Ziada is an ethiopean/eritrean restaurant. I was walking by it and lured in by the good smells. I decided to do take-away and it was a nice change from Chinese food. The owner/server was very friendly and helpful in explaining the dishes. I decided on the vegetarian sampler and half and half of a chicken berbere dish and a lamb dish with rosemary. Both of these were served on the injera crepelike flatbread that had a faint taste of sourdough, there was also extra injera rolled up on the side. The flavours of North Africa are similiar to India I find, though much tamer in terms of spiciness levels. I think most palates would like this food as it's similar to curry but mildly spiced. They can adjust the heat to spicy though if you like. The chicken dish was like a stir-fry as was the lamb, the meats were cut in smaller dices. I was expecting something a tad bit more saucy. The lamb was good and was all meat without gristle etc. but a tad bit chewy. If you order the meat dishes they unfortunately aren't served with veggies. The veggie sampler was a generous dollop of 5 different veggie dishes. The stand out was the partially ground chickpea dish. It was so flavourful and just something different from what I've ever had and tasty. The rest of the dishes were pretty good as well, the cabbage/potato curry, and lentil dish. The spinach was cooked nicely with just a bit of oil and onion. Unfortunately it was frozen spinach. There was also a green bean and carrot dish, and the green bean may have been frozen or canned as well. As it's summer it would have been nice if they did use fresh vegetables. They were still tasty but I prefer fresh. Note that they use copious amounts of oil in their dishes. Especially the meats. Luckily the injera absorbed a lot of the oil. Also if you eat in I think the dollops of dishes are served in little dishes so it wont be such a problem anyhow. They were extremely generous with the injera and we ate the rolled up portions as they weren't oily. We had lots of injera left over for the next day too. Recommended for something different, especially when you eat in and have one of their sharing platters for two. The value was pretty good too at around $10-$15 per person. It's too bad that sometimes some places like this don't open in a food court venue versus a restaurant. I think because most of the dishes are pre-prepared and actually improve in taste after stewing for a while it would lend itself to a food court perfectly.

My friend wanted to try Ethiopian food for the first time, so we gave Ziada a try.
The restaurant has a very family-run feel to it. Our server was very friendly and gave us some advice about what we would like best, particularly when it came to the spiciness of the dishes. He recommended some dishes that could have the spiciness adjusted to our liking, which was greatly appreciated.

The only thing "iffy" part of our experience was the wait time between ordering and actually receiving our food. It took well over half an hour to get our food. We didn't mind this time because we had time to kill and were enjoying our conversation, but if we were at all pressed for time, I don't know how forgiving I would be.

Anyway, when the food did arrive, it was heavenly! The meat was juicy and absorbed the delicious spices and the injera was tangy and fluffy and oh-so-good. The portions were VERY generous (we had to take home the leftovers) and each meal was $11, so you definitely get your money's worth. Check this place out! I'm already planning my next visit.