Mesob Restaurant

We LOVE Mesob. The restaurant is really beautiful inside and the food is yummy. We always order the samplers, so we can get a taste of everything. They serve 2. The vegetarian sampler has 6 dishes for $30 and it's more than 2 people can eat. The meat sampler has 4 meat dishes and 2 veg dishes for $40 - again, more than you can eat! It's deliscious and a wonderful experience, if you haven't had ethiopian before.

I also vote it amongst the nicest bathrooms in Montclair...

Had dinner there last week and really enjoyed it.
We ordered the meat sampler and where not disappointed. It’s rare that hubby and I find a place that we both agree on. The food is little kick to it – goes great with a cold beer. Hope to get back there soon!

There is one in West Orange, though it's not nearly as good.

Amazing vegetarian food. Sadly, business always seem slow when I go there. Don't let this place disappear!

Mesob is the best kept secret in Montclair. It's never very busy, but consistently has great food. The ambiance is terrific and the owners are swell. We LOVE it!

ate there last night. service started slow but ended up okay and the food was suberb we had the meat smapler, once you get past eating with your hands, its delicious.

Mesob is a find...wonderful food, service, ambiance.Looking forward to our next visit.

I ate there yesterday for lunch. A friend and I split the meat sampler, $24 and it was fantastic. I really fell in love with the dibo tibs(sp)! The iced tea was also really great, not the typical overly sweet chair, but just a slightly smokey flavor. So with tax, tip and a drink, it was $17 a piece. I thought that was pretty reasonable for a really great filing lunch that wasn't junky food.

The service was great and super efficient. The place is lovely inside.

I had no idea I would like this place as much as I did.

"typical overly sweet chair"

this was SUPPOSED to read "typical overly sweet chai"

I LOVE this place ... right up their with other super Ethiopian/Eritrean places I've tried in NYC, DC and New Haven. And, true to what the menu says, the entrees do indeed get their own coordinated vegetarian sides. This place seems a tad spicier than others, and they give you plenty of the sourdough bread.

Absolutely wonderful!

Friendly service and delicious, different food. They will cater to your spicing desires, are eager to explain the different dishes, Ethiopian customs and family and village life -- even the Amharic alphabet. I was thrilled, my kids were enthused and my vegetarian spouse was happy to add another viable option to our restaurant rotation.

I love Mesob, though most of my friends are wary of Ethiopian food, so it takes a bit of nudging to get them to try it. It's fabulous! The decor and atmosphere are lovely. The sampler platters are a wonderful way to experience the cuisine and you never walk away hungry. My only complaint is that service is very slow, even when there is no one else in the restaurant! The other night, it took a half an hour to get us the check, then technically the restaurant shoudl have been closing, yet they still never came to take the check! My friend finally brought it up to them, where it took them another 10 minutes to process. Similar things have happened the other times we've been there (*extremely* long time to get another drink, more injera, etc.). I'm patient within reason, but they are just slow. Luckily the food is more than worth the waiting involved, just don't expect to be in and out if you have somewhere else to be.

yeah, the food is amazing, but the slow service is incredibly irksome. they wasted over 30 minutes of my time just on my trying to pay the friggin' bill!

Wow. I went to Mesob last night for the first time. Highly recommend this restaurant to everyone. Delicious! And as for the service, very attentive.

We had the vegetarian sampler the other night, holy smokes, delcious, thinking about it now makes me hungry, and I just ate. Bring some Blue Moon. Get the Creme Brule at the end, mmmm.

i have eaten at mesob many times: lunch and dinner. each time the food was superb, the servers are extremely friendly and helpful,and the restaurant is very beautifully decorated w/ ethiopian art.
mesob is my favorite restaurant in all of montclair. they actually make organic bread (injira) and the ethiopian coffee is a must..it's also organic. very hard to find organic anything anywhere these days.
i love their vegetarian dishes.
by the way, you can ask for a fork!

We ate there with our kids on Saturday night--the service was a bit slow, but very solicitous and gracious. The food was delicious. My 11-year-old son, who's a vegetarian with a severe milk and nut allergy (that's a fun combination) loved it, and even my more cautious 8 year-old twins were happy. We ate at one of the mesobs, the woven tray-tables, and it was a little unwieldy, with no one place to put drinks, plates, etc. I'd recommend a table--and, yes, you can get forks. It is a bit pricey for a casual family dinner though.

My husband and I went for lunch on Saturday and were pleasantly surprised. Our waiter was friendly and helpful. It was our first time trying Ethiopian cuisine and he explained everything patiently and clearly.

We had the lamb dish and a chicken dish. The lamb was absolutely delicious and the sauce that the chicken was served with, a slow cooked onion "jam" was a surprising treat. The collards were cooked to perfection with no overcooked bitter flavor. They were wonderful. The other sides were tasty too, particularly the yellow peas.

I also ordered an iced tea which had a rich cinnamony flavor to it which complemented the rich food quite nicely.

I didn't think I would like injera, which has a sourdough-like flavor, since I didn't like it by itself. But, when sopping up the gravies, it was really tasty.

I'd definitely go again, especially for lunch when the price is just right!

Great experience! We went there for the first time about two months ago after having read the very favorable reviews on Barista. Since then we have been back almost once a week! It surpassed our expectations! It is certainly up there with many Ethipian or Eritrean restaurants we tried in NYC and DC. The food is delicious and very well prepared. The service can be a bit slow on Friday and Saturday evenings when it gets busier, but since the ambiance is very relaxing, we don't mind it much. We highly reccomend it.

