Bati, Ethiopian in Build America Plaza on S. George Mason Drive near Bailey's Crossroads

[MSDCX]

My current preferences are Zenebech Injera in DC, Sheba in Rockville, and Addis Ababa in Silver Spring.

Bati

Build America Plaza

3815 S George Mason Dr

Falls Church, VA 22041

(703) 379-1799

Our "go to" place for Ethiopian food. Very flavorful and inexpensive. The lamb tibs are amazing! The only downside: they are located inside a very busy plaza with other Ethiopian restaurants/shops, so parking is often an issue.

[DonRocks]

Bati

Build America Plaza

3815 S George Mason Dr

Falls Church, VA 22041

(703) 379-1799

Our "go to" place for Ethiopian food. Very flavorful and inexpensive. The lamb tibs are amazing! The only downside: they are located inside a very busy plaza with other Ethiopian restaurants/shops, so parking is often an issue.

Bati has a private "VIP Room" in the restaurant that accomodates 10-50 people, complete with WiFi. Given that this restaurant is open 7 days, 11AM-2AM, it would be *easy* to find a time to get 20 people or so, bring your books, computers (they have WiFi), and reserve that room for 2-3 hours. They wouldn't mind during non-busy times, especially if we tip well, and leave by an agreed-upon time.

I like the idea of a laid-back, sort of "Poor Man's Rose's Rooftop Experience," where people can come and go, bring an Ethiopian travel guide to plan their next vacation, get on their computers and post on dr.com , and just have a casual, leisurely experience, with the more seasoned Ethiopian veterans introducing first-timers to the cuisine.

[noamb]

We went to Bati Friday night, thanks to one of these threads. The parking lot was a zoo, as promised, at 7:30. It was nearly empty, but filled up by about 8:30. We had the veggie combination and the beef equivalent of YEBEG BERET METAD TIBS, since they had no lamb. The meat was great, the veggies were good but not amazing, but the service was some of the nicest I've had at an Ethiopian restaurant. There were some sort of really good spices (reminded me of chai - cinnamon and cardamom?) in their tea (which made it much better than the Lipton bag would lead one to expect), and they even gave us (free) coffee ceremony coffee.