Gojo Ethiopian Restaurant

We just finished our meal and it was delicious! We heard about this place on Groupon and got the 4 person option. We ordered the Sambusas (fried lentil "pouches"), the Lamb Tibs and the Vegetable Combination platter. The Sambusas were really spicy but had great flavor! The hubby doesn't like spicy and even he ate them. The lamb was amazing as well, though the bestie didn't like it because she said it had too much anise. The other 3 of us disagreed, but if anise isn't your thing you might not like it. The Vegetable Platter is a MUST. The lentils and the greens were our favorite part. No utensils here, just spongy bread and fingers. The bread was a texture we weren't used to but after the first couple bites, that weird texture was forgotten. We had an amazing, attentive waitress, honestly one of the best I've had in awhile. She was really helpful with the menu and checked on us often. The venue is set up more like a dive bar. There are pillows that say "Happy Holidays" and the cushions are completely worn down. There are slot machines right next to the door, which makes it seem kind of sketchy. If you can get past the decor, the food is definitely worth it.

I have eaten Ethiopian food before at Desta and loved it. My lovely gent has never tried Ethiopian food before so I purchased a Groupon for this place. Food: 4 stars. The food was just on point! I enjoyed that they put the food on the injera. Mr. Gent said the lamb was delicious. The food made us full quickly!Service: 2 stars. Nobody made us feel welcomed and the person behind the bar didn't acknowledge us until 15 minutes later, when she removed excess items from our table and gave us water. She did not ask us if we wanted anything else to drink so we didn't get anything. We had said our menus to the side as a signal that we were ready. I'm not sure if it was a server or the owner who took out order and we waited another 15 + minutes for our food. She did explain to us how to use the injera to pick up the food. When I informed her we had a groupon and she did not seem happy to hear that. She left so we had to wait for her to get us some change so we could tip. Atmosphere: 2 stars. As you can see from the pictures others posted, it is a bit of a dark and funky theme. There were holes in the couches. It was a bit shady but it smelled nice!

I had been craving Ethiopian food for awhile and found this place through a Groupon deal they're running. The food was alright; I've definitely had far better Ethiopian food elsewhere. We ordered the kitfo dulet (raw minced beef), vegetarian sampler, doro wat key (chicken), and lega tibs (lamb). Everything was served over injera bread, and you traditionally eat it with your fingers (no utensils). Some of the dishes came out a bit lukewarm in terms of temperature. The kitfo dulet was the most flavorful dish and had a nice, spicy kick. I wouldn't recommend bringing a date here, as the interior looks a bit divey and a tad bit shady. Service was mediocre as far as attitude goes. Overall:Food: 3 starsValue: 4 starsService: 2 starsAmbiance / Decor: 1 starIt's a decent value if you use the $30 for $60 Groupon, but I wouldn't go out of my way to come here without the deal.

Really bad experience! Service was slow, the waitress was in her own world and pretty clueless. She told us she could not serve us wine because their liquor license had expired but she happily served alcohol to other custmers who seemed to be her countrymen and regular customers. They were out of a lot of food we wanted to order. In the end we were just glad that we got something to eat!

I have found Ethiopian people to be welcoming and warm in general. Know before you go if you are going to try something new and different. Something out of your comfort zone. Not all cuisines serve food the same, whether it's about how it's cooked or if you have familiar utensils.There are lots of Groupon users out there, myself included, and they are a ticket to adventure. Ethiopian food is definitely about adventure. Not all of the food is cooked. Traditional food is eaten with your hands. Portions are best shared on a big platter family style and not individual plates. If you are unsure ask.I don't think all of the service problems here are related to customers. I think someone here has issues. But our server warmed up considerably after we showed enthusiasm for the cuisine.They prepare a number of foods to order except for stewed meats, so it will not be fast at an Ethiopian restaurant. My advice is to not order the chicken (Doro Wat) unless you want one piece of chicken to strip down for your own meal. It's hard to share. The Lamb Tibs is delicious - have it juicy not crisp. Anything in a sauce is wonderful as the sauce will soak the spongy injera bread lining the platter and then you rip it or cut it out and eat it. You will be fighting over it. Veggie juices, too. All of the vegetables are good. The Vegetarian Combo is excellent. A party of two will be stuffed with two entrees and use of the injera bread to eat. Whoever cooks is good. Customers need to be welcomed as they enter. Service needs to be open to pleasant instruction about their menu and open to doing it over and over again or they will not get repeat business from non-Ethiopians.

I'm sorry to say I didn't quite enjoy this food experience. I'm an Ethiopian food virgin. Got a Groupon deal for $15 for $30, dinner for 2 offer. Even then I don't think the price justified what we ate. First I ordered the Sambhusa, which are triangular puff pastry filled with whole green lentils. This one was quite good. The dipping sauce was delicious. 3 small pieces for $4.49 or 4.99 (I forgot).I ordered a vegetarian platter ($11.99) and my friend got the only chicken dish on the menu ($14.99). The vegetarian plate came with two lentil dishes, one spinach and one cabbage/tomato salad along with injera. The chicken came in a bowl of very oily, fragrant yet under-seasoned gravy. There was 1 chicken thigh on the entire dish and that's it. The taste of food to me was low on seasoning (salt and pepper please) the red lentil was good. But I wasn't very happy with anything else. Food wasn't the only underwhelming aspect of this trip. The place itself is dark and run down. Smoke-filled air made our throats itchy and creaking chairs weren't the comfiest to sit on. 1 star for the ambience. There was one waitress attending all the tables and the bar. But the restaurant with total of 8 tables was small and there weren't plenty of people there. So she was doing well: cheerful, helpful and attentive. 5 stars to her.