I cannot wait to go back. What a fabulous restaurant and at 11pm last night, they were still doing business, so it's a good after-movie choice.

I often crave Ethiopian food but have never bothered with Mesob after my first experience there. After waiting a tremedously long time for our food,(even for an Ethiopian rest.) I noticed a woman coming into the restaurant with a huge tray of injera. What do you know, in another 5 minutes my food was ready. The only reason I didn't walk out is because, as I said, I crave Ethiopian food. Even worse, when I very nicely asked the staff about it they argued with me and insisted that I hadn't seen what I saw. I'd rather just go to NYC, prices and food are better there.

I've eaten at Mesob a half-dozen times hand have never been disappointed. The food is the best I've had in Montclair. I absolutely love this restaurant even though it's wee bit on the pricey side.

Went there a dozen times and it has always been good and consistant. Definitely one of the best food experience in Montclair. I highly recommend it.

I've been there a dozen and half number of times. Love it.

Like to visit Montclair to get a NYC feel without going to nyc!

If you've seen Along came Polly and always wanted to find a "eat with your hand" place then you have to try Mesob!

It's not like Along came Polly of course b/c you're seated and diff cuisine (in movie morroccan), but the experience is superbly unique none-the-less!

The decor I thought could have been a bit warmer (the bar area in the middle seems out of place) but is above and beyond the call of normal and will certainly offer a talking point if on date (they have tribal outfits on walls and in back before the bathrooms they have a huge collection of coffee urns that you might mistake for a watier station but you should check out!).

The food is good but maybe b/c I am not used to the bread/starch/base they use, leaves me physically full but still hungry?! Of course this is probably just me!

What you should definitely try though is the ethiopian coffee! they brew it in traditional ethiopian fashion (as far as i know, which isn't factual) and during the process bring out these freshly roasted beans for you to waft! That alone I think makes it an experience and worth it, then they serve to you using a traditional weave pot with horse hair filter (again, i'm not an expert on these things and is what i've been told).

So to wrap up:
Food: 7
Service: 7
Decor: 7

Great, just great!
I think it says a lot about a restaurant when you don't find negative comments posted on Barista. We have eaten here many times and keep going back. The service can be a bit slow on Saturdays but any other day is fine. The food is excellent. Even my son who normally refuses to eat any kind of vegetable (including potatoes!) eats them here. They are so tasty! If you never had Ethiopian food before don't be scared off. The staff is very helpful and they will explain every dish and how to eat them. I have friends who are very cautious and finicky and don't like to try new stuff who loved Mesop after I literally drag them there. Just give it a try you'll love it.

This place is really yummy. I went with my girlfriend and we ordered the meat + veggie sampler for $40. It was really good. We decided that next time we go we will only do veggies because the veggies were actually better than the meat. Our veggies were the lentils, cold chickpea salad (butcha on the menu), and another cold chickpea side which was kinda sweet and balanced the spicy meats out nicely. My girlfriend really enjoyed the lamb, which had very nice and flavorful curry. I liked the ground beef, which was moist, had good curry, and mixed really well with the chickpea salad. The soft bread is great and it feels good eat with your hands.

The mesob's (aka, traditional Ethiopian tables), were a little uncomfortable, so we moved to a regular table. If you sit at the mesob table, you will have to put your wine and water on a little side table which I felt like would get kicked over.

Although I'm sure this isn't a normal occurrence, I should tell you that a fist fight broke out between two male staff members while we were there. It was short and in the back of the restaurant and involved many broken glasses, a few crying children from the noise, and a silent restaurant afterwards. Within 2-3 minutes, everyone was back to eating at the staff kept going like nothing happened. It was weird.

Overall, for $49 with tax and tip, it was a little bit pricey but it was really good and a great experience.

the chickpea appetizer is the greatest. reminds me of my mom's egg salad. also might win award for best smelling restaurant in montclair

I've been to Mesob at least once or twice in the past (although not for several months now), and since the boyfriend and I love Ethiopian (especially Makeda's down in New Brunswick), we decided to go here again for Valentine's last week. We were very pleased with the experience. Service was good, although a little slow at times (but certainly nothing to complain about, especially in light of the night it was). Food was very tasty. We both chose different beef dishes and four different sides (each entree comes with a choice of two vegetable sides). The two dishes that had been labeled "spicy" weren't too bad in terms of spice level. The atmosphere here is really nice as is the clove(?) smell that emanates throughout. We couldn't believe when we got the bill and it was only thirty something dollars.

Love this place but the service is always bad. Really slow whether they're busy or not. On the bright side the food is always good and the place is always really clean. Whether you like Ethiopian or are just trying for the first time, try it-just don't be in a hurry!

This is by far one of the best restaurants in Montclair. The food is delicious and always fun to eat (with hands). My favorite part of the experience is walking in to the wonderful aroma of cloves(?) and cinnamon. The staff is very friendly and always eager to explain my many queries on the Ethiopian culture, food and coffee ceremony. One waitress actually took the time to explain to my husband and I how the sourdough bread is made and showed me the tiny grains its made from. Overall its a wonderful experience and look forward to going there very soon!!!

Mesob is such a great restaurant! Went there last night for the 2nd time, and they did not disappoint. All of their dishes are so flavorful, healthy and so different. The staff is welcoming & attentive. We will be back very soon!

I went to Mesob for the first time for my birthday this past week. What a fantastic experience overall. The atmosphere, the friendly staff and great service, the food!
I am notoriously fussy about food;the way it was explained and prepared here, left me with zero qualms.
Highly recommend it and would go back again.