Shagga Coffee & Restaurant

Best place to enjoy Ethiopian food in PG County.
Great food, ambiance, and servers. The owner is a sweetie pie who always greets us with a smile and helps us with our order. The setting is very warm and intimate. Perfect for a date or family night. Bathrooms are very clean. The kids are treated as if they are family here. They always walk out with a handful of candy and big smiles. I usually get the vegetarian platter for lunch. We also enjoyed the baklava and coffee.
We love it here!

Celebrating a friend/colleague’s bday. Her 1^st taste of Ethiopian cuisine… of course the mouth-​watering vegetarian combo, yebeg & yesega tibs, chicken & beef sambusas (Sorry forgot the pic) & coffee. As always, food & customer service, highly recommended!!!

Awesome food, good quantity and resonable prices.
Sambussa lentils — lentils filled in a triangle crispy layer (Indian name — samosa) — very tasty appetizer. Would have liked a side of some sweet & spicy sauce.
Vegetable platter — huge portion and very healthy. Covered couple of types of lentils, salads, potato curry. Ordered size of 2. but shared among 3 people yet couldn’t finish it all. Made my day by getting such a nice Ethiopian delite!

This was my first experience with Ethiopian cuisine and I must say that right off the bat I was elated to find out that Ethiopians cut out that annoying middle man. Utensils! Get out of here knife and fork! Your services will not be required! You were born with the necessary utensils, so stretch out those phalanges and get to grubbin’!
I’m not sure what it is about eating with my hands that makes me so happy. Maybe it has something to do with actually feeling the texture of your food with your fingers. Whatever the case may be, I was instructed that the best way to eat was the following: rip off piece of bread (which comes with every dish), grab small portion of your choice of protein or vegetable, insert into mouth, proceed to smile.
The bread was thin, soft, spongy, and slightly sour. The best way I can describe the taste is after successfully navigating through all the weirdos on
, Ms. Sponge Cake finally found and fell in love with Mr. Sourdough bread and they made a wonderful baby.
In looking at some pictures before I actually went to the restaurant, the food looked reminiscent of some Indian dishes as both cuisines tend to use small chunks of meat and have bright colors. However, Ethiopian and Indian food do not taste anything alike to me. So, if you no like curry, no worry! Ethiopian cuisine has its own unique taste. We had beef, lamb, and chicken and they were all delicious to me. Not to mention all the vegetables, which were also very scrumptious.
The portion sizes were pretty generous and the meals on the menu tend to feed more than they suggest. Service was average. Not great, not terrible.
Bottom line: **Think infomercial**
Announcer: Tired of constantly looking for your utensils?
Actor: *Searches house, pulling on hair* I can’t find my knives!!!
Announcer: Tired of constantly stabbing yourself with your forks?
Actor: *Tries to pick up piece of chicken with fork but stabs hand instead* Oww!!! That’s not the piece of chicken that I had intended to eat!!!
Announcer: Then come down to Shagga where you can get delicious Ethiopian food in your belly using only your hands!

The food was excellent and the staff was very friendly! This was the best Ethiopian food I’ve had!

As we all know, DC is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Ethiopian food. I had heard about Shagga for ages, and we finally made a trip to Hyattsville to check it out. As many have noted here, the décor is modest — it’s basically one medium-​sized room with a few tables and a small bar. We shared the veggie combo for 2 (and please be warned, I think that even two very hungry people would be hard-​pressed to finish this platter of food. It’s utterly enormous). Everything was fresh and tasty, though I missed that kick of spice (like the small jalapenos in the tomato salad) and sourness that I have come to associate with Ethiopian food. While everything at Shugga is very good, I still think there are a few other local establishments that are just a tiny bit better — Keren on Florida Ave, and, of course, Ethiopic, but Shagga might be one of the better suburban Ethiopian options.

Shagga is delicious and affordable. Each time I go, my girlfriend and I order the vegetarian plate for 2 and we each get an Ethiopian beer (St. George being my favorite). The bill is always $ 22 – 26. The staff is very competent and the food comes out quickly. I admit to being a rookie to Ethiopian food before coming to Shagga, but it would be hard for me to imagine that any other place has better Injera bread.

