Ménélik

Paris does not have a deep Ethiopian scene, half a dozen rooms across the city, most off-the-radar. Ménélik on rue Sauffroy in the Batignolles 17e is the institution: named for Emperor Menelik II, opened decades back, the reference for injera and the Horn-of-Africa register the audience visits the city's African diaspora to find. The format is the traditional one, communal injera with wat stews, the doro wat, the shiro, the kitfo, eaten with the hands, shared, slow. Convivial, warm-service, affordable. The Ethiopian best-in-cuisine pick the chapter takes for the cuisine itself.