Eat Great Cheap 2015Owner Alemayehu Yonas is so finicky about the beef he serves at his market and makeshift restaurant—a few tables with plastic chairs—that he serves only grass-fed meat (the variety beloved by the French and many foodies, as opposed to the fattier, more controversial corn-fed that dominates the American market) and ages his slabs of rump and shank in a cellar in the back. Little wonder, then, that his kitchen turns out some of the tastiest preparations oftibs—a sort of fajitas, with sizzling strips of beef joined by onions and peppers—in a crowded field. For the intrepid, there’s tere sega, in which strips of raw beef are sliced off, swiped through the Ethiopian barbecue sauce known as awaze, and chased with whiskey.
Cuisine: Ethiopian
Where you can get it: 3811-A S. George Mason Dr., Falls Church; 703-998-5322
Also good: Lamb tibs; kitfo (beef tartare).
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
