Food review blog from San Francisco.

Restaurant: Waziema (San Francisco)
Food description: Ethiopian dish with split pea sauce and lamb and chicken cubes sauteed with ginger, garlic, and onion; served with sides of collard greens, potato and carrot stew, salad, and injera bread
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Since I'm not going to rate each individual components of the platter, I'll address each one and rate everything as a whole. Basically, if you're not picky and in the mood for something hearty and satisfying (and cheap), look no further. In comparison to other Ethiopian food, I liked the Blue Nile in Berkeley, which apparently is no more. Anyway, of all the traditional things we could've ordered, we chose 2 of their non-stew dishes, which was an interesting experiment, but maybe not the smartest idea. The chicken was prepared like the lamb, grilled with onions, and were both very flavorful, but waaay too dry! It helped to mix in some of the split pea sauce, but even that was kinda thick. The lamb, although dry, tasted good enough to order again, and the chicken I never need to have again. The split pea is something a friend recommended, something I wouldn't normally order, and turned out to be delicious. I have no clue what kind of peas they use (they're yellow), but they taste starchier and nuttier than green peas, sort of like garbanzo beans. I'll be ordering that again for sure. The potato stew was rather plain and didn't have much flavor, and the collard greens tasted like collard greens. The green salad in the center served it's purpose--to refresh the palate in between bites--and nothing more. The injera bread was tasty, but seemed slightly more sour and thicker than usual, but didn't really bother me. The real enjoyment of these types of dishes is getting to dig into it with a bunch of people and mushing everything together and not really caring so much. I will freak out though, if I catch you using your left hand to eat!!