Toronto's newest registered Ethiopian restaurants

New Ethiopian restaurants in Toronto: 3 have been licensed in the past year, tracked daily from the City of Toronto business-licence registry (chains excluded).

Injera-and-stew kitchens have anchored the Bloor-Ossington intersection since the 1980s. Newer openings push east along the Danforth and into Scarborough, with a growing number leaning explicitly vegetarian (kik alicha, gomen, atakilt wat).

What is injera and how do you eat Ethiopian food?

Injera is a large, spongy flatbread made from fermented teff flour — it functions as both plate and utensil. Stews and salads are spooned directly onto the injera, and you tear off pieces with your right hand to scoop the food. A 100% teff injera has a distinct sour note and a porous texture that holds wet stews without dissolving; cheaper versions stretch the teff with wheat, which community diners notice immediately.

At a table, dishes like doro wat (spiced chicken stew with a hard-boiled egg), tibs (sautéed beef or lamb), shiro (chickpea or bean flour stew), and various vegetable sides are arranged on a single communal injera. Sharing is the default — most orders at Ethiopian restaurants in Toronto are built for two or more.

How is Ethiopian food different from Eritrean food?

The cuisines share the same foundation — injera, spiced stews, heavy use of berbere and niter kibbeh (spiced clarified butter) — because Ethiopia and Eritrea were one country until 1993 and their highland cuisines developed together. In practice, Eritrean menus lean more heavily on shiro (chickpea-flour stew) and zigni (spiced beef), and many Eritrean kitchens place greater emphasis on the coffee ceremony as a ritual end to the meal.

Both of Toronto's current NowServingTO Ethiopian listings are dual-listed as Eritrean: Merkato Eri-Ethio Cafe & Restaurant on Parliament St and Fresh Habesha and BBQ Restaurant & Bar on Bloor St W serve both traditions under one roof — which is common for Habesha-owned restaurants across the diaspora.

Is Ethiopian food good for vegetarians?

Ethiopian is one of the most vegetarian-friendly cuisines in Toronto. Ethiopian Orthodox fasting — observed on Wednesdays, Fridays, and during extended seasons — prohibits meat and dairy, so most kitchens maintain a full fasting menu year-round: kik alicha (yellow split peas), gomen (collard greens), atakilt wat (cabbage and carrots), and shiro. A kitchen with a real fasting menu is cooking to its community's calendar, not just offering a vegetarian afterthought.

The combination platter (a mix of vegetable wats arranged on injera) is a reliable order for first-timers and vegans alike. Most Ethiopian restaurants in Toronto will tell you which dishes contain niter kibbeh (the spiced butter) if you ask — it shows up in places you might not expect.

Where are Ethiopian restaurants in Toronto?

The Danforth east of Greenwood — roughly between Pape and Woodbine — is Toronto's Little Ethiopia, the densest Ethiopian-Eritrean restaurant cluster in Canada. That corridor has anchored since the 1980s. More recent city licences show the cuisine spreading: Yegna Meda (1397 Danforth Ave) and Abyssinia Restaurant (884 Danforth Ave) are both on the East Toronto stretch, while Merkato Eri-Ethio Cafe & Restaurant (436 Parliament St) is a newer downtown arrival and Fresh Habesha and BBQ Restaurant & Bar (810 Bloor St W) anchors a Bloor West node in Dovercourt Village.

NowServingTO tracks 4 Ethiopian restaurants licensed in the past 12 months across East Toronto, Downtown, and West Toronto — the full list updates daily at nowservingto.com/cuisine/ethiopian.

What should I order at an Ethiopian restaurant if it's my first time?

Start with a combination platter — it comes with a selection of meat and vegetable stews arranged on a shared injera, which lets you sample the kitchen's range in one order. From there, doro wat (slow-braised chicken in berbere sauce with a hard-boiled egg) is the national prestige dish; if the kitchen does it well, everything else will too. Tibs — sautéed beef or lamb with onions, tomatoes, and jalapeño — is the crowd-pleaser for anyone wary of stews.

For a quality signal: order kitfo if you're comfortable with raw or rare beef. It's minced beef seasoned with mitmita (a sharper, hotter spice blend than berbere) and niter kibbeh. A kitchen that makes its spiced butter in-house and sources lean beef properly will show it here. The coffee ceremony, offered at kitchens like Fresh Habesha on Bloor St W, is worth staying for.