Never mind the traffic jams, amplified rent prices and smog associated with big-city life. For many true foodies, nearly any downside is worth enduring for the wealth of ethnic cuisines available in America's largest cities. And L.A. wouldn't be L.A. if those restaurants didn't come with a touch of glam. Take Genet Agonafer's elegant café in Little Ethiopia, for example. Both traditional Ethiopian dishes and several Italian meals (a testament to Italy's six-year reign in Ethiopia from 1935–1941) shine with gourmet quality, all served in a comfortably stylish setting on Fairfax Avenue. A fresh batch of soul-warming injera accompanies any selection from the African side of the menu. Try Agonafer's excellent version of the classic doro wat, spicy chicken in red pepper-butter sauce. Beer and wine available. Serving dinner Wed–Sun. Closed Mon–Tue.
Where the Locals Eat rating
Best African/Ethiopian
Top 100 Restaurant, Los Angeles
"At the heart of Fairfax Avenue's Little Ethiopia, Meals by Genet is more or less an Ethiopian bistro, which is to say a homey, soft-lit dining room that looks at least as French as it does African. ... Even an Ethiopian grandmother would approve."
—Los Angeles Weekly
"The menu is about equally divided between Ethiopian and European dishes, the latter mostly being Italian. ... Some other Ethiopian restaurants have a pasta or two, but Agonafer is a versatile cook and her Italian dishes are not mere pasta in marinara sauce. ... Several of the best-known Ethiopian dishes are available."
—Los Angeles Times
How others rate Meals by Genet
LA Weekly Jonathan Gold's 99 Essential LA Restaurants, 2009