Aba Guben Bakery

I am always elated to be introduced to a new restaurant in Addis Ababa. I guess I thought we'd find three good restaurants and have to rotate between them for two and a half years.  It's not the case! Justin often finds little gems and then take us on the weekend.  That's exactly what we did today.  Justin has been raving about Aba Guben Bakery for a week.  We all went today for lunch.

The atmosphere is really nice.  Upstairs is an airy dining room with large windows.  The downstairs area has cafe style seating with a dessert display case and the brick oven for the pizzas.

Pizza is where the girls got hooked.  There is pizza all over Addis Ababa.  Some of it is decent.  Some of it is a sad representation of pizza.  Aba Guben's pizza is good.  The cheese is good and the girls liked the olives.  The dough is a tad underdone and floppy for me but I noticed the outer edges were burnt a bit.  Maybe they need to adjust the oven a bit.  I'm being picky here but I like my thin crust nice and crisp.

The little Italian bakery/restaurant has their own unique hot tea blend called Aba Guben tea (chai).  It's a spicy ginger tea infused with oregano and sweetened with honey.  It's an explosion of flavor.  I've never tasted anything like it.  It's definitely the best thing on their menu.  Justin loves it so much I promised him I will try to replicate the amazing ginger oregano honey combination at home.  Oregano?! It sounds strange but it's so wonderful.

Justin had a spicy red sauced pasta and I had the spinach and ricotta ravioli in a mushroom cream sauce.  It was delicious.  The pasta is made fresh and the sauce was flavorful.

Abu Guben really won me over with the little appetizer plates full of seasoned tomatoes and croutons provided complimentary with your meal.  I'm a sucker for starters.

I'm also a sucker for gorgeous rustic pottery.  So I pretty much loved this place.

The girls dug the dessert case.  Sadly, the cream puffs we brought home we lacking.  First off, they were labeled beignets in the case but most definitely were cream puffs.  Both girls weren't fans of the cream in the middle.  I told them we can do better at home.

For a map and directions