The food here was fantastic; the cook actually deserves a 5-star, whom my boyfriend and I met the first time we went here. However, the service/management/communication could use some work.I loved it enough to get a 2nd Groupon to come back to this place, because although it was my first time trying Ethiopian food at that time and it was a bit pricey (for a college student), I remember really being impressed by the culture of the food. I loved the inerja, and there was a food item that caught my eye on the menu that I wanted to try a second time around: RAW beef.I tried coming back here one late night, and to double check the hours, I looked online and saw 2am. I called to clarify to ask what time the actual kitchen closes, and the lady on the phone said 10-11pm. Confused by the range of time as an answer, I asked again. Nothing direct, once more, but between 10-11pm. I took this as a sign that it would be between those hours, because rarely do people give a range and they actual mean the extreme ends of the range. It was around 9:15 when I called, so I decided to try and make it. It didn't help that the address posted for this restaurant is wrong on Google: My boyfriend and I ended up at the restaurant at 9:55. When we came in, the first thing the lady tells us is that they are closed at 10. I understood that we were cutting it close, but NOW you say an exact time? I would have saved myself an extra trip if this lady was more clearer in the first place. So I come back for a 3rd time because I still had the Groupon to use. Let me emphasize that I paid for this Groupon just to try their raw beef entree (Kurt Sega). The menu said that this entree was served only on Saturday. So guess what? I came on a Saturday. When I ordered, she said it was not available tonight. Like what?? If a restaurant owns up to saying a certain special dish is served only ONCE a week, as a customer, I would expect the restaurant to honor it and have it available, ESPECIALLY when the restaurant is not busy and the excuse was not that they ran out. Then my boyfriend tries to order a half & half, and guess what? THAT WAS ALSO NOT AVAILABLE. He ended up getting the Firfir, which he was satisfied with. But I was still determined to get something close to the Kurt Sega item, so I asked the server if there was any similar raw beef dish. She pointed out the Kitfo, but then immediately mentioned that I wouldn't like it because it was uncooked. I told her I understood (didn't I just try to order the Kurt Sega?), and that I wanted to try it anyways. I reiterated with her that I wanted the beef raw (because on the menu it stated you can choose between cooked, rare, and raw). When the food came out, she stated again that I may not like the raw beef, but added the courtesy that the cook can cook it for me if I didn't like it. At this point, I appreciated the gesture of service, but now in the back of my mind I was starting to think 'why is this lady so adamant about me not having raw beef here?'. I was almost expecting now to get food poisoning from it. The food itself, was delicious!! Pictures included. Despite the poor experience, personally, I would still go back here JUST for the food (and I didn't get diarrhea!). And I will be making sure to call in every time I decide to go in to triple check everything. TIP(s): Even though the restaurant says it opens late, the kitchen actually closes around 10. To be safe, come early! And to be safer, come earlier than what you plan for because the restaurant itself is hard to find! Look up the menu prior to coming, and then call if they ask if it's available.

I wanted my husband to try some Ethiopian food, groupon brought us here. So, i called them to check their closing time since it was labor day. Clearly, she wasnt able to communicate( gave a time frame 10 to 11)So anyway, i went in there and it looked like a shady place. Torn sofas, machine games, extremely dark room, etc gave me a nauseated feeling. The worst of all was their broken commode inside the ladies rest room; grossiest toilet ive ever seen. I so wanted to walk out, but I stayed. So coming to the service, which was just okay. They had no silverware, and she literally TOUCHED my husband's injera to indicate eat the fish with injera using your hands( question their sanitary practices). Next, the food was so cold, i had to ask her to heat it. Injera supply was so low. I have been to Queen of Sheba in addison and they give a basket full of Injeras. I ordered a vegetarian platter which was really cold and bland. And my husband wanted a sandwich but they were running out of the bread, So he ordered Tilapia fish coz she insisted so much. Last when it comes to paying, i overheard a conversation they didnt wanted to accept credit cards from another group. And they DO NOT know how to redeem the groupon. She literally took my phone inside the kitchen for long time, to redeem it; which made me nervous. She finally came outside just to take a picture of the voucher code with her camera instead of redeeming it with an app. So many dark sides of this place. Wont be coming back.

There are only 2 Ethiopian restaurants in the Dallas area that we know of. We throughly enjoyed our meal here. Very authentic as far as we can tell. The lamb was spicy and tasteful as was the vegetable combo. We would have liked more combination dishes to choose from but we will definitely be back to try more selections.

The food was very tasty, service was very attentive and polite. We enjoyed dining at Go Jo - except -there were a couple of pesky flies that would not leave us alone. Flies have been worse than normal throughout the metroplex this year but I hope that management puts out a few more fly traps to keep them better under control.