Massawa sur Paris

A restaurant of lords with maximum staff (hahan) by HjeuneCrack

What a nice surprise ! We found ourselves in this neighborhood by chance, and the smell of spices invited us to this restaurant. The dish we chose is very similar to an Ethiopian dish, but much more spicy. It was so filling that we had trouble finishing it. A little extra for the very typical East African decor.

Excellent food and ambience. Recommended to try in Paris 😊

Spicy and good Ethiopia food in Paris

One of those rare finds which was unplanned but became a fantastic dining experience The food comes out with no cutlery and you eat with your fingers. Amazing food. Unique. Owner was fantastic.

We have now tried three different Ethiopian restaurants in Paris, and have spent a month traveling around Ethiopia in addition to having g eaten Ethiopian food in amongst and with the Ethiopian community in the U.S. for over twenty-five years. Of the three restaurants we tried Massawa is definitively the best and most authentic. It is the only one of the three to use true injera (the crepe-like base on top of which all of the ingredients are served). Without injera, Ethiopian food just isn’t Ethiopian to me; think substituting cous-cous for rice in sushi. Meanwhile, the use of authentic spices was also most evident here. Everything seemed freshly cooked, which most certainly wasn’t true in one of the other most highly rated Ethiopian restaurants, while in the other one (also extremely highly rated) there were hardly any of the true spices used that make Ethiopian food so remarkable—even though several reviewers used the word “authentic”. Have they never had true Ethiopian food or are they simply friends of the owner, trying to be nice? I don’t need to know. This place is very good, and very authentic, though the spinach “gomen” was the one dish which seemed truly lacking in Ethiopian flavor. I should add that there was a dish in the menu I’ve never seen before, possibly typical of a region we haven’t visited, or more common in Eritrea (once part of Ethiopia) where the owner is from. It is the dish that looks a bit like humus but tastes nothing like it. Made from puréed lentils with a nice kick added in the form of some sort of chili pepper, it was truly delicious.

Really typical address, no fuss, just good traditional, well-made cuisine. Thank you for this discovery

Generous and tasty dishes at unbeatable prices. We eat without cutlery, a first for me. Options for vegetarians.

Excellenr rapport qualité prix!

Dîner avec 5 amis: Accueil très chaleureux; service aux petits soins ; grand plat délicieusement garni de différentes saveurs délicatement composées par le gérant du restaurant. Merci beaucoup pour ce beau moment : ne changez rien !