MAKEDA RESTAURANT

In addition to it's outstanding food, Makeda's offers live entertainment Friday and Saturday nights which features some of the best African, Reggae, Salsa and Calypso bands in the area. A wall length window runs between the restaurant and the adjoining gallery - Esohe's African Gift Shop. The window affords diners a picturesque view of imported African art and artifacts on display at the gift shop. Makeda's exceptional, striking decor also features standing light fixtures that mimic delicate trees as well as appointments over the bar and stage that evoke thoughts of thatched roof homes found in African Villages. Critics have been raving for years about the "Beauty of Makeda" and it's resplendent atmosphere, which remains intimate in spite of dramatically high ceilings and parquet floors.

Ogbe Guobadia, Makeda's owner

The New York Times
December 29, 2002 - by Karla Cook
For the New Year, A New Guide To Jersey Dining Compiled

'' WHO needs Manhattan or Philadelphia when the Garden State holds such a range of restaurants? To bring that idea home, the New Jersey section is introducing an annual dining guide...

MAKEDA, 338 George Street, New Brunswick; (732) 545-5115. With live music on stage near the bar, you could be in for a loud evening, but it will be only a minor distraction from the exotic Ethiopian- and Moroccan-inspired dishes served with injera, a spongy flat bread that substitutes for fork and spoon. Succulent meats and tender vegetables, served in communal dishes, may be flavored with any combination of basil, cardamom, cinnamon, chilies, cloves, fenugreek, garlic, ginger, mint, onions, peppers and rue. Vegetarians will do well here; everything from collards to lentils is treated with respect. Sampler platter, about $28. (Cook, 5/6/01)..." >>more

The New York Times
May 6, 2001 - by Karla Cook
Hands-On Dining

''... But I will happily subject myself to that triumvirate of youth to eat at Makeda, a sophisticated Ethiopian restaurant that serves food so good that I have added it to the very short list of places to take certain friends when they visit.

It's also the place for those who really, really like vegetables. Because their dominant religion encourages myriad days of abstinence from meat, Ethiopians have developed quite a way with vegetables, evolving complex, mostly heat-filled seasonings from basil, cardamom, cinnamon, chilies, cloves, fenugreek, garlic, ginger, mint, onions, peppers and rue, among others.

Certainly the food is from the Southern Hemisphere; though Mr. Guobadia, 39, is from Nigeria, he settled on Ethiopian cuisine for the five-year-old restaurant because of emphasis on vegetables and the established popularity of Ethiopian food in the United States..." >>more

Home News Tribune
"A Neighborhood United Nations brings African flavor to the palate and the city." >>more

Home News Tribune
"The Beauty of Makeda" >>more

The Daily Targum: Rutgers University Paper
"Epicurean delights by way of Ethiopian cuisine" >>more