The food was good and flavorful, but the service was so terrible that I won’t come again. It took my boyfriend and I over two hours here just to have two dishes because we could never get the attention of the waitstaff, and our order was completely forgotten about. We waited 15 minutes just to get water, and the place was not packed or understaffed.

I’ll admit I came with high expectations, as both the Unilocal rating of the place is high, and also my friend recommended it.
So maybe because of these high expectations I felt a bit of disappointment.
But first, I would start with the good (and maybe the most important) stuff — the food, which was pretty good. Compare to other ethiopian places I’ve visited, the food was much less oily, and it felt fresh. The portions were quite big and the prices are fair.
I took the vegetarian combination ($ 12.5) which came with 8 different stews on top of injera.
I also took ethiopian porter beer — I liked it a lot! it was pretty lite for a porter, and yet tasteful.
Another friend in our table took the honey wine (ethiopian wine) — it was sweet and interesting.
All alcohol drinks are around $ 5 – 6, and I think the dishes price around $ 12 – 15 for person.
But the bad part was the service :(
I won’t say it was horrible — not at all, our server was really nice and I guess she tried her best, but still — it was so slow!
We were waiting for a very long time until she came to take our order, then very long time until we got our drinks, and I won’t talk about the waiting for the food.
And also, while we were sitting there, she didn’t came to check up if we’re good, and when my friend wanted to order another drink, she had to try several times to get her attention.
That’s what happens when there’s only one server for the whole place.
Besides that, the prices on their website are not updated (hate when it happens!) so take into account about $ 1 – 2 more for each item…

Delicious and different. Utensil-​free eating. This was my second time here and both times we have been pleasantly surprised.
We ordered a range of dishes I can barely recount– one lamb, one chicken, one dish made from homemade cheese and collards (our favorite as it had a hint of cardamom.
Try it. Very interesting. You eat using the injera pancake instead of utensils, so get ready to eat with your hands!

Friend Bob and I like interesting food. Here’s interesting food.
A lot of Unilocalers recommended the platters. Bob got the vegetarian platter. About nine dollops of different interesting things showed up arrayed on a big wonderful spongy brown bread. He said it was good. I tried some of what looked like hummus but tasted much better — and I like hummus. Yum. Get that.
I love lamb and don’t get it often, so ordered a spicy lamb dish. It came covered in a stunningly beautiful red sauce that tasted as good as it looked. Not too spicy (Ethiopian food can be spiCY!), but tasty, complex and perfect for the lamb it was dancing with. Get that.
Got an Ethiopian beer. It wasn’t anything special, but not bad at all — light amber, not too hoppy, a little sweet.
The service was excellent, the store was very clean, and the atmosphere was warm and inviting. There were a few cabbies joshing at a table in the corner, looked Ethiopian or some such; had the comfortable look of regulars. I loved this place.
Go there.

Excellent Ethiopian food! This place looks kind of ugly on the outside (I think it used to be a Dunkin?) but is lovely and charming inside. The vegetarian combo for 2 can easily feed 3 or 4. All of the veggie dishes are amazing, but I particularly liked the chickpea powder dish and the red lentils. The not-​on-​the-​sampler collards with fresh cheese are also very very tasty. The cheese brings a richness to an already very flavorful dish. The servers are friendly, the prices are good, the injera is sour, everything is great!

My earlier review mentioned that I found the food a bit salty. Perhaps it was just that one experience. I found the food that I ordered, doro tibbs, to be quite enjoyable. Once again, the portion size was huge and I will be enjoying the second half of my dish today for lunch.
Unfortunately, I ordered my food to go, so I can’t comment on my experience dining in. The restaurant did have my food ready in a timely manner.

