Adey Abeba: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Adey Abeba serves Ethiopian food in a Victorian house on East Union Street, and its menu tags the vegan and vegetarian dishes, so you can build a meatless dinner without asking your server to translate. The kitchen cooks meat too. Beef tibs, kitfo, and doro wat share the menu with a full vegan section, which puts this place between a meatless restaurant and a steakhouse.

The family opened Adey Abeba in 2005 in Seattle’s Central District, and the next generation runs the restaurant now. The name means “young flower” in Amharic. Dinner runs Monday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Order the Vegan Feast at $31 if you’re sharing. The menu calls the feast an expanded vegan sampler for two and tags the feast both vegan and gluten-free. For one person, the Vegan Sampler costs $24 and covers leafy greens, root vegetables, and legumes on injera. You can also assemble your own plate from the vegan dishes, which cost $7 as a side or $13 as a full entree. The choices include shiro (a spiced ground chickpea stew) and gomen (collard greens simmered with garlic and herbs). Misser is red lentils in berbere sauce, kik alicha is yellow split peas with turmeric and ginger, and tikel gomen braises cabbage with carrots. Fasolia pairs green beans with carrots, and qeysir cooks beets with potatoes.

The small bites carry their own tags. The menu marks dirkosh vegetarian. Dirkosh costs $11 and brings crisp injera chips, garlic salsa, and ayeb, a fresh cheese. Sinig stuffs two jalapenos with onions and tomatoes in garlic mitmita oil for $7. The house-baked hambasha bread comes with a spread for $12. Katenga, toasted injera with an awaze-spiced kibbeh spread and yogurt, costs $8. The sambusa comes with spiced lentils, spiced ayeb, or herb ayeb as meatless fillings, or with spiced beef, so tell your server which filling you want. The Adey Caesar at $14 uses romaine, dabo croutons, Parmesan, and korerima dressing, and the menu marks the salad vegetarian.

For dessert, the fried baklava costs $9 and comes with honey syrup, so vegans should skip the baklava. The Bün Brûlée, a coffee custard, costs $7. The coffee ceremony serves three for $15, and the ritual is worth the time if you can stay.

Know the catches. Standard injera contains wheat, and gluten-free injera costs $2 more. The meat and vegan dishes share one kitchen, and I found no statement about separate prep. The kitchen seasons many dishes with niter kibbeh, a spiced clarified butter, so ask which vegan dishes skip the butter. Dishes like doro wat and kitfo sit next to the vegan stews on the menu, which is why you should read each tag before you order.

Call (206) 322-1617 for takeout, catering, or questions. The address is 2123 East Union Street. The restaurant offers free Wi-Fi and pours cocktails and beer, including a drink called the East Union that combines Hennessy with traditional honey wine. Dinner starts at 4 p.m., so an early table gives you time to work through the sampler and a coffee ceremony before 11.