Abay Market Ethiopian food

This is a neighborhood bar where everybody knows your name. I love coming here because it feels like home. Family owned and operated. The food is great, testes like home cooked. I have been coming to this place for over 15 years, and I am still a happy customer!

The owner talks race politics with customers and he sent out my left over to go for wrong customer Please focus on the job . Hope the restaurant is open for all customers. The waitress is respectful and treat all customers equally. The food is fresh but hearing those narrow minded politics is painful. Hope Ethiopian remains One forever

The tibs were on point. They are really the kindest and most hospitable people. Ya the service is slow but the people are nice and it is part of the charm. The food is great and worth a trip for those looking for a little adventure :)

I ordered tibs during early hours and regular waitress are not in and the owners or owners family are working in the restaurant. I ordered regular Tibs for to go. It was poorly cooked, tasteless and made me hate to eat Tibs again. It looks like made from irregular pieces meat from all over the places. On top of that it was overpriced. Don’t be so greedy guys........

This place makes you throw up with that old lady attitude and them awful meals the food is unclean tastes horrible there are too many good Ethiopian cuisines our there don’t go to this place

The most disgusting Place I have ever been in my life. I would not for any body to go there. Old lady knows how to microwave. Please don’t go .

The food is one of the top from that area I love this place originally I am from Minnesota I don't mind going back there I love it thanks guys

The food is unclean and taste nasty their customers service sucks plus they too expensive don’t waste your money

Abay market is much like a rocket ship in that it only does one thing, but damn does it do it well. There are 6 tables, 2 glass fronted drink fridges, and a menu that has I think 4 items on it. 3 of the items appear to be cooked, and 1 is the now famous "tartar" which appeared on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. The owner is a delightful gentleman who I've recognized from my long patronage at Fairouz next door. He recognized me right away and greeted us warmly. We then asked for advice on what to pick. We wanted something spicy, and not raw! lol. I'm not really sure to be perfectly honest with you what we ended up with. I think it was a spicy beef that arrived on an ample for two, pillow of Injera, with a side of homemade cheese. Everything was excellent and the whole experience was slightly haphazard in a way only a hole in the wall could do it. I love this place. They keep it really simple. If you want an all veggie dish, the owner plainly said that you'd need to request the special meal 2 days ahead for them to shop for the ingredients and have it ready. To be honest though, do you know of any restaurant that is going to take a special order from you, shop specifically for the ingredients to make your meal which is totally off menu, and then just charge you the regular meal price? Yeah, this place is pretty special. I love you Abay Market, and I'll see you again soon.

We got a delivery of vegetarian combo and it was great. We finished very quickly and wanted more Great to have option to eat great Ethiopian good during Covid!

Amazing customer service. I felt like I was at my grandmothers house. They treated us so well. We ordered a little bit of most the menu. They separated all the veggie dishes from the meat ones. My girlfriend who is a vegan greatly appreciated this. The food was extremely flavorful. Amazing mix of spices. They were incredibly hospitable and took care of all our needs. I highly recommend.

This place has decent tibs that are maybe a bit fattier than you'd normally want. I ordered delivery from here on a whim through a new delivery service that comped my meal. I ordered tibs. What I received was tasty but maybe not as good as other places in the area: the meat was a bit fattier than I'd have normally liked. The absolutely excellent injera and spices almost made up for it, but not entirely. I can't complain too much - free meal - but would have been slightly miffed had I paid full price.

3.5 - So here's the breakdown on this Ethiopian hole in the wall: About 6 tables. 5 Menu Items (All red meat.) Cold beverages only. Very laid back with a super friendly staff, including the "guy in charge." For what they have, it is delicious, and definitely for the price. The two of us split some sort of tibs...I want to say... #4 for $14. Not bad. I asked the owner for whatever was spiciest and fully cooked and that's what I got. Tender little pieces of meat with spices on injera. What I found interesting was the side of homemade cottage cheese they included with the dish. I've never seen that at any of the other Ethiopian restaurants I've dined at and liked the fact that it really helped cool down my mouth after engulfing all that spicy meat. I asked the owner if they have anything other than meat available and he told me they don't. HOWEVER they would be happy to make vegetarian dishes IF we call 2 days ahead of time. Sweet! The owner and the ladies in the back cooking were super friendly and served us with smiles. To me, happy, friendly owners and cooks usually equates to good food - that's what you get here. If I ever wanted a cheap and quick red meat only Ethiopian bite to eat, I'd come here.

