Lucy Ethiopian

An Ethiopian restaurant opened near us this past year and Jennifer and I had gone there earlier in the year to eat. We both had the vegetarian plate and really enjoyed it.

Last week, I found out my friend Rod had never tried Ethiopian cuisine, so a bunch of decided to get together at Lucy. Since I had friends who were meat eaters, we decided to try a few different meat dishes. Jennifer would get the vegetarian combo once again while the other four of us would split one vege combo and three meat dishes.

In deciding on the dishes we opted for one chicken, one lamb, and one beef. Under the direction of the waitress we got the Green Chicken (not on their online menu.) It was cubed chicken with collard greens and was good. Sabrina picked the Yo Beg Tibs as the lamb dish which was quite nice as well. I lobbied for the Gored Gored as the beef entree. This is a dish that is usually served raw. The waitress warned us of that and went to check with the kitchen to see if they had the meat for it. They did have it and we did get it. In previous cases where I have ordered raw beef, it has been ground (like the Ethiopian dish Kitfo.) I guess I wasn't thinking because the Gored Gored description clearly states cubed. At least on the web, I don't recall it on the paper menu, but I doubt the description would vary. Anyway, the Gored Gored was the last dish plated and it was a bowl of bright red (seasoned) cubed beef. It looked good, but we all found it to be far too chewy. After a few moments of mastication, you were still chomping away, and most of the seasoning was gone. Then it was a matter of getting the piece of raw beef small enough to swallow. I had as much as I could, but we were unsuccessful in finishing it. A shame, because I do not like food to go to waste.

The rest of dinner was great and I would go to Lucy again. I cannot say it is the best Ethiopian food in town, but it sure does rival others that I have gone to in Seattle. As may be noted on Yelp, they appear to have some service issues. For one thing, we did not get water for quite some time when dining there. Once we were served water though, (Jennifer got up to ask) we had a full carafe on the table from that point on. They also seem to run out on items. Noted in the Yelp reviews, but Rod also tried to order a Beck's Beer, and they were out. Next time we go, I will probably stick to the really delicious vegetarian combo.