Eating Ethiopian in west London

10 April 2012

This review was first published in January 2001

Without the Abesha Business Card, a strange and fantastic reference work listing all things Ethiopian in London, no discerning diner can properly negotiate this cosmopolitan city. Here are listings for delis selling enjera - a cold, soft bread rather like sourdough (and the 'plate' from which you eat Ethiopian food); contact numbers for singers, hairdressers, accountants and cargo agents; while on the back there is a gazetteer of 15 restaurants. Who would have thought that London could claim 15 Ethiopian restaurants? Only a handful are familiar, and fewer still make it into the guides.

Fanos opened in March last year in Churchfield Road, Acton, handily placed next door to a very sound Korean restaurant called Mijori (W3 is obviously a gastronomically aware kind of area).

Fanos is a charming place and however unfamiliar the food may be, it is well-seasoned, tasty and cheap. The dining-room is kitted out in what must be traditional Ethiopian fashion: low stools and 'tables' made out of straw, each of which has a conical straw 'hat'. (If your knees cannot take the low seating, there are a few tables with standard chairs.) Connoisseurs of restaurant design will greatly enjoy the illuminated pictures with animated waterfalls.

The menu is simple: there are main courses and there are side dishes. When you eat, a tray is placed before you covered with enjera. The enjera at Fanos is very good, home-made, slightly nuttier-tasting than most, and not too sour. This is important, since the bread plays a big part in the meal. As well as forming the plate (stews are dolloped straight onto an enjera-lined tray in front of each diner), enjera also acts as the cutlery. A basket full of neatly folded sheets arrives with the meal, you tear off a piece and use it to pick up the stew. This is both messy and fun.

Limitless enjera comes as a matter of course. Try adding doro wot (£6), a richly sauced piece of chicken with a hard-boiled egg - very tasty. Or tibs wot (£6), which is beef in a similar sauce. The stews are rich and sometimes spicy thanks to a hot Ethiopian variety of paprika called mitmita.

Ordering Fanos's special kifto (£8) brings a triumvirate of beef mince, spinach and cottage cheese. The comfortably named derek tibs (£6.50) is dry-fried lamb with onions and garlic - good crispy bits. Messer wot (£3.50) is a splendidly thick and spicy lentil dish. From the list of side dishes, you should try kerche (£3.50), which is crushed wheat cooked until soft and served with butter.

The food is very good, and the service is charming. At £7, Ethiopian coffee costs more than many of the main courses, but you're treated to a wonderful ritual for your money. The smoking, freshly roasted beans are paraded before you, the small coffee set is arranged with its elegant round-bottomed, swan-necked pot, and the natural incense starts to glow and smoke. After that, it actually seems like a fair price.

Fanos
43 Churchfield Road, W3

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