Shagga

Address: 6040 Baltimore Ave. , Hyattsville, MD

Phone: 240-296-3030

Neighborhood: Hyattsville

Cuisines: Ethiopian cuisine consists of various vegetable or meat side dishes and entrees, usually a wat or thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread, which is 50 cm (20 inches) in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour. One does not eat with utensils, but instead uses injera (always with the right hand) to scoop up the entrees and side dishes, Breakfast

Opening Hours: Open daily 11 to 10.

Kid Friendly: Yes

Price Range: Inexpensive

Dress: Informal

Noise Level: Chatty

Reservations: Not Needed

Website: Click here to open in new window.

Best Dishes Sambusas (turnovers filled with chicken, beef, or lentils); doro wat (braised chicken and hard-boiled egg in a peppery sauce); kitfo (we like the raw beef very lightly cooked and sided with farmer’s cheese and collards); firfir (a casserole of injera and

Special Features:
Kid Friendly

Ethiopian cooking is essentially homecooking, so the thing to seek is a grandmother or mother who rules the kitchen—and whose cuisine is full of generosity, loving attention to detail, and gracious presentation. At this modest coffee shop, that would be Kelem Lemu, who often can be found spooning her wats, or stews, atop spongy rounds of injera, soliciting feedback about spice levels, and inquiring after diners’ happiness.

She displays a light touch in the kitchen, where hearty fare such as kitfo, an aggressively spiced beef tartare, and doro wat, chicken and egg bathed in a sweet, spicy red-pepper stew, are rendered with clarity and cleanness. It’s a testament to her gifts that the simpler vegetable dishes, including a gingery beet-and-potato salad and a velvety split-pea stew called kik alicha, are strong enough to stand on their own.

Also good: Chicken and lentil sambusas, three-cornered fried pastries; shagga kitfo, with ayeb (Ethiopian cottage cheese) and mitmita (red-pepper spice); beef tibs.