Serves meat, vegan options available. Ethiopian food in a large open atmosphere. Offers a large selection of vegan food, clearly marked that no animal ingredients used in veg food. Open until 11pm on weekends along with a live jazz band.
Category: Vegan-friendly, Ethiopian, Non-veg
Reviews (5)
First Review by SynthVegan
Contributions +77
flavorful food - Edit
I had Ethiopian food for the first time here last week and it was delicious! Everything is very flavorful and lots of vegan options.
Contributions +482
Best Ethiopian in the City - Edit
Towards the end of the menu at Ethiopian Diamond, there is a whole page of vegetarian selections. They are all vegan! One can choose any of these entrees, a combination, or a "Taste of Ethiopia" for one or two people. To start, I love to get the veggie combo sambusa. If you've never had sambusa, they are basically like a flat, triangular samosa. The veggie combo includes the lentil, spinach, and the potato and carrot sambusa's.
For entree's, I usually go with a friend and get two orders of the veggie combo. It is cheaper than getting the "Taste of Ethiopia" for two people. We get six of the seven options to choose from on the combo. The options we usually get are the yemisir watt (spicy red lentils), kik alicha (split peas in sauce), gomen (collard greens), tikel gomen (cabbage and carrots), yatkilt watt (string beans, carrots, and potatoes in sauce), and dinich alicha (potatoes and carrots in sauce). The seventh option is quosta (spinach). This whole dinner comes on a large platter a top of injera bread with a salad in the middle. I love the salad dressing at Ethiopian Diamond! They also bring extra bread to eat the dishes. My favorite is the gomen. I really love greens, though. My friend's favorite is the yemisir watt, but he loves spicy foods.
There is also a special dish on the vegetarian menu which I have never tried. It is the shimbra assa. It is chick pea dough that is formed to look like fish watt (stew). There is also the tofu tibs which is grilled tofu with vegetables in a sauce. I'm usually way too full for dessert, but I believe all the desserts have honey in them.
On Friday's and Saturdays, there is usually a live band playing Ethiopian music at the Broadway location. There is another location on Clark St. near the Howard Red Line stop (Ethiopian Diamond II).
I give Ethiopian Diamond a 4.5/5 stars. They loose half a star because it can be really busy sometimes and the wait staff suffers in service. If you get the chance to try Ethiopian food, I strongly recommend it! It is one of my favorite types of food, for sure.
For a complete review, please see my blog here: http://veganmiss.blogspot.com/2011/12/vegan-chicago-restaurant-review-of_08.html
Pros: excellent food, many vegan options, great atmosphere
Cons: slow service sometimes
Contributions +2128
Great Ethiopian - Edit
I've been eating here for 3 years now. I always get the Veggie Combo where you pick any 3 of their veggie dishes. There are a dozen veg entrees to choose from. Note that they are labeled "Vegetarian" but every one of them is vegan. This is the perfect place to bring vegetarians to show them how good vegan food is. I say this b/c I was coming for years as a vegetarian and didn't even notice every dish was actually vegan (until I went vegan and started paying attention to these things).
There are many meat and seafood items on the menu too so if you are in a mixed crowd of carnivores and veg-heads this place is a good choice.
Contributions +27
Chicago's Best Ethiopian - Edit
Absolutely my favorite Ethiopian in Chicago. They have very nice selection of vegan options and is a great place to dine with omni friends. They're very understanding of the needs of vegans and their menu goes as far to say that "We use vegetable oil in all vegetarian dishes, No butter, no eggs, no milk, no honey!"
Pros: Very friendly, Excellent vegan options
Contributions +2276
Very Tasty! - Edit
I will say this experience was interesting as I don't recall having to eat my food with my hands. So guys/girls, if you're taking someone on a date here for the first time just be mindful that the food can be messy.
This was my first time eating Ethiopian food, it reminded me of a mixture between Indian and Nepalese food; I really liked it. I ordered a Vegetarian combo which consisted of my choice of three dishes - I can't remember for the life of me what those dishes were but I think they were numbers 30, 36 and 38? They were VERY good! The food comes on sponge-like bread that takes on the flavor of the food on top of it; it's quite tasty. [I believe all the veggie dishes are totally Vegan - there is a note about it on the menu as to their definition of Vegetarian]
Overall it was a good experience; however, I will say that although the staff was very nice, the service was slow...and it took forever to get our bill. This won't keep me from going back though...the food was very good.
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