Muzita Abyssinian Bistro

We actually ate here Friday Night, on the 13th...cue scary Michael Myers) music here. Pause. Michael Myers the hockey masked serial killer, not Michael Myers) from the sucktastic "Love Guru". I replaced my 3/12 post (the GQ one) with this one, so the GQ one would come up first! So, no, I did not use the flux capacitor and go back in time like Marty McFly. After reading the article in Night and Day's restaurant reviews, we decided to try out the new "Abyssinian" place in this neighborhood. I learned that Abyssinian also refers to the area that is Ethiopia, but Muzita's owners are Eritrean. This place opened in October 2008 and is named after a relative.
University Heights near dusk:

Muzita is a cute converted cottage located near the University Heights sign, across nearby is the gaylicious Lei Lounge. Here is the review from The San Diego Union Tribune's Night & Day, which prompted me to make reservations after reading it. Here are some other reviews from Urban Spoon and Yelp. I thought we'd try the place and since it was Lent, we could go for Vegetarian items on a Friday night. Luckily I got reservations at 6 pm. We got parking around the corner near Lancer's Bar.

It wasn't crowded when we got there. My first impression was, "Man this place is small!" and "They have nice decor here". Here is the view from our table; we were seated near the front door by the outdoor patio:

View sans groovy curtain. Nice wooden floors and beautiful photographs adorning the walls. One thing I noticed was that we were the only Asians (Filipinos) here. Wait, I take that back. There was a couple sitting on the front patio that looked to be Asian (not sure of the exact ethnicity). There were a few African Americans (our server and a couple of bartenders). Not sure if they were of Eritrean/Ethiopian descent. Not that they had to be. We didn't see the owner or his wife (as described in the Night and Day article); he would have been easy to spot since he has dreadlocks. This place was pretty yuppified, i.e. urban white hipster. That also means that this place would be pricey. It's in a neighborhood that's rapidly becoming a getrified haven. Not that I think that is wrong, mind you. I'm glad to see more diversity.

Menu cover made of cork. When I first saw it, I almost thought it read "Mualta" because of the wierd font.

Appetizers:

This was the Teff Encrusted Bamya (teff is the grain used to make their unleavened bread called "Injera", "bamya" is okra). Those are microgreens garnishing the dish along with snipped chives. Okra tastes so much better fried. The sliminess factor is lessened. The coating was crunchy in parts; some sections were soaked in the yellow pepper emulsion. We really liked this appetizer because it was sweet, crunchy and earthy (due to the roasted vegetables) at the same time. We used our hands (after they gave us sealed and warmed wet wipes, nice!); no forks here.

Drinks:
My "Mess" (honey wine) and Bert's Meta Beer. He'd already tried the other types of Ethiopian beers at the other places we'd been. He'd also tried Hinano which is a Tahitian beer (during our honeymoon eons ago). I liked my glass of honey wine - it was pretty sweet. I could've downed it quickly but I wanted it to last. I've chosen to stay away from alcohol after having gone through treatment last year. You know, exercise more, eat healthier, etc. But I figured, a drink once in a while won't hurt me.

The other appetizer we ordered were the Sambussas which came with three and were cut in half. We ordered the meatless sambussas. Nice presentation, eh? They were half moon shaped, not triangular like in the other places, and much bigger too. The fillings were also substantial. They looked kind of nice, standing on the flat side, propped up like Busby Berkeley chorus girls interspersed with lightly dressed lettuce leaves and microgreen garnish. Lovely and tasty too!

Spinach & Collards Sambussa. FYI - My nail polish is called Gothik by Sephora; it's a dark, smoky gray (kind of like gun metal!). I've switched from my dark purple to this new color recently. Very rocker chick.

Stewed vegetable Sambussa. Look at that filling! This was pretty substantial. No thin filling. Still, we felt something was missing...

Bert and I realized that the sambussas needed to be kicked up a bit. We asked for hot sauce and the host brought some out. They call it Awaze sauce and it's potent in a slow and sneaky way. Kind of reminds me of Harissa sauce.

