Ranch Side Cafe

This Breakfast Joint Serves the Only Ethiopian Food in the Valley | Eater LA

"Tucked in a small strip mall just off the 210 Freeway in Lake View Terrace, near the horse ranches of Sylmar, I found Ranch Side Cafe, a 28-year-old breakfast spot run by Ethiopian American sisters Zenashe and Weynitu Bayou. Regulars tuck into oversized chile relleno burritos doused in ranchero sauce, French toast with crispy bacon, and other all-day breakfast staples—omelets, pancakes, eggs Benedict, breakfast burritos, and biscuits and gravy—while unexpectedly the cafe also serves the only Ethiopian menu in the San Fernando Valley. After taking over a nearby restaurant 28 years ago and expanding to an 80-plus item menu, the sisters added eight Ethiopian options 12 years ago at their mother's urging, and now almost half of customers order from that section. I watched how their doro wat (labeled “Ethiopian chicken” on the menu) is built by caramelizing onions with garlic, ginger, cayenne, and ghee for a minimum of five hours before adding chicken for another 20 minutes, and how their vegetarian platter features shiro wot (creamy chickpea stew), misir wot (Berbere-spiced lentils), tikil gomen (sauteed cabbage), key sir alicha (spiced red beets), kik alicha (yellow split peas), and gomen (lightly spiced collard greens) all served on sour injera made from teff flour. The menu also includes two awaze tibs (one beef, one mushroom), and inventive crossovers—vegan tacos filled with the Ethiopian vegetable blend, fir fir mixed with scrambled eggs and wrapped in a tortilla as a breakfast burrito—while many stews can be wrapped in injera or a whole wheat tortilla for takeout. The sisters say they maintain the wide menu so the cafe can survive, and their simple goal is to keep serving filling, warming food to hungry customers who come early from all over Southern California to board horses nearby." - Fiona Chandra