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Dashen Ethiopian Cuisine-Ethiopian Yellow Pages

Dashen Ethiopian Cuisine (Ethiopian Yellow Pages) (formally known as Desta) is a full-service, authentic Ethiopian restaurant serving a reasonably-priced dishes. Our clean, vibrant, well-managed restaurant is warm and inviting.

Guests of all nationalities are invited to join us for a delicious meal, and to experiment with authentic Ethiopian food.

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​Ethiopian cuisine characteristically consist of spicy vegetable and meat dishes, usually in the form of wat (or wot), a thick stew, served atop Injera a large sourdough flat bread. Injera bread is about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter and made out of fermented Teff flour, a grain native to Ethiopia. Ethiopians eat with their hands, using pieces of Injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes. Utensils are rarely used with this dish.

While most of the entrees include Beef,Lamb, Chicken and Fish, our dishes are perfect for vegetarian and vegan eaters.

We are also unique in that we have a whole menu that serves a variety of crepes! While it’s non traditional, it works!

We look forward to serving you soon.

Serving ten years as a foreign aid worker in East Africa, so much of my work led me to experience and taste many cuisines in the East Africa/ Upper Nile Region. One of the few flavors that have stayed with me, and yet seldom delivers outside of the region is the incredible taste and experience that is Ethiopian Cuisine. Not tourist trade, not western inspired fusion or any other such poppycock. The “I have come to your home let me feed you some food” experience that time-and-time again has been the root of so many precious memories.

Now separated some years from those past days, coming up to Father’s Day, I began to crave that elusive yet comforting feeling of being back there. So it is with great and wonderful joy that I say to the family at Dashen Ethiopian Cuisine, you not only have the best Ethiopian cuisines in New Jersey, but also the most authentic.

Modern Ethiopian vibes and sound fill the senses when you enter, but not overpowering to the point of shouting your conversation. This is a place meant for relaxed dining, so if that’s not your thing, look elsewhere. No, don’t look elsewhere, at least get an appetizer to go, you won’t regret. Seating probably about conservatively fifty, it wasn’t overly fancy, but well-apportioned. Its location (and its former incarnation as Desta), and the more well-known Ethiopian restaurant (but not better and much less pretentious, now closed, shall remain nameless) keeps the numbers subdued somewhat. While I hope for success, I also hope Dashen retains “hidden gem” status so selfishly I can always get a table.

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