff attire, service, coffee ceremony, architecture, everything is here typically Ethiopian without being skipped. The food is excellent, proof is that the restaurant is so frequented by tourists and expatriates than by locals. A large tent makes it possible to take a meal outside. Dance and folk music shows are regularly scheduled. Prices are still correct.

This very old Italian restaurant has been restored and is considered one of the best (and most expensive) in town. It's a safe bet and quite chic. In the past, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have dined here. Wide choice of antipasti and of course homemade pasta, but not only. The tagliatelle with truffles is a real treat, and the tiramisu is a great success. Italian wine list. A pleasant, old-fashioned setting; the waiters have been the same for some thirty years. Ideal for a romantic dinner or with friends. Reservations essential.

The main attraction of this venue is that it is both a restaurant and one of Addis Ababa's leading contemporary art galleries. With its warm, well-appointed decor, the restaurant offers the opportunity to discover the work of some forty of the capital's most talented young artists. On the plate, the tendency is Italian (meats, pizzas and salads). There's a wide choice of desserts, including crêpes. Before (or during, or even after) service, you can sit at the bar: you'll come back again and again...

This Chinese restaurant in the upper part of the Kazanchis business district has long been known to locals in Addis Ababa. It serves excellent Chinese cuisine, prepared by chef Nebiyu, including specialties from the Sichuan region with its eponymous spicy pepper. The noodles and souples are particularly good. The prices of the dishes are very reasonable, and the flavors exotic. The dining room is quite sober, with red lanterns illuminating the space in the evening. Don't forget to book at weekends, as the restaurant is very popular.

Located in the garden just in front of the National Museum, this is an institution for good eating in Addis Ababa. A haven of peace in a garden adorned with bamboo and beautiful handicrafts, ideal for lunch between visits to the city's two major museums. The menu features excellent Ethiopian cuisine, as well as pastas, pizzas, salads, curries... Fast, pleasant service. Excellent ketfo (the local steak tartare), ultra-fresh meat and wines à la carte. A good address that emphasizes its dishes as well as its setting and service.

This is an excellent address to discover, frequented by the wealthy classes of Addis Ababa. It serves excellent international and Ethiopian cuisine, with fish specialties, Asian salads, European dishes... On the first floor, the small "bistro" café is the ideal place for a macchiato, cappuccino or breakfast. Homemade bread and brioche are used to make sandwiches. Upstairs, the restaurant has an Italian feel. Highlight: Sunday jazz brunch.

For a change from Ethiopian injera, Aladdin is a renowned Armenian and Lebanese cuisine restaurant. It's a great place to eat, with a wide choice of delicious mezzés and kebabs. You can come in at any time to sip a fruit juice or pick at a salad. The setting is original and well-kept, with stylish solid wood chairs, a pleasant interior room and a glass roof overlooking the vegetation. To make matters worse, the portions are generous and the service attentive and warm. An excellent option.

Addis Ababa has a fine new restaurant to discover. Hotto is a top-flight Japanese-Asian fusion restaurant. It's chic and rather expensive. Dinner is served in an elegant room with soft lighting and green and blue upholstered armchairs. On the menu: small dishes to share, such as vegetarian taquitos with bean sprouts, carrot, cabbage and ginger, or others with salmon, soy, sesame oil and lime. A wide choice of dishes: teriyaki, tempura, glass noodle... Everything is appetizing and delicious.

The restaurant has a terrace and a large single room that has 50 seats. The stove is a real blue cord for both Ethiopian and pizza dishes.

The capital's oldest restaurant is housed in the former residence of Emperor Menelik's son, very close to Piazza, which is handy when you're looking for a table in the center. It's a vast building built around a large circular room that opens onto smaller, more intimate rooms. The decor and patinated furniture are typically traditional, very authentic, nothing touristy under the dim lights. The kitchen offers all variants of national gastronomy. The house tej is renowned.

Offers traditional cuisine in an original setting. On the floor, the musicians are in wax! To see the folk dances that take place on two little podium, you must be served in the basement. The decoration is even more imaginative.

At 300 m from Bekeletch, the Yohannes kitfo bet is even more famous for its guragé cuisine, especially for its delicious kitfo. The setting is magnificent and the perfect service. It's also where you can try the coffee experience in the butter if your heart tells you.

One of the best addresses to taste the kitfo, this steak tartare to Ethiopian: from 25 to 28 birrs the portion.

Fish dishes at 25 birrs on average and service very fast despite attendance at meal hours which is absolutely incredible.

Romina is a long-established institution in Addis Ababa. It's an excellent local restaurant, often crowded in the afternoon. It serves good St. George beers on draught (a rarity), delicious fresh homemade fruit juices, good traditionalinjera dishes and, for the die-hard, pizzas - but don't go looking for Italian-style pizza! The dishes are tasty and reasonably priced. The outdoor terrace, planted with trees and flowers, is pleasant and the central location, where there are few other places to eat, is very convenient.

This Italian restaurant is a rather chic address for homemade pasta dishes and specialties from the Botte region, making a welcome change from Ethiopian dishes. Good pizzas à la carte too, cooked over a wood fire and crisp to perfection. We love the way the plates are laid out, the chef's savoir-faire and the imported ingredients that combine with local flavors, sublimated in the kitchen. The setting is as elegant as the plates, very modern and bright, with white tablecloths and picture windows opening onto an outdoor terrace.

It may not look like much from the outside, but once you've passed through the small door, you'll find yourself on a pleasant green terrace where tables are set up under a large marquee. This address is popular with Ethiopians and foreign tourists or expatriates living in Addis Ababa, who come here mainly to enjoy the excellent local cuisine (grilled Nile perch, chicken stew...). Portions are large enough for two people. Traditional dance performances every Wednesday and Saturday evening from 7pm. Coffee ceremony.