Review Alem's House - Sydney

The food itself is fine. The only downfall is the portion size/ costs. We left the restaurant still feeling hungry.

Dinner at Alem’s House was a magical experience from start to finish. The staff was lovely and helpful. The setting was homey and welcoming. The food itself... I’ve never had anything like it. It was simple yet flavorful, healthy and fresh, and beautifully unique. Our personal favorite was the Suf FitFit. If you’re tired of eating different variations of the same thing no matter where you go (I know I am), come here to try something refreshingly different. You won’t regret it! I know I’ll be back.

Love everything about this experience. The atmosphere was like walking into your mates mums kitchen, and being sat down for a meal both norishing for the body and soul. Gluten free and vegan friendly! Love the share plate concept.

Definitely the flavours are there. The food is very tasty and interesting. Not mind blowing. But the share plate was barely enough for 1 person or maybe 2 people. We had to share it in 5 as it was recommended as 'plenty'. Maybe we were all very hungry. A note on the customer service as well. The staff was lovely but there was no tap water available because the bottles were broken. There were just 2 left, being used by other tables. So we couldn't have water on our table, and my friends and I had to go and ask for a of cup of water multiple times during dinner. All 'issues' easy to fix I believe.

Holy Jesus this place is good, if you 💯 want to try something different and amazing this is the place. All our dishes were amazing. The place itself is airy and open and the service was nice. The decor and music really suited the cuisine. What you'll notice first is that injira is the carb that holds everything together and it is light and fluffy like a little sponge. The rest is a choice of shared dishes that, maybe post covid you should eat with your hand. The menu was also very helpful with a glossary. My favourite was the suf fit fit, really fresh and fragrant, nothing like I've ever tasted. The rest were just as good. Really well seasoned and just hit after hit of great dishes. If this was walking distance I'd be here every weekend. We will definitely come back.

Alem’s House is your opportunity to eat Ethiopian cuisine right here in the Inner West. While I highly recommend taking the trip to Blacktown, which has become a bit of a hub for the cuisine with restaurants including Gursha and Abyssina, that’s not to say you shouldn’t also feast upon the bounty of your own neighbourhood. You’ll find the small restaurant taking up two shopfronts on Parramatta Road, at the base of a medium density residential block. Husband-and-wife team, Nethanet Assefa and Nicholas Gilmore, have made a good effort to personalise the bland, glass-fronted space, which is separated into dining room at the front, and kitchen and lounge in the rear, by an internal dividing wall. The wall is made into a centrepiece with a colourful Camila Carmody mural celebrating African femininity, the ‘fro, and African flora in the surrounding bicolour torch lilies. There are also Ethiopian textiles, handicrafts and photography helping to give the restaurant a strong sense of place. While the other Ethiopian restaurants I’ve tried have offered up beef, chicken, lamb, goat and seafood dishes, Alem’s House is fully vegetarian. Animal products are not something you’ll miss however, when you order their Feast Platter ($30/head). Presented in a mesob or breadbasket, it’s a wonderful collection of stews (wots), curries, salads and sautéed dishes, served on a pliable, fermented pancake-like flatbread called injera. Made using teff, a wholegrain flour, the injera are both super easy to digest, and your cutlery for the evening. You use torn off pieces of the flatbread to scoop up the other dishes and deliver them to your waiting mouth. My only complaint with the platter is that it didn’t come with enough – but our additional rolls of Injera ($1/each) are fast to arrive. Graze across the platter by building your own combinations with injera-wrapped golden turmeric-infused potatoes and beans (atkilt wot) dipped into the central pot of shiro wot, a creamy chickpea stew. Mushroom tibs (a dish that’s traditionally made with beef) sees silky Swiss brown slices sizzled with garlic and green chilli. They eat even better when sprinkled with mitmita, made from powdered bird’s-eye chilli, and presented on the platter in a little white pot. Everything from the mound of sautéed spinach (gomen) to the cold beetroot and potato salad, is enjoyable, though I find the suf fitfit salad dressed with roasted sunflower and flax seed sauce a bit of an acquired taste. The tomato-stuffed green chilli has a fiery bite, but it’s the only thing that’s challenging, the rest of it (including the pot of dileh chilli paste) is tasty and accessible. While there is Ethiopian coffee available, we took advantage of the six buck charge to choose our own matching booze (wine and beer) from the nearby Camperdown Cellars. This brought our whole meal for two people just shy of seventy bucks – pretty good value for a night out in Sydney's Inner West.

Absolutely lovely, food left a clean feeling even after eating so much 😆. Environment was wholesome and the Ethiopian chai was a nice finish afterwards. Will definitely be coming here again.

Injera bread. That’s enough reason to go here. The curries/toppings are lovely & spiced. Easy to get a healthy meal here that tastes superb.

