West Philadelphia Eats

I'm planning a day trip to Philly from NYC and was planning to have lunch at one of the Ethiopian places in West Philadelphia. Can anyone recommend their favorite Ethiopian place? Also, once we finish with lunch are there any good cafes (preferably with outdoor seating) that we could relax at before heading over to Monk's later in the afternoon?

[joypirate]

Ethiopian co-worker swears by Abyssinia but I haven't tried it myself yet. Yeah, it's my experience that African places tend to take their time.

Dahlak and Abysinnia are both Ethopian restaurants in West Philly. Some prefer one over the other, but it's my impression that both are good. (We always go to Dahlak.)

[EElie]

Visting from out of town, we had lunch yesterday at Abysinnia. The food (veggie combo platter and chicken alicha) was somewhere between all right and good, but not great.

My main complaint was that it took at least half an hour for our appetizer to get to us (luckly the entree came pretty quickly thereafter). Now very few Ethiopian places I've been to are fast (I've been to all the Ethiopian places around Boston and several in the Bay Area) but even in comparison I thought this place was slow.

If you are going to Monk's for dinner anyway, and the weather is nice, I suggest you pick up coffee at the La Colombe coffeehouse at 19th and Chestnut and sit in Rittenhouse Square to peoplewatch and enjoy. La Colombe is the best coffee in town, served at Le Bec Fin and many fine restaurants in NY. If you need a little snack to go with the coffee, there are two great patisseries near there: Yann's at 18th and Sansom and Miel at 17th and Walnut.

Sorry I can't help you with Ethiopian recs, but for a cafe, I suggest Green Line Cafe. Green Line is located at the corner of 43rd and Baltimore Avenue. It has plenty of outdoor seating, or if none is available, there's Clark Park across the street. The cafe is always full with people (mostly college students), but the "people" noise is nonexistent. Every once in a while, the trolleys roll by. They feature organic/fair trade coffee, tea (many many varieties), and fresh squeezed OJ. The neighborhood is full of grand-scale Victorian rowhouses. Just a few blocks away, the homes at the 4200 block of Pine Street are worth seeing.

Other options for cafes include the Xando/Cosi on Penn's campus at 140 S. 36th Street. Faetures outdoor seating, and many students.

Link: http://www.greenlinecafe.com/index.html

I like the tea better than the coffee at Green Line. You can't beat the atmosphere though. Even when you're inside it's like you're outside. Lots of dog walkers stop in too so you can count on a changing scene. Their black rice pudding is yumi.