Mesob Ethiopian Cuisine has a lot of things going for it. The new inhabitant of a prime, though prone to quick turnover, Corner dining venue, it has the advantage of holding a virtual Charlottesville monopoly on traditional Ethiopian cuisine. It also boasts a native Ethiopian chef and a uniquely ethnic look. Unfortunately, the new restaurant's authentic appeal was trumped this past weekend by its variable and often sub-par cuisine.
While the herby wheat-shell sambussa pockets sounded tempting, the restaurant was out of its primary ingredient, ground beef, as well as avocado and a decently-carbonated soda, for the record.
The other appetizer options prove unremarkable if not poor. Shorba, though surely healthy, is essentially a run-of-the-mill lentil soup enhanced by its accompanying wedge of thick, warm, slightly pizza-doughy himbasa. The himbasa proves far more appealing than the other Ethiopian bread injera, which is featured prominently in all of the entrees. Mesob's "special salad," meanwhile, features a crisp medley of mixed raw vegetables, which are unfortunately doused in overwhelming quantities of what seems to be nothing more than an Italian vinaigrette.
Diners can choose from an extensive menu offering lamb, beef, chicken, fish and vegetarian dishes, most of which are prepared with variations on the same herbs and spices and simmered in purified butter or olive oil. If you're new to Ethiopian cuisine and are not sure what to order, consider the combination options, which provide small portions of several dishes for groups of two or three.
Combo #5, for example, features tastes from each category of the menu: lamb, beef, chicken and vegetarian. The insipid ensemble platter could use some garnish for visual appeal, but the food itself proved intriguing, distinctive and intermittently tasty, if not abundant for the price.
Zilzil Tibis is the platter's clear flavor-winner: strips of sautéed lean meat combine with plenty of garlic, tomato, ginger, rosemary and spicy jalepeno to create a hearty and exotic dish reminiscent of Asian cuisines.
Yebeg Alicha Wet is an interesting combination of meat, onion and spices but lacks Zilzil Tibis's welcome jalepeno kick, and the diced lamb, served with a mushy vegetable purée, tends to be more gamey than tender. Alicha Doro Wet, the platter's poultry offering, is more straightforward: a pair of hard-boiled eggs accompanies two colorfully-marinated chicken drumsticks. The combo is finished with two legume-based, stew-like vegetarian concoctions, one of which boasts the bold, unmistakable flavoring of the African cayenne spice berbere.
After the appetizer course, you'll have to relinquish your knife and fork at Mesob; the ubiquitous injera takes their place as edible cutlery. Described as a "highly nutritious soft flatbread made from wheat and teff flour," injera is an Ethiopian tradition and the cornerstone of every entrée served at Mesob.
Illustrated diagrams at each place setting instruct diners in the step-by-step process of eating in the authentic Ethiopian style: tear off a palm-sized piece of the crêpe-like bread and use it to scoop up your bite of food. It's a fun enough process; the problem is that it requires the ingestion of vast quantities of injera, which is apparently a distinctly acquired taste. Similar to buckwheat pancakes in its coloring and musky aroma, the soft, sponge-like flatbread is salty, yeasty, pungent and even slightly rancid-tasting.
After dinner, Mesob offers a few disappointingly American-style desserts, such as cheesecake and ice cream. Instead, try the traditional Ethiopian coffee, which is satisfyingly strong and artfully presented in an individual pot with a tiny cup and saucer.
Of course, it's nice to see that exotic, traditionally metropolitan cuisine is burgeoning in Charlottesville. Unfortunately, innovation doesn't always taste good. In this case, Mesob fails to live up to expectations.
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