Chercher Ethiopian Restaurant & Mart

Wow, this was a shock! Ethiopian across from our hotel. We figured it was easy. This was actually some of the best Ethiopian I’ve had in town. It might not be as good as Zenebech in all ways, but everything was good, the injera was plentiful and the lamb was probably the best I have had in my life. I think I would come back here just for the lamb. This is solid good Ethiopian. (Food was mild. If you want hot, definitely request it.)

My first time having Ethiopian food was a smash hit success! First of all, let me say that it is a lot of food at a great price point. I had a late lunch and wasn’t hungry enough for a huge meal so I split the beef tibs and veggie special with two friends and we all left satiated. The beef tibs were cooked with onion, pepper, garlic and herbs and they made me remember why I do not want to be a vegetarian. As for those veggies though, the standouts for me were the carrot & string bean medley and spicy lentils. They weren’t stingy with the Injera and the service was very good overall. You might not notice Chercher while walking along 9^th but it is definitely worth a second look.

Chercher was my first ever Ethiopian meal so I don’t have much of a frame of reference for what it should taste like, but I can say it was delicious! We split the deluxe veggie sampler and the regular beef tibs 3 ways and had leftovers to take home after leaving stuffed. The sampler had great variety, with some spicy dishes like the lentils and the tibs, and a variety of flavors and textures. Everything was very tasty individually (my favorite was an orange-​colored paste that looked like sweet potato), but the variety and combinations of flavors really took it over the top. Service was also very friendly and helpful. This may have been my first time trying Ethiopian food, but it won’t be my last!

CherCher was a fantastic place to eat for dinner! The menu is limited, but has delicious options!
My dinner companions and I had the vegetarian special (comes with 7 dishes), the salmon tibs, and the CherCher tibs. Everything was amazing — all of the food was cooked to perfection, and perfectly seasoned with fresh spices. Both tibs were wonderful, and I highly recommend the beet and carrot/​green bean vegetarian dishes.
The service was a little slow, but we always had refills of water and injera.
The environment overall is nice, but I found the large screen tvs to be out of place. My only disappoint was the bathroom — I rarely do this, but I found it a little too gross to use.
Overall, wonderful dining experience and delicious food. I can’t wait to come back.

First adventure into Ethiopian food and loved it. small dinning area and bar, not a «hole in the wall» to clean and tidy for that, but very plainly & simply decorated.

AMAZING!!!
I was walking around the area and my friend and I were in the mood for some Ethiopian for a while now. We really lucked out with this place!
From the outside this place does not look like much but inside it’ cozy, colorful, and inviting. Our waitress was really friendly. We ordered the vegetable platter with beef tartar. Oh my gosh! It was amazing. Every single item on the platter was simply delicious. I am slightly picky when it comes to raw meat, but the beef tartar was so good that even the pickiest eaters will appreciate it. Some food was rather spicy, but the spicy foods were well balanced with the mild things like beet salad, lentils, and other scrumptious items.
I also decided to get their special honey wine!!! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM,
I will definitely be coming back.

Went there several years ago, I wish there had been more of a selection of dry spices, because I bought the berbere, awaze, mitmita and let me tell you that is some of the BEST berbere I have ever purchased from the area! Didn’t see any Tenadam that day and wished they had some teff-​only injera (without the wheat), but I suppose I could just buy teff and make it (I’m impatient, however, when it comes to Injera! Haha). Now that I know it is expanded, I will definitely be going back to try the restaurant! (Note: Zenebech Injera has great food also, and Dukem (12^th St., NW D.C.) does have teff-​only Injera in the carry-​out side of the restaurant, so I usually just swing by there to get my fix! :)

Fantastic Ethiopian restaurant. The kitfo delux (raw of course) was the best I’ve had. It was rich, spicy and flavorful. Ordered the vegetarian combo with kitfo. Excellent choice. All the dishes were perfect. Nice selection of Ethiopian beers. Service was good.
The restaurant is two stories — your choice were you want to eat.

Yeah, I mean, it’s good, cheap, «authentic», etc., but it’s not the most revelatory experience of my life. It’s more of a solid weeknight dinner kind of joint (and I will say, when I lived close by, there was even a week where I went three times…)
The 5-​stars are probably a bit much. It’s just solid Ethiopian food, but nothing to which I would seriously urge people to visit.

Alright, so there are a lot of Ethiopian restaurants in The DC area, and it’s hard to keep up with which ones are the best of the best. But, I can tell you that this one is not. The place is pretty small, as are the tables, which is difficult for sharing a large plate. The service is also a bit slow, and I wasn’t starving last night, so I didn’t mind having to explain my order multiple times. They’re nice, and maybe they might be new? I had to keep asking for water and for injera, though. The food was pretty good, and so were the prices. I think that I would likely order to-​go, and hopefully it would be speedy; but otherwise, there are a lot more Ethiopian restaurants that provide a better dinning experience.

