Cheap Eats 2016: Keren

About Keren

Location(s)
1780 Florida Ave NW
Washington, DC 20009
NW Northwest Dr
Silver Spring, MD
Extra-Cheap

Even rainy weeknights can mean a wait for a table at this cozy Ethiopian-Eritrean restaurant in Adams Morgan. Credit the warm welcome and generous, home-style dishes that rarely edge past $10. You won’t find all the staples—there’s no kitfo or pricier proteins like lamb—but the kitchen excels with its concise menu. As at the best diners, breakfast is served all day, and you can pick your buzz between potent Ethiopian coffee and a cold St. George beer. The ful—a sort of bean chili topped with jalapeños, tomatoes, yogurt, onions, and two scrambled eggs—is delicious at any hour. Groups should go for the house special: a shareable platter of injera ladled with two kinds of stewed lentils, tomato salad, braised cabbage, and other vegetarian pleasures, with a soulfully spiced heap of beef tibs at the center.

Also good: Fata with egg sisi (chopped injera with eggs and spicy tomato sauce); special tibs with chicken.

See what other restaurants made our 2016 Cheap Eats list. This article appears in our May 2016 issue of Washingtonian.


Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

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.

Food Editor

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.