Yordanos Ethiopian Restaurant

[FRONT FACADE IMAGE MISSING]

🇪🇹 ETHIOPIA
📍 4020 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Crenshaw, South Los Angeles
🅿️ Street Parking
🥤 Beer and wine

🌱 Vegetarian Friendly

When you arrive at Yordanos in Crenshaw, the exterior does not hint to the joy that you will eventually find inside. The gate appears to be down, the neon open sign will probably not be on, and only a bit of light might be shining through the door if it is dark outside. But the warmth of the space and the wonderful aromas smack your senses as soon as the door is opened and you take one step past the threshold.

The restaurant has the feel of a place that has been around for its community a long time, but in reality the grand opening was in the summer of 2019. Despite surviving many months without in-person dining during the pandemic, nowadays you will find groups of friends coming to talk with each other over beer, wine, or Ethiopian coffee, or enjoying an NBA game on the TV after finishing a meal.

With the flags of both Ethiopia and Eritrea on the counter and walls full of photos, artwork, and handicrafts, Yordanos might be the epicenter of East African life in Los Angeles outside of Little Ethiopia. While there is a page of the menu that is titled breakfast and indeed has some morning items like scrambled eggs with injera and multiple options of ful, the restaurant opens at noon daily, so make your plans for the first meal of the day accordingly.

Most of your main dishes will arrive together on an appropriately sized dish covered in injera, but if you would like an appetizer the restaurant makes some really delicious sambusas ($3/each, below). These triangular pastries can be filled with lentils (recommended) or ground beef, and each bite shatters hundreds of pieces of the thin, fried shell.

The vegetable version especially is already filled with plenty of spices, but the sambusas arrive with a small plate of awaze sauce for dipping. This glowing red condiment is found in plenty of the other dishes as a base of spices, but using it as a dip is a nice way to enjoy all of its bold tastes directly. If you are not one for heat, use it sparingly.

When the meal arrives, it instantly turns your table into a celebratory occasion. The beauty of Ethiopian food is always important, and presentation is part of a meal. Seen below is a plating of the vegetable with fish combo and goden tibs, the latter which take the place of prominence in the center surrounded by many colors of vegetable stews and salad.

The vegetable plate is known as beyeanetu, but can be upgraded to include a whole trout that is fried in specific Ethiopian style. This beyeanetu with fish ($23.99, above and below) is a good entry to the restaurant if you are coming for the first time and do not feel the need to eat red meat. The fish itself is fried expertly and full of flavor hidden under its crispy exterior.

The colors that circle the plate besides a crisp salad with delicious dressing are black and yellow lentils, collard greens, cabbage with potatoes, shiro, and attar kik, a stew of split peas. More awaze arrives with the big plate to be used as desired, but your first round of tastes should be made without it so that the subtleties and differences of each option can be enjoyed when picked up with injera.

If you happen to show up to Yordanos on a Sunday, you can order their special goden tibs ($20.99, below), fatty beef ribs that are full of rosemary, black pepper, and onion. The menu calls their preparation a sauté, but the exterior of most pieces is quite crisp as if they have also been deep fried. Sautéed onions and green peppers finish off the presentation.

Two-thirds of the meat eaters at the table found the beef itself to be too chewy, but that just left more for the person tasked to write about the meal. Big hunks of ribs still on the bone are mixed with tiny, crispy bits and everything in between, and is altogether delightful. The range of textures from fatty to crunchy is a definite plus and Sundays will always need to include this order in the future.

Tej - Ethiopian honey wine.

One of many Ethiopian beer choices.

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