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Addis Red Sea

544 Tremont St
Boston MA 02116
(617) 426-8727
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Hours: Mon-Fri, 5-11 pm; Sat-Sun, noon-11 pm

Cuisine: African, Ethiopian

The Lowdown

Perhaps Boston’s most exotic dining experience, and certainly one of its most rewarding. Spicy Ethiopian stews arrive on huge sourdough pancakes as patrons sit on stools around woven tables. Be sure to start with a warm dip and the cottage cheese with red-pepper powder. Eating without silverware turns out to be easier than you think.

Stuff@Night Dining Awards 2006: Best vibe Substance and style are mutually exclusive far too often in the restaurant biz. Addis Red Sea (544 Tremont Street, Boston, 617.426.8727) and Neptune Oyster (63 Salem Street, Boston, 617.742.3474) are among our favorite exceptions. In the case of everybody’s favorite Ethiopian joint, you’d have to be one aloof fool to perch with a date on stools around a mesob in Addis’s moody, casbah-like environs, sharing scoops of spicy stew on flatbread, and not feel the pull of romance. As for Neptune: whether you’re squeezed in at the counter or along the banquette, you’d have to be as hard-shelled as the bivalves in the window of the sparkling-clean and light little raw bar not to loosen up amid its lively buzz. Of course, we know you’re no such thing.