Probably my favorite Ethiopian restaurant in the district proper at the moment. It isn’t really convenient to anywhere that I go, but I’m sure I’ll find an excuse to come back.
We actually found the place because we were walking by it during art all night, but it was already closed. Still, it piqued interest and we made an excuse to come back.
There are two levels at Chercher. Downstairs is far more casual and basement like while upstairs is a little bit more open and formal. Neither is fancy though. We were originally going to just eat downstairs but they seemed to be pushing us upstairs so we went that way.
I came here with two friends, one of whom is a vegetarian, so we of course had the vegetarian combo. They have two versions of it, but the bigger ten item version is only available some days. The night we were there was not one of them. We ordered the 6 item variety but were still able to add the beats and the sting beans which were what we really wanted from the 10 item version. We also ordered raw kitfo as well.
All of the food was delicious, though the cheese with the kitfo was not my favorite. It was probably the best quality of food that I’ve had at an Ethiopian place in DC. Nice spice, and flavor. The only dish I didn’t love was the lentils which had a spice (perhaps cinnamon) which I found a little bit off. We were able to order these two dishes for three people and actually had left overs.
Total bill came to $ 42 after tax with one glass of honey wine in the total; very reasonable. Service was friendly, but the pacing was relaxed, which is pretty typical for Ethiopian restaurants. Definitely a place where you can hang out and chat for hours if you want. There was a pretty good mix of Ethiopian and non-​Ethiopian customers there, but it never got too crowded either. Not as festive or as fun as the places in Silver Spring (no music), but a really lovely place to go close to home.

This is an authentic Ethiopian restaurant. The food was a tad spicy for my bland preferring palate. But it was very flavorful and good. We went with a large party and while the inside is small, they were able to accommodate our group quickly with no space issues.
Service for our large group was slow, but I consider it acceptable timing for the size party we had. The food was very fresh.
I met two gentlemen who lived in Ethiopia for several years and they said this establishment was the most authentic Ethiopian food in the area.

One of my favorite Ethiopian restaurants in D.C.
We visited yesterday with a challenge faced by many area residents: take a visitor to experience Ethiopian cuisine for the first time in a city with what feels like hundreds of choices. Do we go to the touristy U St route? Upscale Georgetown or H St route? Or hoof it out to Silver Spring or Skyline City to get a more ‘authentic’ experience.
Chercher is an authentic experience hidden in the center of the city.
I recommend you enter through the Ethiopian expat focused bar in the basement and walk up the stairs to grab a table. The number of locals will immediately tell you you’re in the right place.
The Tej is some of the best I’ve had outside Ethiopia and the Chercher House Special Tibs are not to be missed.
Ask for the food spicy if you want it that way, they seem to try to accommodate the American palate with an extremely flavorful yet mild approach to seasoning.
Enjoy!

The location is hard to find unless you know what you’re looking for. The restaurant entrance is on the lower street level but once you get inside you walk up the stairs and there is seating up upstairs. The menu is very authentic, if you haven’t been here before order a meat dish and then a veggie dish or ‘vegetarian’ dish and split the two with someone. The flatbread is very unique, they call it a wheat bread. You don’t get utensils you use the flatbread to scoop up the food. The prices were extremely good for DC and our waitress was very nice and helped us maneuver the menu.

Listen. I lived in Ethiopia for two years. I know their food — and how it can suck at some places here in America. This is not one of those places! The food here at Chercher is awesome and authentic. The injera is made with real tef (and not cut with cheap flour like most places) and all of the meat dishes are super tender and flavorful. It means something when all of the other patrons here are Ethiopian. They know what’s up.
So the best menu item, especially if you’re a vegetarian, is the ‘bayanetu’. And oh yea, they have Erhiopian beer.
‘Nuff said. Get in!

Just what we were hoping for on a quiet Tuesday. Spices were just right and the beef was crisp without being dry. Would definitely make this a regular spot if I lived here.

We love this place. It’s always full of Ethiopian people which is a great sign. If two of us are eating, we get one order of ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ which is special tibs (cooked beef) and super fresh raw beef and one order of special veggie which comes with three types of lentils, two other seasonal veggies, and a salad. It’s a lot of food, but really tasty. If there is a third person, we add an order of special tibs.
Today when we came, we sat in the new second story that they just opened. It’s 8 additional tables plus a small bar. Feels like you are in someone’s home eating home cooked food, which is awesome.

A fine Ethiopian establishment.
EXCELLENT Tej (Ethiopian honey wine.)
The strongest I have ever had — but sweet and flavorful.
A challenging beverage and a superior version.
Chercher keeps their food mild (which I consider to be a liability in a Horn of Africa place) …
but they compensate by making the food very savory and full of natural flavor.
Their salmon tips are one of the most entertaining fish dishes I have had in a long time.
Their spicy (not so spicy) lamb was still as rich as a Mexican mole and as heartily appealing as the yummy drippings that come with a good home made pot roast.
I scarfed mine down happily indeed.
I thought the vegetables were bland and needed help — but the two vegetarians in my table strongly disagreed and inhaled their veggies.
So I will let myself be outvoted 2 – 1.
Overall a fine place.

Their menu is limited (sold out of most items by dinner time) but what we ordered were hands down the best Ethiopian I’ve had!
Special veggie combo platter — 7 different veggies (stewed carrots+ green beans, mashed chick peas, tomato salad, lentil, spicy lentil, collard green, stewed cabbage) — every veggie was perfectly seasoned and cooked. My personal favorite the stewed carrots + green beans. I made sure to ask our server «what is this taste of heaven called?»
Awaze tibs — cubed beef in jalapenos, onion, tomato stew — the meat was tender and the sauce soaked up beautifully into the injera. SO GOOD!
Service was warm — our server (she was the only person working in the front and it was full house) came by to check on us multiple times and even offered to give more of the stewed carrot and green beans when I asked her what it was. So glad to finally find our «go to» to get our Ethiopian fix. Would definitely return to sample the rest of the menu!

Quite possibly the best Ethiopian I’ve ever had. The flavors and presentation were perfect. Service was great – very attentive. Half the clientele were older Ethiopian men who seemed like regulars that come just to hang out. Adds to the authenticity.
Definitely qualifies as a «hole in the wall.» There are 5 small tables (think tiny coffee shop sized) and a small bar. Not great for groups unless you come on a slow night.