Paradiso

Ethiopian cooking in Bole, Addis Ababa. Wat stewed low and slow, injera fermented for three days and baked on a mitad, and Yirgacheffe beans roasted over charcoal beside your table.

Tue to Sun, 12:00-22:30. Closed Mondays. Bole, Addis Ababa, four minutes’ walk from Atlas. Reservations: +251 11 661 0000 or hello@paradiso.et.

Beyaynetu-style injera topped with eight different Ethiopian stews — One injera, eight stews: our beyaynetu is built to be torn apart by four people.

Everyone eats from one mesob

There are no individual plates here. Food arrives on a woven mesob, on a base of injera that soaks up everything placed on top of it. You eat with your right hand, you tear, you scoop, and you push the best bite towards whoever is sitting next to you. That gesture is called gursha, and if it happens to you on your first visit, take the bite. It means you are welcome.

What we are known for

Doro wat, Ethiopian chicken stew with a boiled egg, served on injera — Doro wat: two hours on the fire, one boiled egg, no shortcuts.

Doro wat. Chicken legs simmered two hours in dry-cooked red onion, niter kibbeh and our own berbere until the sauce goes dark and glossy. Finished with ayib and a hard-boiled egg.
Kitfo. Hand-minced highland beef tossed in mitmita and niter kibbeh, served leb leb (lightly warmed) or raw to order, with ayibe and gomen kitfo.
Tibs. Cubed beef or lamb seared hard in a kefo with onion, jalapeno and rosemary, brought to the table still spitting.
Shiro. Stone-ground chickpea flour simmered with garlic and berbere until it holds a spoon, served bubbling in clay.

See the full menu

Shiro wet, Ethiopian chickpea stew, served bubbling in a clay dish with injera — Shiro wet, still bubbling when it reaches the mesob.

The coffee ceremony, roasted at your table

Green coffee beans being roasted for the Ethiopian coffee ceremony — Green Yirgacheffe beans, roasted over charcoal at the table.

We roast green Yirgacheffe beans on charcoal beside you, walk the tray around so you can smell the smoke, grind by hand and brew three rounds in a clay jebena: abol, tona and baraka. Expect twenty minutes and no rush. Ethiopia’s coffee ceremony was added to UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list in 2015, and we treat it as a ceremony, not a drink order. Order it for the table when you book, or ask when you sit down.

Fasting, vegan and gluten-free

We follow the Orthodox tsom calendar. On Wednesdays and Fridays, and through the fasting seasons, most of the menu is vegan by default: no dairy, no eggs, no meat, no compromise. Tell your server you are fasting and we will point you to the right plates. Gluten-free guests can have injera made from 100% teff, and we keep a separate nut-free berbere batch for allergies.

Visit us

Bole, Addis Ababa, a short ride from Bole International Airport and four minutes on foot from Atlas. Tuesday to Sunday, 12:00-22:30; closed Mondays. Walk-ins are seated at the long communal table by the window, but weekends fill up, so book ahead.