The Best Doro Wat in Washington, DC

Who serves the most delicious gumbo in New Orleans? The top burrito in San Francisco? Welcome to Taste of the Town, where we call on a local expert to share the best versions of one of their city’s most iconic foods.

Photography by Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.

Walk past any Ethiopian restaurant in Washington, DC, and you’ll likely be met by the enchanting scent of smoky spices and rich butter. To the region’s vast Ethiopian diaspora, the largest such community outside of Africa, this is unmistakably the aroma of doro wat, a chicken stew slow-cooked in a blend of spices known as berbere and a herb-infused clarified butter called kibbeh. The dish represents creativity, customs, and culinary pride.

Doro wat’s significance stretches back generations. In 1965, it was one of several courses served during a banquet for Queen Elizabeth II as part of her official state visit to Ethiopia, where she dined with Emperor Haile Selassie I. The dish, served inside the Imperial Palace, was accompanied by tej, or Ethiopian honey wine.

Doro wat is typically prepared with onions, garlic, berbere, kibbeh, chicken, and hard-boiled eggs. The dish is sometimes made with whole chickens broken into 12 pieces—purportedly to honor Jesus’s apostles—though many restaurants opt for the convenience of drumsticks. Other restaurants prefer chicken breast, making it easier to grab the meat with a torn, folded piece of the spongy Ethiopian flatbread injera.

When it’s ready, the stew is dark and fragrant, abundant with generous pieces of succulent chicken and eggs bronzed from cooking in the potent blend of seasonings. Doro wat is served with bundles of injera and vegetable sides designed to play off the tantalizing sauce.

In the DC area, cooks continue to perfect their versions of doro wat. Rich with history and plenty of spice, these are the eight best representations.

Chercher Ethiopian Restaurant & Mart

1334 9th St. NW

Alemayehu “Alex” Abebe comes from a restaurant family in Ethiopia. He opened Chercher in 2012 in DC’s Shaw neighborhood and has since opened two other locations—one in Bethesda, Maryland, and the other in DC’s Columbia Heights, which houses the central kitchen that prepares his doro wat. The dish is cooked in a berbere spice mix that Abebe’s cousin makes in Ethiopia to his specifications. It’s served with a healthy helping of thick yogurt on the side, a traditional way to temper the heat. The restaurant welcomes diners from all over the world thanks to thousands of positive online reviews and its proximity to the massive Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Indeed, one of the first things customers see upon arrival is a sign on Chercher’s door that reads “welcome” in 11 languages.

Tsehay Ethiopian Restaurant and Bar

2429 18th St. NW