Amy’s Merkato

Impressive! After searching through a few East African markets in town, I brought our guest (who was visiting from Eritrea) here. We were so impressed with the injera production they have going on. They’ve got their own packaging, warm injera ready to go, and a host of workers who are churning it out in the back. It’s obvious that the injera is mostly teff, and believe it or not, that can sometimes be hard to come by. Just thinking about it makes me want to drive over. Okay, so while you’re there you should also try their shiro powder, green coffee beans and honey wine. I need to stop typing this, because it’s making me so hungry. Just check them out. they’re great.

This is a review for their injera, not the actual store.
Haven’t had a chance to go there yet, but… I stumbled upon a cool little market in Lynnwood yesterday and found Amy’s Injera in the giant 10-​pack. I could hardly contain myself!!! I had moved to the northwest about 1.5 years ago from CA and had recently become a huge fan of Ethiopian food before I left. I have only tried one Ethiopian restaurant here, but it wasn’t the best. Now, I feel like we could make the food that I remember, but that injera… I could never make it like they do! Finding this in the store yesterday completely made my day! It smells AMAZING, tastes like heaven, and we went straight home and whipped up some chicken tibs. With that injera, it was the most awesome thing ever and I’m so happy we found Amy’s. I’m definitely going to have to take a trip into their store to check it out now!
You guys rock!!!

After reading other reviews this place has a reputation and I have to admit it didn’t disappoint. It was a little overwhelming to take everything in with the amount of product, and not very well labeled. I wish the products were labeled at least with a sharpie. Regardless. I was very happy to find Gesho so i can make some T‘ej (honey wine). I plan on going back again in the next couple of days and get some things I forgot. Not mention to try the food, get some pottery and ask some more questions. I think I saw a traditional coffee serving set.

I LOVE this place! I was looking for a place to buy Ethiopian groceries for cooking at home and I finally found it! They have EVERYTHING! Their prices are reasonable and they are super helpful if you need help figuring out what ti buy (a lot of the ingredients aren’t in English so help is nice!) Their fresh-​made injera that they sell by the 10 pack is SO GOOD! It’s super moist, fluffy and soft and was just the thing to make my first Ethiopian recipe a total success! I couldn’t love this place more, everyone should shop here! And they take EBT! And are open super early even on Sundays!

I’ve been learning to cook Ethiopia’s wonderful cuisine for a few years. I’m tired of the mystery tubs of unlabeled ingredients you see at all the other Ethiopian markets. They’re unlabeled at Amy’s as well, but Yodit speaks wonderfully fluent English and can tell you what everything is. She carries the best selection of Ethiopian ingredients in town, and believe me I’ve shopped at every Ethiopian market I’ve ever found in the Seattle area. Very warm, friendly, easy to talk to — a great, great resource!

When I first started looking around for teff flour, Amy’s Merkato was the one place that had it. Now other places like PCC, TJ’s, and Whole Foods carry teff flour (or even whole grains), courtesy of Bob’s Red Mill. Still, Amy’s was much more reasonable. They also sold injera at $ 6 for a 10 (or 12) pack.
Now that Tana Market is charging $ 6 for a 5 pack of injera, I will check here to see if they’ve also raised their prices. If not, I’ll be coming the extra mile here to buy my injera from now on when we go to Meskel for dinner.

Wonder where Ethiopians go to eat Ethiopian food? They do to Amy’s Merkato as it supplies most of the Ethiopian restaurants in the area with Injera.
They serve food Th-​Sat evenings and the place is often full of Ethiopians chatting warmly while sharing food some in family groups, some groups of cab drivers.
When you come in, if you’re thirsty grab a beverage from the cooler and bring it to your table, then give your order, as they don’t have menus and they don’t bring water until they bring the food. Order either vegetarian with chicken, or spicy berber beef with vegetables, or even the traditional Ethiopian spiced raw beef, if you enjoy steak tartar.
The people who work here couldn’t be warmer or kinder. It’s authentic and its delicious. It’s also a great place to see international soccer games, when they’re on. I crave their spicy beef about once a week.

Amy’s is the end of the line of about a dozen Ethiopian restaurants on Cherry alone, and you might miss it ’cause it blends into the building and neighborhood.
I came here on my quest for injera (tried Zuma’s, closed on Sunday’s) and although Amy’s is supposed to function as a little mini-​market, the shelves for products besides spices/​grains/​and other ingredients for Ethiopian dishes are pretty bare. However, they have just about anything you need for your attempts to create Ethiopian dishes on your own, and they’re happy to help you determine what exactly each spice is.
Anyway, the point is, I got a large bag of perfectly spongy and sour injera for a whopping $ 6.00, and will now embark on trying to cook things to eat with it.

I love the staff. I love the food — I’ve only been a café patron, as I work at the salon next door. I love the spartan atmosphere, but do think it’s a little unfortunate that the TV dominates the dining area. And it would be nice to have a posted menu somewhere, and to have the table wiped before serving new customers there. But these kinks will be worked out in time. Right now I feel like I’m in on a pretty damn good little secret.

The guy working the counter was very nice and everything was tasty. probably the best place to get injera that I’ve run into.

Best place to buy injera!!! also has everything you need to cook Ethiopian at home (including CD’s and a butcher shop) they are currently putting in/​expanding a café. Very friendly folks.