Messob Ethiopian Restaurant

My boyfriend and i have had ethiopian food a few times before in northern california, but never in LA. so we decided to give Messob a try. The food was absolutely delicious. We ordered the combinations and they were so good. Perfect price for the perfect amount of food. Service was great, everyone was friendly. They have really neat seating areas that I have yet to try. Go in a large group and you get to be seated in this hut like thing. They also have a sink outside of the bathrooms for handwashing!

I visit Messob pretty often and if I lived any closer to it, I'd probably be there once a week. It's an insanely good value! The food is great & they have combo platters so that you can try a little of everything. I love the vegetarian combo platter. (I am NOT a vegetarian, but this is REALLY good!) It's supposed to feed 2 people, but in actually could feed 4. Plus, it comes with baklava. Add a couple glases of mead and your bill is about $30. You can't beat that!

I've had some knock-out Eritrean and Ethiopian food, and this was just so-so. I wish I'd gone across the street to Rosalind's which I think is better. The food at Messob tasted like it had been made in a large batch, and the flavor was bland. The wait staff didn't seem particularly friendly, either, but that could have been a bit of a cultural thing. I don't need to have someone hold my hand and tell me I'm wonderful, but a smile and some earnest interest in my dining experience is always welcome. And that reminds me: we were never asked about how we liked our food... until we were well finished. I wasn't impressed and won't return in the near future.

My friend visited from Virginia, and wanted to try Ethiopian. We were seated immediately at one of the traditional tables (Messobs) but decided it wasn't very comfortable so we moved over to a regular table.

The only issue we had with the place, and I believe another reviewer mentioned it as well) is that the waitresses who seemed to be native Ethiopian, didn't do much to answer any of our questions. Since nether of us had ever been to an Ethiopian restaurant and knew nothing about the food we figured the staff could help guide us through our experience. Although very sweet and with a big smile, her answer to each question about the menu was "It's very good-very traditional." Since we were both vegetarian we figured we couldn't go wrong with the vegetarian sampler. I'm slightly adventurous, but I still wouldn't mind KNOWING what I'm eating! It was good and traditional, and now my friend and I have a new experience to look back on.
We also liked that they have complimentary valet parking!

This was the first time that I ever tried a Ethiopian Cuisine. I must say I loved the experience at Messob for a change. My firend and I tried an appetizer (sambussa) combination dish (bread, lamb, chicken, peas), beaf, iced tea and a sweet dish. Sambussa is the same as the Indian samosa, a deep-fried dish stuffed with peas and spices. The main dish consisted of a big bread on a big plate, with the different spicy "curries" on it. It was very good.
About the waitresses, one of them was nice and smiling and cordial, the other was a bit serious. While the first one took our orders patiently, understanding the fact that we had no idea about Ethiopian cuisine, the other didn't even care to explain(we asked, she didn't understand or she didn't care) that the food she was serving was to be eaten with hands and not with utensils, we figured it out after looking around.
Overall, I however have a positive impression about the place and the food, though the cuisine seems pretty limited in variety.