I've eaten at about 20 Ethiopian restaurants in my life. This is the best. It's a hole in the wall joint in the middle of a strip mall. There are about 5 other Ethiopian restaurants in this strip mall, but the one with the cracked sign was the one we chose. There are 5 options on the menu. Five. No descriptions. The drink menu is a fridge in the back. No appetizers. Real men go right to the meal. The owner realized our Westerness and guided us through the menu. He told us what not to get and what to try. We wanted to try the picture of the slabs of raw meat on the menu and he suggested against ordering the large order. Good call. We had Lamb and some other raw meat that came with cheese. I'm not a culinary writer, so I didn't write down the names of what I was eating. I was too busy stuffing the delicious food in my mouth to think about writing anything down. The food was spicy. So spicy that it cut off my ear canals and I had a hard time hearing. You may want to ask for mild, but this place is so old school that I'm not sure you'll get it. All the customers are Ethiopian, so you know you're in a good place. Parking, yeah, parking can be fun. Be aggressive. Don't let these suburbanites push you around. Did I mention this place was featured on the Travel Channel. That one with the older guy with rings on his fingers. Bourdaine or something. Anyway, he doesn't mess around with the places he chooses and this place is great.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon this gem of a restaurant hidden at the end of the Skyline shopping plaza. The first time I went the Tere Sega was not available, but I liked the Kitfo and Tibs so much that I decided that I had to go back another time to try the Tere Sega. Damn am I glad that I did! By my third visit, the owner (Yonas) had recognized me and was incredibly friendly. If you like beef and aren't afraid to try it raw, I dare you to find anything as tasty as these cubes of delicious grass-fed cow, dipped in Berbere (Ethopian spice mix)! Don't let the spartan interior fool you! This place is the real deal for some absolutely incredible Ethopian fare. I've tried to find Ethopian food even half as good back home in LA, but have failed unfortunately.

Spot has tremendous backing in the ethio community. Not from the area so I definitely wanted to scope it out. As an Ethiopian American, I wanted something homemade/ comfort food so I orderd the "kikil" a brothy seasoned meat stew. Slightly disappointed, almost flavorless. Maybe I'll come again, it's a fringe dish so I'm betting the more common dishes would more than suffice.

Raw Meat palace. when you come here, order: "Tere Sega" (cubes of raw beef from grass fed, free range cows) "Kitfo" (Gurage people type of raw beef that is mixed with niter kibeh butter and Ethiopian spices). the best way to enjoy kitfo is by ordering it raw (tere) or leb leb (heat in 10 seconds). there are few ways to prepare kitfo. tere (raw) - leb leb (heat in niter kibeh around 10 seconds) mok yale (to be warm) - geba yale (to go in the pan / med well) - yebesele (well done). Yebeg alicha: lamb stew braised in garlic, ginger, basil and butter. parking is difficult, the place is tiny, always ready for a plan B.

