Gursha Ethiopian Restaurant-Club Vista Mare

There are times when I want to get out of my comfort zone and try something different. Like try a completely different cuisine than the usual and the popular ones. On my previous visit to Club Vista Mare, I had walked past Gursha, an Ethiopian restaurant and had made a note to myself to visit it later. And I finally visited Gursha last week for lunch.

This was the second time that I was trying out Ethiopian cuisine. So had a slight idea of what to expect in terms of flavor and taste of Ethiopian food.

Located at Club Vista Mare in Palm Jumeirah, Gursha is an Ethiopian restaurant offering authentic flavors of Ethiopia in a family friendly atmosphere.

This beautiful beachfront restaurant offers indoor and outdoor dining space in a gorgeous and colorful set up. Gursha has an Ethiopian inspired decor that gives it a colorful vibe.

The walls of Gursha is adorned with beautiful Ethiopian paintings and picture frames. You can see the Ethiopian touch right from the furniture to the tableware. Loved the handcrafted Ethiopian carpets that were hung on the ceiling.

Gursha translates as ‘mouthful’ in Amharic. So it is all about eating food with our hands and sharing a communal experience of eating meals together.

Ethiopian cuisine offers a wide spectrum of vegetarian and meat dishes. The appetizers and mains are served with Injera, a thin sourdough bread that is made out of teff( a gluten free grain indigenous to Ethiopia) and looks similar to crepe but it is egg free and gluten free.

While we were sipping our drinks, we were served our appetizer. As we didn’t know what to order, the staff recommended that we try their sampler. And being vegetarians we ordered their veg sampler for our appetizer.

Appetizers

Azifa- Vinegar soaked lentils, crunchy Injera with garlic herb cream.
Buticha- A chickpea dip mixed with lemon juice.
Anebabero- It was a variation on Injera with spiced butter, zesty spread and micro greens.

All the appetizers were simple, freshly made and tasty.

For mains, we had the option of choosing individual dishes from their menu or go for combos. They’ve 3 kinds of combo platters- vegetarian, meat lovers and taste of Ethiopia. We naturally opted for the vegetarian platter.

Mains

The vegetarian platter was a huge communal platter with a variety of veg mains to be had along with Injera bread.

This platter can be easily shared between 2-3 people. You are supposed to share this platter and eat with your hands. And that’s what we did and I must tell you it was fun.

Not everything suited our taste buds as the flavors were very different. We found some of the dishes too tangy and slightly bland.

Platter consisted of:

Shiro- Chickpea powder stew.
Misir- Spicy red lentil stew.
Suf Fitfit- Injera pieces sopped in sunflower mix, tomato, onions and pepper.
Gomen Kitfo- It was a vegetarian/kale variation on the traditional kitfo( steak tartar).
Fosolia- Sautéed green beans, onions, garlic and tomato
Key Ser- It is a beetroot salad.

Dessert

Unfortunately they don’t serve any Ethiopian dessert. So we ordered a decadent Double Chocolate Brownie topped with vanilla ice cream.

We ended our afternoon with a cup of Coffee. They have an Ethiopian lady who comes in at 4 in the evening to make traditional Ethiopian coffee. As we went early, she wasn’t there.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. A visit to an Ethiopian restaurant is incomplete without ordering a coffee. And we ordered our coffee made with Ethiopian coffee beans. The coffee was perfectly brewed, aromatic and mildly strong.

For an eclectic and authentic Ethiopian dining experience, Gursha is a good place to visit.

Phone: 04 550 9233