Lo and behold, our entrees which came family style:

Uncovered:

Vegetarian entrees:
Our two entrees were combined and included a green salad in the middle. There were only two rolls of injera so we asked for more. We ordered the Hamli (spinach and collards) with a side of Timtimo (red lentils) along with the Prawns Kilwa and the side of alitcha (stewed vegetables):

Seafood items:
Closeup of the Prawn Kilwa which was really delicious. There were about 5 or 6 large prawns in there. Thankfully, they were shelled. They were so tasty with the awaze sauce. TC had a few bites but preferred to eat the vegetarian items on the platter instead. A Caucasian couple who were sitting at the bar earlier, were seated next to us for dinner. It was also their first time at Muzita as well as their first time trying Ethiopian food. The man said, "This is a departure from our usual Mexican". Something tells me that they don't go out for ethnic food very much. Ya think? We found out that they live in the Kensington area and that they have a four year old girl who isn't a very adventurous eater. They ended up ordering a beef item and the prawns. The wife ended up using a fork while her husband used his hands (right on bro!).

TC had suggested that we have Ethiopian a few weeks back which was another reason why I wanted us to try this place. I'm glad that she's willing to try new things. That and the fact that she enjoys utensil free eating! After we got our food, the restaurant started to get really crowded. A couple with a small child came in and they happened to be friends with the couple next to us. "We're on our date night...with our child" said the woman. Unfortunately, they did not have reservations and since the restaurant was fully booked inside and outside, they had to be turned away.

After our dinner, we asked about desserts. Here were the choices: Tiramisu, Creme Brulee and this - the Tangerine sorbet with fresh berries. If I may say so, the desserts weren't really "Abyssinian" at all. I was disappointed by their offerings. I was expecting more authentic choices. Like what? I have no idea, but I wasn't expecting "tiramisu"! As you can see by the photo, we got the third choice to "cleanse our palates". Ha ha. I just wanted to write "cleanse our palates". The sorbet was quite tangy and fresh, but I wasn't a fan of the sour stuff, so Bert and TC happily polished it off.

The damage for tonight was $71 (sans tip). Yikes! Now, if we ate at Harar, Awash, Red Sea, or even Asmara (which is the nicest out of the first three mentioned, but I actually like Harar the best), our bill would have been cut in half. Okay, maybe $40 total. That's the price to pay when eating in an a relatively new and yearning-to-be upscale new restaurant. I'm not spraying Haterade on this place, ok? Not at all! We liked it and I'd probably go here again to eat that okra! But...(and there's always a 'but'), it lacked the authenticity and grittiness of the other Ethiopian places, which I really like.

The service here was really good - the host was pretty cool and accomodating, as was our waiter. Remember the basket cover on our food platter? I originally wanted to take a photo of that before he uncovered the food, but he did it too fast. Bert asked him later on to bring it back so I could take a photo. I was kind of embarassed but took the photo anyways just for this blog. Anyhow, our server was really cool and answered all of our questions knowledgably; he was very friendly and attentive.

I knew what to expect demographics wise when we came to Muzita, but you know the saying about eating at an ethnic restaurant...If you don't see any people of that ethnicity eating there...turn around and walk away". Well, we weren't going to walk out! It's kind of a double edged sword. It's good people are wanting to try new things. More power to them (we're part of that crowd as well). But the very people/culture to which the restaurant pays homage weren't frequenting the place. Well, maybe they do, but they weren't there last night. No worries. It was good to see the place jumping. The restaurant seemed to be doing pretty well - it was packed when we left.

Here's the view leaving:

Heading home via El Cajon Blvd:

But not before stopping by Eclipse Chocolat for a more substantial dessert. That sorbet didn't do it for me. It was too sour (which Bert and TC loved). I got the Salted Caramel Cupcake (the salt is infused with Lavender) which we've had before. I like that combination of sweet and salty. The lavender I could actually do without though.

Cross section of the cupcake. You can see some of that oozing caramel. TC and I shared this since Bert has sworn off chocolate (as well as meat and rice) for Lent:

After savoring this decadent dessert, we finally headed home. It was pretty fun going out to eat, although the check total was a bit more than we were used to paying (but we knew it was coming). We'll be trying out some other places really soon...