Update: This is a delayed update at that, but I have returned twice since the initial review. There are a few points that I should note for potential diners that hopefully will enhance your experience. 1) Tere Sega is not always available. The second time I went, I was disappointed to discover that they did not have Tere Sega available that day. This was due to their stocks being depleted or perhaps freshness of the beef. Jonas indicated that they receive their shipment on a certain day (this was awhile ago- I believe he said Saturday or Sunday, but don't quote me on it) and that said day was best in terms of guaranteeing availability/freshness. If you're going specifically for this dish, I would consider calling ahead just to check on availability. 2) There is another menu. I am convinced that all hole-in-the-wall restaurants that cater to expats and not a broader "Western clientele" have secret menus. I am aware from first-hand experience that Chinese restaurants are notorious for doing this. It isn't that the menu is an unsaid premise that exists only in the heads of devoted clientele and the kitchen. However, the English-language menu provided to you at Abay Market is NOT the full menu. I noticed all tables had a little business card sized document entirely in Amharic (the national language of Ethiopia). I inquired whether this was a menu and the waitress indicated that it is, but that it is the same as the English language version. NOT TRUE. After a great deal of translation work (Amharic is for some odd reason, nearly impossible to punch out an internet translation of), I present to you the full menu available at Abay Market (Original Amharic Text/Transliteration/Best guess what it is): Abay leyu quret (special raw meat) Abay dulet (tripe and other bits) Abay kitfo (raw ground beef) Gored gored (raw chunks of beef- difference from tere sega is unknown) Yebeg tibs (lamb) Yebere shnt tibs (beef ribeye) Yebeg alicha (lamb yellowish stew) Yebere choma tibs (fatty beef) Yequanta tibs (dried beef/jerky) Yequanta firfir (dried beef with injera bits) Melasena sember (tripe and tongue) Ayibe kitfo (cheese kitfo?) The items that are missing from the English menu off-hand are anything that contains dried beef (I have no idea what that actually is) and the tripe. My guess is that these are a little more ambitious and might be too much for most "American palettes" and thus are left off. I have not tried anything from this menu, but next time I go I will be checking at least some of them out/figuring out what they all are.

Yeah Anthony Bourdain is my idol and he knows what he is talking about. This is the only reason why I stopped here because he did on No Reservations. I've tried Ethiopian food about five times in my life and this is probably the best i've had. There is about 5 items on the menu and I always agree the best places for foods are the ones that keeps it simple. The raw beef tartar dish and lamb dish is what the owner suggested for us and the two dipping sauce made the whole experience that much better.

Only 5 (or 6?) items on the menu, all meat dishes. It's not really a restaurant so much as a place for people to come and hang out. When we were there, there was only one other table (out of 5 available tables) occupied, and they basically watched TV and chatted with the guy in charge. And the breakdown is: food tastes great. Definitely one of the better Ethiopian places at which I've eaten, flavor-wise. However, with such a limited menu and only meat dishes, you get wiped out on it fairly quickly. Because of that, this place won't go into regular rotation for me, despite it being fairly close. I also want to note that the people working there were super super nice. Very friendly and relaxed. The owner/manager (guy behind the register) recommended that I follow my meal with a glass of wine, or if I don't mind, a glass of whiskey. And hey, who can say no to that? I immediately went a bar after and did exactly that. I would recommend but with the caveat that you must really like meat and injera, and preferably like raw/rare meat (1/2 the dishes are raw). I suspect it's not really a place to eat a full meal so much as a place to hang out. But only if the kind of hanging out you like to do is with a bunch of older dudes watching TV, eating meat, in someone's storefront.. You know you're out there.

Amazing! The service was great and the food was amazing! I liked the tribe a lot! Will definitely come again

Good flavor, ok meat, ok decor, good service. I like African food because it's a good change of pace from my normal food routine. I chose Abay market because..well it was the first in the line of restaurants in this strip mall. I'll start with a few non-food related reviews first. The man, who I assume is the owner, was very polite and helpful. Like the previous reviewer pointed out, there are only 4-5 menu items. AND, there are no prices listed! I've actually been to another ethiopian place before and they also didn't list prices. I started to wonder if they wanted us to haggle over the price? I asked and the man said $12.50, which sounded a bit much, but oh well. I got the beef dish and it was enough for two meals. The decor is what you would see in a take out place. There are a few tables available, but no frills. As for the food, the spice and flavor was excellent; exactly what I was looking for; a unique flavor for my overly bored taste buds. And the Injera, a soft spongy ethiopian bread used for meals was excellent. But the meat kind of ruined the meal. It was way overcooked and thus very dry and tough. I don't know if I'll go back to Abay. I still hanker for that strange red pepper paste in my food, but the price and meat is kind of killing it for me. But I wouldn't rule it out. I may try one of the other places first and see how that goes.

I finally came back here, and parking was a lot easier. Maybe last time was just a fluke, or getting here late helped. The food is still delicious. I tried the steak tartar this time, and while I enjoyed it the tera sege was much better. The tartar was also cooked, which I guess is the default if you don't request it raw. The lamb tibs with cheese were just as good as I remembered. Unfortunately, there was no tomato salad this time, because of "the weather."