I was dragged out of my comfort zone by a few Unilocalers and tried Ethiopian food for the first time. With all of the four and five stars for Shagga’s, I’m clearly in the minority with my two star rating. In my personal opinion, the food was just okay to me… nothing that really excited me. A mom and pop restaurant that also sells really good coffee (so I here) located in Hyattsville, people really love this place. Me… not so much.
We ordered the beef sambusas, vegetarian platter and the chicken cooked in onions and peppers. The sambusas were actually the best thing I ate. Stuffed with ground beef and peas and carrots, the outer shell was flaky and crisp. The chicken with the peppers and onions was a bit too spicy for my liking. The vegetarian platter had a wide selection of veggies and lentils on it, but nothing really made me say, «wow, this is really good!» The texture of the injera was a bit off settling to me. It reminded me of some sort of soggy dough that wasn’t cooked. Apparently you’re supposed to eat Ethiopian food with your hands along with the injera… not a fan of that.
I did have some honey wine that reminded me of some home grown dandelion wine my uncle makes, so that was pretty good, but an acquired taste. The service was pretty friendly, the décor isn’t worth mentioning but they do have a bar that carries Ethiopian beer and other specialty drinks.
I’m proud that I stepped outside my box to try Ethiopian food, but the way my taste buds are set up… I can guarantee that I will never return.

My first time trying Ethiopia food and it definitely more than what I expected.
The food was very delicious and flavorful!
We got the chicken, beef and lamb served with rice.
The lamb was the best lamb I’ve ever tasted… can’t wait to try that again!
****

Tried Ethiopian cuisine for the first time and absolutely loved it!
The injera was sooo soft. The food totally resembled indian food back home for me and was perfect for 4 people although it states for two people.
Loved the doro wot! Perfect amount of spice and the chicken was extremely well cooked. On special request the dish was made with boneless chicken.
I really enjoyed the experience !

I really like Shagga! Although I have never dined in, I’ve never had a disappointing take out order from them. They always get it right which is definitely appreciated when you do take out. I come about once a week or so. To me it’s an OK value. Things like the baklava or a can soda are way too expensive. But the service is always friendly and warm.
I’ve only eaten veggie items here and they’ve all been pretty good. I haven’t tried them all though. Also, the lentil sambusa was good. The pastry shell that it’s wrapped in, pretty much makes it. Very flakey and tasty, the inside is a little average but definitely not bad if you have a taste for it. The red lentils here are sometimes very spicy so buyer beware if you can’t go too over the top with the spice. My faves are the red lentil, cabbage and tomato salad.

I noted that Ethiopian cab drivers were regulars, so I pulled in one day.
I’ve done dine-​in and take-​out several times since then (2 years ago).
The preparation time can be lengthy, but the food tastes fresh, so worth the wait.
I don’t stray from classic Ethiopian fare and usually go with doro wot, doro alicha, or fish awaze tibs – all reliably good here. The collard greens (gomen) have jalapeño in them that I like very much. They’ve got an impressive number of combo plates, with meat and meatless offerings, so carnivores, herbivores and omnivores can all be happy – really smart.
Truth be told, I dislike injera, so I ask for rice instead, which I can get here no problem. That is a BIG plus and keeps me coming back.
Also, their tiramisu (go figure) is yummy.
Easy access off of Route 1. I discovered it while driving about; guess it’s been there awhile. Used to be a doughnut shop.
Light-​filled, large room, with a traditional Ethiopian décor that is unpretentious. Ethiopian jazz music is played sometimes. Ethiopian jazz has quite a story behind it, but this review is not the place for a history lesson on that. Just letting folks know it can be heard here.
It’s family-​owned and reasonably priced.
Shagga has become my go-​to Ethiopian restaurant, where the both the food and service are down-​to-​earth.

Just look at the pictures – what looks most beautiful? The vegetarian combo. Get it.
We got a combo for 1, and that was enough as two of us did not finish. They will give you about 3 additional injera which is plenty. Taste was excellent and such a bang for your $ 12.50 bucks. I checked the combo for 2 and it looks like you get a bit more and it costs more. It might work to split with 3 – 4 friends. I will be back.

This dining experience is EPICALLY EPIC.
After over a year, I returned to this restaurant for a late lunch with my Dad a few weeks ago. We ordered the yebeg awaze tibbs, which is lamb cubes sautéed with onions, garlic, green peppers, tomatoes and awaze (herbed pepper sauce) as well as the asa bawaze tibs, which is tilapia cubed and sautéed in onions, berbere (red pepper) sauce, and herbs.
I’d never had the fish before, and it was delicious! The whole meal was, really. And our server was courteous and attentive. I can’t wait to go back and try something else on their menu!