Blue Nile

Doc Shaman

Seriously good Ethiopian food! After trying to get fed from the kinkole (African) festival which unfortunately was a bust due to timing we went in search of some GOOD African cuisine. Enter google search and Blue Nile on Gladstone shows up. Thank goodness for that! Our family of 4 (2a 2c) loaded into a table of this modest location. Upon walking in the smells of spice and warm cooking wraps you like a big hug. Now, it's important to understand this is NOT fast food, nor is it meant to be. The food and the experience is to be enjoyed with a little time. Time to cook breeds deep flavours, time to wait breeds deep conversations and taking a little time to slow down is perfect. We ordered the Blue Nile combo and the lamb tibs with 3 sambussas (2 beef 1 veg) as an appetizer. With a coffee (my wife said it was delicious) juice and water the 4 of us left full for a modest $48 tab. Now the food...hot, fresh, deep deep flavours throughout. Injera bread is plentiful and not only tasty but used as the utensil. (Instructions on how to eat with it is conveniently on the back of the menu in clear picture style.) For our children, forks were provided upon asking. The sambussas are like a samosa or empanada but from a different flavour profile and the only problem with them is that they disappear from the plate too quickly! You may be wondering why the 4 stars instead of 5. That simply goes to the cleanliness. While the tables and chairs and restaurant in general were clean, the bathrooms were certainly lacking. It looked as though they could use a solid once over with a bunch of cleaning products to bring them up to standard. Yes, the rule is that if the bathroom is bad then don't trust the kitchen but fortunately the kitchen door is open and a look in showed no issues there. Bottom line...if you want to eat GOOD Ethiopian food with pleasant staff and in a nice relaxed atmosphere, this is the place to go!

Ken St. John

White person here, so not at all an authority on Ethiopian cuisine and no idea which dishes were which, but figured I'd leave a review anyway. Preferred the beef sambusa to the veggie, but both had delicious pastry; my friend and I ordered both the veggie and beef combination plates because I like trying a bit of everything. It was all beautifully made and spiced; my favourite was the veggie platter, and in particular the yellow veggies (cabbage?) and carrots that came with both- also really loved their explanation of teff on their website that talks about all the extra nutrients in the bread and the history of kaffe. I'm also a big big fan of the lovely spongey texture of the bread, and eating it all with my hands- bonus that my fingertips smelled phenomenal all evening afterwards. ....And perhaps T.M.I... but I feel like it would be a disservice to the experience to leave out that my BM the next morning was quite possibly one of the easiest and satisfying I've had in years. Very grateful and would definitely love to order again at some point. Also loved the artwork I was able to admire during takeout pickup, and felt especially spoiled to hear some beautiful singing while I waited briefly. (Currently no dining service, which is totally fair.) Thank you!

Oscar Osorio

As delicious as Ethiopian food can be. You will get a lot of food and it will be worth every dollar. If you have not tried Ethiopian food before, go and give it a try. I promise you will be glad you did!!