Review by Jennifer Blazis If you are picky about eating with your fingers, forget it.

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Reviews | Send mail to The Voice Blue Nile Cafe provides a taste of ethiopia The Blue Nile Cafe boasts a filling meal at a moderate price with garanteed leftovers. -Tess Chierici, photo Yes, ethiopians do eat. And they make their food tasty. The Blue Nile Cafe, a humble little eatery on 22nd Avenue and Northeast Broadway serves hot, spicy ethiopian dishes. The food is piled up in servings large enough to make a person completely full just by looking at them. ethiopians own and operate this restaurant, and the meals are authentic. The diverse menu includes beef, chicken and lamb dishes. The Blue Nile also offers vegetarian dishes that pose a worthy rival to meat. Injera bread, which looks like a folded cloth napkin, is served with each platter. If you are picky about eating with your fingers, forget it. No silverware is offered here. You simply tear off a piece of Injera and use that to pick up your food. The Blue Nile Combination is enough to keep anyone's eyes and stomach busy. It's a large platter, costing only $10, with enough food to feed two people. It arrives in the best earthen hues: reddish-brown, yellow and green. A combination of almost everything on the menu, the dish features beef and chicken flavored with assorted herbs and spicy ethiopian butter, vegetable dishes with salad, sauce-covered hard-boiled eggs, and seasoned and mashed lentils. The seasonings are surprisingly spicy with a kick to rival a good Mexican salsa. The food is all placed atop a large, flat piece of Injera. The bread's sourdough flavor contrasts with the sauces and spicy lentils. But if sourdough isn't your favorite, the Injera gets old after a while. Halfway through the meal, the taste of Injera becomes a little overpowering. The cafe's scant decorations provide few distractions, but they do offer a glimpse of ethiopia. Pictures of ethiopian landscapes and the Nile River, interspersed with colorful woven baskets, give a pleasant sense of culture. If you're one for private conversation, this isn't your place. Sound doesn't have far to travel in this tiny cafe that only has 10 small tables. And a television propped on top of a cooler spouts annoying sitcoms during an otherwise enjoyable meal. The food is good enough to deserve a classier atmosphere than this. The Blue Nile Cafe boasts a filling meal at a moderate price range with guaranteed leftovers. Prices are reasonable, ranging from $5.50-$7.25 for lunch and $5.50-$10 for dinner. For a gathering with several friends who have appetites, The Blue Nile serves just the right ingredients and a good variety of options. If you don't think you'll like the taste of the sourdough-like Injera, though, bring a fork because the rest of the meal is worth your time and money. Cafe Facts Address: 2225 N.e. Broadway Phone: (503) 284-4653 Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Reviews | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2002 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.