Cottage Ethiopian Restaurant never got the memo about first impressions. The restaurant occupies the space of a former fast food joint and from Piedmont Avenue, it is easy to miss. The sign is small and looks like an afterthought considering there is space above for a much more visible sign. From the outside, even the entrance is hard to spot. Once inside, things improve. There are curtains all around, wooden tables, a bar and the vibe is nothing like that of a fast food restaurant.
Lunchtime one Monday proved to be a quiet time. There were a few other people in there, most of them Ethiopian which was a good sign. My friend and I both ordered the vegetarian platter and the soft spoken waitress asked us if we wanted one big platter to share. That was fine by us. I've read a lot of complaints about how slow the service is. Maybe we got lucky but our food was out in fifteen minutes.
Our super-sized platter arrived looking very colorful. There were ten different dishes piled on the injera. The injera was soft and spongy and did not have the sour taste that is usually associated with this fermented bread made from teff flour. If injera is not to your liking, you probably will not enjoy eating here. There is no silverware as the injera is used to scoop up the various lentil, split pea, and vegetable stews. Even a couple of the cold dishes had injera already mixed in. Halfway into the meal, I realized just how much bread I had eaten and had to lower my bread to veggie ratio drastically. The lentil stews were all tasty and only one was spicy. The cabbage was sweet and the collard greens were simmered longer than needed but tasted fine. My least favorite dishes were the cold ones with the injera mixed in. I was heading for an injera overload. Aside from that, this was overall a very good vegetarian meal.
Unfortunately the end of our meal was a bit chaotic. As with many of my meals lately, I had a Scoutmob coupon on my iphone. Another couple in the restaurant also had one and asked for their bill five minutes before I did. The manager did not understand the concept of the coupon and obviously had never heard of Scoutmob. Why a restaurant would join a service and not inform their employees is beyond me. Luckily the other couple did much of the legwork in explaining the coupon and when my friend and I piped in that we too had this, he begrudgingly gave us the discount. Nothing like haggling over a bill to win over new customers!