My friend is vegan and that's why we were looking vegan friendly places. Found Alem's house and went in. Place is small but very welcoming. Super nice and welcoming staff and the food, we loved it! (also I did although not vegan!) It was absolutely delicious; hearty spicy but not overwhelming. Best meal so far in Sydney.

It was my partner and I’s first time trying Ethiopian food here and we had a really enjoyable experience. Staff were friendly and food service was positive. We were offered complimentary popcorn hehe... We ordered the share platter, toyo smoothie and traditional coffee. It was fun to eat from the share platter. The flavours complimented each other and the drinks topped it off. My partner and I would definitely come back here again :-)

Alem’s House is your opportunity to eat Ethiopian cuisine right here in the Inner West. While I highly recommend taking the trip to Blacktown, which has become a bit of a hub for the cuisine with restaurants including Gursha and Abyssina, that’s not to say you shouldn’t also feast upon the bounty of your own neighbourhood. You’ll find the small restaurant taking up two shopfronts on Parramatta Road, at the base of a medium density residential block. Husband-and-wife team, Nethanet Assefa and Nicholas Gilmore, have made a good effort to personalise the bland, glass-fronted space, which is separated into dining room at the front, and kitchen and lounge in the rear, by an internal dividing wall. The wall is made into a centrepiece with...

I love Alems House!! Been here twice and it just doesn't disappoint. The food is so delicious and very affordable too. Will keep going back!

We came with high expectations after a few recommendations. You order various items to be put on the teff pancake which is shared as the group. We had 6 between 5. You eat with separate pancakes but we had to order more as it wasn’t enough.<br/><br/>Even though there were nice flavours throughout, I am not sure if the high expectations were met. The meal was ‘nice’ but probably not much more than that. It’s easily forgotten. Sadly, the items came out not that hot and subsequently went cold quite quickly, so they don’t taste as nice after a while.<br/><br/>It was a casual atmosphere with ‘hard’ decor. Table can’t fit anymore than 4 comfortably and we had one person stuck at the end which wasn’t as easy to sit at than the other seats.<br/><br/>It was a nice dinner but not one to rush back to. Would like to give their breakfast a go though next time.

To their credit, when I got home just before 10pm, Alem's was one of the few places still delivering. I ordered $30 worth of food and it was very tasty - the misr lentil stew was very good but the mushroom dish in particular had amazing spices in it, and the injera bread is a nice pancake to eat it with. Each dish is about $10 but one isn't much - maybe 1.5 could feed you for a small meal, otherwise order a lot. My third dish was the shiro chickpea stew and I thought at first that it wasn't delivered but eventually realised that it was the small dollop of thin stew in one of the containers. This probably still means that $20 or so might get you a really interesting meal of various veg dishes but it was a bit of a surprise the first time.

Love Injera - which is Ethiopian style Indian Dosa - serves with 3 dips - Sizzling Mushrooms and Red Lentils and Sautéed Spinach! My favorite was the sizzling mushroom dip. The coffee here is heavenly - with cinnamon and cloves and korerima and best of all Chilly!

Camperdown gets an Ethiopian Cafe. The lure of vegetarian dishes and injera pull us down Parramatta Rd to give it a burl. Alem's House is a bright space along busy old Parramatta Rd. Inside is a big multi coloured mural that fills up most of the main wall, like a bright 70s kids cartoon dream sequence. The setting inside is a handful of tables and chairs and seating along the big window looking out to the street.

My first and only other time dining Ethiopian was several years ago in Footscray, Melbourne. If there was ever a place in Melbourne to have Ethiopian, Footscray with its diverse East African community, is it. I’m not blind to the fact that Australia is still geographically very far from Ethiopia. Coupled with the fact that this isn’t a cuisine I’m well-versed with, I’m incredibly hesitant to make the call on whether it was authentic, but it certainly was delicious. So much that when Alem’s House began doing the rounds on the Broadsheet carousel, all of us in cherry (Jeff, Sarah, you know the drill by now) sat up and paid attention.

Alem's House has the most delicious Ethiopian food - the injera is very authentic and the wat (Ethiopian curries) are just divine. Don't miss the blue cheese and mushroom toastie - it's amazing. The spiced Ethiopian coffee and the chai are also wonderful on a wintery afternoon. Love this place. I try to get there at least once a week.

A small Ethiopian cafe/casual restaurant on Parramatta Road, serving breakfast and lunch. I came for lunch. The menu is small but interesting, featuring various curries served with traditional injera flatbread. All the curries are vegan. I tried a spicy lentil curry and a mild chickpea curry, and both were delicious, especially with the spongy, sour taste of the bread. Service was friendly, although the ambience is slightly lacking. Would definitely come back to try the breakfast menu!