What an utter disappointment. Placed an order through DoorDash to Abay Market. Was really looking forward to trying the zilzil tibs, veggie combo platter and kitfo. Imagine my shock when my DoorDasher called from Abay to tell me they refused to give him my order. They insisted they didn't deal with DoorDash and hadn't done so for 6 months (then why does Abay show up in DoorDash?!?). When the Dasher showed them my order/receipt they said I would have to take it up with DoorDash (DD). So I did. The DD customer service chap called Abay three times - they hung up on him EVERY TIME. Needless to say I won't be trying to order takeout from Abay much less visit the restaurant in person. Their are too many other good Ethiopian restaurants in NOVA to put up with this type of behavior. Too bad for you Abay - guess you're doing so well that you can afford to throw away what could have been a good customer.

So lets get it out of the way, if you come to Abay Market and it isn't fasting season (lent) then you need to order two days in advance to get vegetables. I've never bothered, so I can't tell you if they are good. I dragged 5 of my friends to this Ethiopian restaurant in an Ethiopian strip mall because I had seen the segment on Anthony Bourdain and I was dying to try the beef with the yellow fat. Only one of my friends was as excited as I was, but everyone else was mostly game. We walked in and got a seat in the small space without any problem. We were the only group of non-ethiopians in the place. The waitress spoke limited English and so she got the owner who spoke a little more English. The owner was very friendly and helped us order. He wanted us to have a good experience so he wouldn't allow us to order the fatty tartar. (It is possible that they were out of the fatty raw beef, the whole thing was kind of hard to tell). He coached us to pick other things and then promised to give us a sample of the lean raw beef at the end. It sounds overbearing, but he really was being nice to us. The menu only has like 6 things on it, all red meat. We ordered a bunch of stuff, both cooked and raw, and enjoyed it. When we were finished and everyone was full the owner came out with a GIANT plate of lean raw beef that he was bringing us to try. We were all totally stuffed and this plate had more food in it then any of our individual orders had. We didn't want to be rude though, so two of us totally gorged ourselves to finish. The beef was wonderful, and the awaze was great. The whole thing was a fun and memorable night. There are really 3 reasons I haven't come back. 1) I rarely want to only eat meat and injera. Not having any vegetable options is limiting for me and my diet. When I do come back I am likely to come back during fasting season. 2) It is really far away from me. 3) There are so many other choices.

This tiny place in a strip mall is as bare bones as it gets. Just a few items on the menu and a fridge full of drinks. The food, however, is outstanding. I've eaten at many Ethiopian restaurants in the DC area and Abay has the best awaze tibs and the best kitfo I've yet tasted. Their reputation for being perfectionists with the quality of their meat is well deserved. The injera, delightfully tangy and moist, stacks up well against the best I've had - in fact it might BE the best I've had. They serve cheese with the meat, something that's rarely seen (it's delicious, but I could also go for some veggies and cabbage with my tibs). And they reliably have St. George beer in stock, something I can't say for many of the fine establishments on 9th St. in DC. Don't come for the ambiance (there is none) but do come for a few great meat dishes and some extraordinarily friendly and charming service in very broken English. I'm giving it 4/5 for the same reason given by one other reviewer - the extremely short menu means I won't be coming here as often as some other places. However, the food they DO serve is simply outstanding and worth the trip from wherever you're located in the DC metro area.

Abay the owner is a really friendly and amazing guy. Secondly, everyone from the butcher, cook, and waitress are extremely friendly. The great thing about Abay restaurant is the owner knows his cuts of meat very well this pairing makes Ethiopian food very good. I always order the Kitfo, Tibs, and Derek tibs very stellar and filling.

This place is always my first stop when I'm in the DC area. For starters, the owner and staff are incredibly friendly and welcoming. The injera is fresh and flavorful, and they aren't hesitant to offer you more to go along with your dish. We always share the Beef Tibs, which is more than enough food for two people. The beef is wonderfully tender and cooked to medium rare perfection. The beef comes in a rich spicy sauce along with onions and peppers. This is one of my all time favorite places to eat.