Restaurant: Nazareth

Nazareth is a small restaurant, yet there are those who love it. I am one of them. Quite simply, Nazareth is everything I love in a restaurant: non-fancy decor, inexpensive prices and excellent food. From the outside Nazareth looks like a small, sketchy bar, instead of Toronto's best Ethiopian restaurant.

Instead it is small and cramped, there is a line (as always). The menu is short, the chef(s?) clearly specialize in a few things done well. My friend Faisal and I order the vegetarian option. It costs $8 tax included. That is to say, $8 for two people! It arrives soon after we order:

The meal arrives on a giant plate– a salad and five different selections on a bed of injera, a form of bread that is seemingly the offspring of a pita and a sponge. We eat by dipping torn pieces of the sponge-bread them into one or more of the concoctions. The main items, many probably lentil-based, are savoury and delicious. The minimalist salad complaints them perfectly with its tangy lemon dressing. Conversation is sparse as the meal is quickly demolished. The bill is $4 each, before tip.

Any adjectives I could summon to describe the food would be inadequate. A friend of mine, who has lived in East Africa, says it is the best Ethiopian food she has ever had. Certainly, it probably has the highest taste/price ratio in Toronto.

Nazareth Restaurant
969 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario