Meskie's Ethiopia Restaurant

I’ve been here 3 times and it’s one of my favorites in Berkeley. I love the variety of the meat & vegetarian platters, especially the carrot and meat sides. There are so many different flavors together on these platters and all of them are wonderful.

The back patio was very pleasant but the food was subpar and the service was terrible. The server dropped off our food and literally never came back once even though there was only one other table in the entire restaurant. Not even to ask us if we needed anything or if the food was okay. Finally we just grabbed our own leftovers and walked back inside to get a bag for our food and the bill and she was on FaceTime with someone and said “hold on I’ll brb,” to whomever she was talking to and cashed us out. The food looks nothing like the plates they advertise. We definitely would not recommend.

I really didn't like the place. Overall the atmosphere is great and the guys working there are nice, but the food is bad. I ordered beef, about half of the pieces were tough, it was impossible to chew them. Most likely cheap meat was used for cooking. In addition, the meat was very oversalted. For the first time, I probably didn't finish the meat. The mushrooms were tasty, at least they weren't so oversalted and they could be eaten. I don't recommend this place for food

We went for lunch, and the place was not crowded at all - maybe only 2 other customers. The back patio is a nice space. But we had to wait maybe 45 minutes for our food - even our drinks did not come for 30+ minutes, and the server did not tell us that the soups we ordered weren't even available until we asked where all the food was. While the food was tasty, and I suspect the restaurant was handling online orders, the lack of (proactive) communication about our order was really frustrating and significantly delayed our schedule for the day.

Great place! It was my first time having Ethiopian food, and Meskie’s didn’t disappoint. We enjoyed a big family plate. I liked the Chicken tibs and string beans. The Ethiopian wine was delicious. Our waiter was very attentive, and lit the fireplace for us. I’ll definitely come back.