Who needs meat when there's Cafe Colucci?
Addictive Ethiopian sauces are spicy, savory
San Fransisco Chronicle
 If I ever decided to become a vegetarian, I know I could live quite happily on Ethiopian food. Cafe Colucci in Oakland makes me think hard about making the switch, especially because I could be well-fed on the cuisine inexpensively.
The restaurant also serves some delicious meat dishes as well as a handful of pastas, a nod to the days when Italy occupied Ethiopia. But it was on my first visit, when I could hardly make a dent in the six-item vegetarian combination ($9.95), that I fell in love with the place...
Service can also be too casual and inattentive. On every visit, we had to flag our waitress down if we wanted another beer or more water. The kitchen can be slow at times, too. One afternoon, we waited more than 40 minutes for our food.
But the truth is I might be willing to wait even longer for some of those wonderful vegetarian dishes. >>more
The little restaurant occupies one and half rooms on Telegraph Avenue near Alcatraz in Oakland. It sits next to an African art store and a shop selling Ethiopian foodstuff, essentially creating a mini-mall. The dining room itself is quite nice, with Ethiopian art decorating its honey-colored walls and undulating cloths covering the ceiling giving it a tent-like atmosphere. The tables are quite small - big people will feel crowded sitting side to side - but some of them are very cool. Our table had eight panels filled with different grains and beans under a glass sheet. The other room, where the open kitchen was, is devoid of any atmosphere and apparently is only used when the restaurant is completely full. There seems to be sidewalk dining during the day, but they don't have heaters so it's too cold to eat out at night. >>more
Exotic Ethiopia
by
Nancy Freeman
Diablo Mag
 A crowd of happy diners jams Café Colucci, a storefront Ethiopian restaurant in North Oakland decorated with African art. Parties share their meals family-style as they cluster around tables bearing huge platters of food. They are eating with their hands.
Pulling off pieces of the soft, bubbly flatbread called injera, they reach for fragrant morsels of red-tinged stew, clumps of brightly colored legumes, cooked greens, and homemade farmer's cheese. The diners wrap injera around these succulent bites and pop them into their mouths. Injera lines the platters as well. When the chunks of meat, the piles of spiced lentils, the greens, and the salads are finally gone, the diners finish up the bread, now deliciously soaked in a mixture of spice and sauce.
There are no plates or silverware on the tables. The Ethiopians, by custom, carefully eat with their right hands.... Ethiopians use more spices than any other sub-Saharan Africans. Highly spiced stews known as wots contain a blast of berbere, a mix of red chilies, garlic, ginger, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and rue seeds. Café Colucci offers a choice of wots, featuring chicken, lamb, beef, or lentils.
For first-timers who want to ease their way into the heat, Café Colucci's owner, Fetlewerk Tefferi, suggests doro tibs, juicy tidbits of boneless chicken marinated in spices and sautéed with onions, garlic, tomato, and jalapeño. Experienced diners may elect to try kitfo, the Ethiopian version of steak tartare. Finely minced lean beef is spiced with fresh-ground cardamom in seasoned butter. Tefferi will prepare it cooked or raw, according to the individual customer's preference. >>more
Best African Restaurant - 2004, 2002, 2001
Readers Pick
Eastbay Express
Going out for Ethiopian cuisine can be just as much of a childish regression as it is a meal. The amusement of dipping your hands into spiced meats, grains, and vegetables offers rewards both tactile and gastronomical. Café Colucci dishes out these wonders with every dish. The dining area is quaint and quiet, tastefully decorated with Ethiopian folk art, but the food is the big draw. Colucci's owners import the restaurant's staple spices directly from Africa. Break off a piece of injera (a savory pancake made from the grain teff ) and dig in. Vegetarians have lots of tasty options, though newcomers are advised to try the messer-wot (spicy lentils in a red chili sauce). Colucci's meat dishes are just as good, including the kitfo (minced raw beef flavored with fresh cardamom), the banatu (mouth-watering beef slices in a tangy cardamom sauce), or the doro tibs (boneless, sautéed chicken pieces cooked with garlic, onions, and peppers). >>more
|
