All the way at the end of Dogtown, right between a tattoo shop and a gym, sits a little Ethiopian restaurant called Gursha Ethiopian Grill. Everyone I’ve talked to has had nothing but glowing reviews, so I decided to give it a try. I’ve never had Ethiopian food before, and I was a little bit skeptical of whether I would like it.
The first thing I noticed, completely unrelated to the food, was before I ordered. The owner gave a meal to a homeless man. When I asked him about it, the owner didn’t seem to want to discuss it and instead just asked me for my order. It seemed almost as if he wished I hadn’t pointed it out, which to me made it seem like an even nicer thing to do. It’s good to be reminded of all of the good things humanity does for each other.
When I walked into Gursha, it looked almost like a cafeteria. Several decorations were on the floor, and they even had the same utensil dispensers that my high school had. The food was pre-made, and it was both served and sold by one man at the front. You order what you want and he gives it to you, and then you sit down to eat. It’s not a fancy restaurant, but it isn’t trying to be, and the prices reflect that. I paid $16 in total for my order.
But any trepidation that might’ve arisen was overridden by how amazing the food smelled. Like, I can not overstate the wave of amazingness that hit me as I walked through that door — it smelled heavenly, like ginger and berbere.
More importantly, the food matched the smell, although it was spicier than I anticipated, and I went through several glasses of water. But if you have a half-decent spice tolerance, you’ll probably be fine. But if you’re like me, they have non-spicy options that are clearly marked on their menu. I was just tragically overconfident.
Ethiopian food doesn’t use utensils; instead, you use pieces of the injera — which I can best describe as a giant crepe — to scoop up the food with your hands. Injera is sour, and it has a lot of tiny holes in it that absorb the broth of whatever you’re using it to eat.
But anyway, onto what I actually got: the ziggini and beef tibs. The ziggini was the spicy one, but despite that, I thought it was way better than the beef tibs. It had a texture almost like a really thick curry or a stew, which made it easier to pick up with the injera. It tasted savory and oniony, and like I already said, spicy. The beef tibs were just pieces of meat and vegetables. It was good, but nothing all that special.
If you’ve never had Ethiopian food before and want something safe, I’d recommend that.
All in all, Gursha was really good, especially for the $16 price, and I would definitely recommend eating there.
