Den Den Restaurant - (Eritrean)

a dining buddy of mine recently handed me a paper menu to Den Den and said, you should organize a dinner here, it's Eritrean.

I knew of Eritrea but not of it's cuisine:
Wikipedia describes Eritrean cuisine as follows:
Eritrean cuisine strongly resembles those of neighboring Ethiopia and Somalia, except for the fact that Eritrean and Somali cooking tend to feature more seafood than Ethiopian cuisine on account of their coastal locations. Eritrean dishes are also frequently "lighter" in texture than Ethiopian meals. They likewise tend to employ less seasoned butter and spices and more tomatoes, as in the tsebhi dorho delicacy. Additionally, owing to its colonial history, cuisine in Eritrea features more Ottoman and Italian influences than are present in Ethiopian cooking, including more pasta specials and greater use of curry powders and cumin. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_Eritrea )

The above sounded delicious to me and our group of diners, so we went last week.

I ordered cubed beef & spices, cubed lamb & spices, fish & spices, and the veggie sampler which had two types of lentils, cabbage.

The restaurant was very nice & split the servings equally on two big round platters for our group.

Both platters had a large round piece of injera covering the pan, two dishes of rolled injera were also served along with. (I noticed that this injera did not have a sour note like injera I've had at Ethiopian places).

The lentils & lamb were the highlights for me, especially those lentils, as a confirmed carnivore I would have been very pleased if I had only been served the injera & lentils (especially the red lentils). Red had much more kick than the yellow.

Beef was the very weak dish, cubes were very overcooked/dry and did not have much flavor at all. I'd steer clear of this the next time I go.

Den Den does have a full bar so no BYOB. No Eritrean beer but a few kinds of Ethiopian and of course they have honey wine.

Our group went on a Wed night at 7pm and were the only ones in the restaurant for the 2.5 hours we were there.

Den Den Restaurant
6635 N Clark
Chicago, IL

Sounds wonderful. I love Ethiopian, and this sounds just close enough to make me think I'd probably like Eritrean, too. How cool that we have this available now. (And hope it gets enough business to stay around for a while.)

The Evanston Lunch Group went once. Write-up here.

LTH dinner at Den Den on Tues June 4 @ 6:30pm, see this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=37750

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Despite the ho-huming on the Evanston Lunch Group thread, I was still quite excited to check out the place, and happy I did.

Overall I had a great meal, and I look forward to returning. The veggie dishes landed on the bland side, but the 3 meat dishes we ordered were fiery, rich and delicious. I forgot the Eritrean name, but the lamb in the dark red sauce was rich, delicious and came out fiery, despite Cynthia's attempts to hijack the ordering . The kitfo was excellent, a good texture, and fresh. I recommend ordering it with a side berbere spice to dip it in to get the right spice level. The fried fish dish seemed to be a table favorite, and I really enjoyed it as well.

It may not be the best ethopian (or eritrean) food you'll ever have, but in a place like Chicago where the options aren't the best, it's no doubt worth giving this place a chance!

thanks laikom for suggesting the kitfo, I had looked at that with my previous dining group but most I know wouldn't have gone for raw meat, it was quite fresh last night and delicious.

There comes that time in the meal when instead of taking injera from one's own plate, one starts using the injera that sat beneath the items ordered, at the end of the evening our platter had this lone central piece of injera with a side salad on top.

I again very much enjoyed the dishes here.

We had a fine meal at Denden prior to Anna Karenina at Lifeline Theater (1000 pages of story in a little over 2 hours, I'm guessing they left a little out).

We ordered the Zighni Begi'e, lamb chops in berbere and spicy butter, and the Alich'a Derho, listed as a spicy chicken curry.

We were a little surprised when they brought out the platter with two pieces of chicken and an egg. They came right back out and said they realized they gave us the wrong food, and very shortly afterward brought out the lamb, however, I'm pretty sure it was the T'ibsi Begi'e -- it was cubed lamb. Still very tasty, although a little tough.

The Alich'a had a nice nutty flavor, with pieces of peppers and other veg. Accompanying the two mains on the big circle of injera were salad with a bright vinegary dressing, and two varieties each (red and yellow) of lentils and cabbage. I really liked both cabbage preps, the spices balanced nicely with the sweetness of the cabbage. The yellow lentils were in a hummus-like paste, the red ones a little saucier and more whole.

Not the cheapest African food around (entrees $11.75 for one veg dish to $14.99 for lamb), but certainly filling -- we brought home a good amount of the lamb and chicken, and very tasty. They were pretty empty when we were there during the last minutes of the Loyola game on Saturday, perhaps they filled up after the game was over.

8 of us dined last night at Den Den.

Beef was again dry, chicken was flavorful, lamb & fish were both excellent.

3 types of lentils this time, red, green, yellow. Also two types of cabbage preps as well as collared greens prep.

Besides beef being dry, there wasn't anything left, all very enjoyable. The house made honey wine was interesting, a single glass was good enough for me.

A beer guy who attended noted that they now serve an Eritrean beer as well as Ethiopian. (edited to add: disregard this comment on Eritrean & Ethiopian beers per below post)

Sweet Willie wrote: 8 of us dined last night at Den Den.
{edit}
A beer guy who attended noted that they now serve an Eritrean beer as well as Ethiopian.

Take a guess who was the "beer guy"?
I had looked up Ethiopian beer out here on the World-Wide Web. I found four brews. The largest brewery in Ethiopia is now owned by Heineken (just like Lagunitas). But Den Den did not have any Ethiopian beers, nor the one brew from the only brewery in Eritrea, Asmara. So don't go there seeking that.

Three years later, another show at Lifeline, another meal at Denden.

I hadn't looked here, so we ended up ordering exactly the same mains. Prices are up a couple bucks, no surprise these days, a little more disappointed that there was only one variety each of lentils and cabbage (red and yellow, respectively). Those red lentils were probably the best thing we were served.

Service was very nice, not many patrons but we were there early.

Their injera is among the best I've had: sour, springy and stretchy. One of the servers came by, it seemed she expected to tell us how to eat using injera, looked surprised to see us already digging in.