ERA in Ardmore

Food and staff are both equally amazing. This is my go-to spot in the neighborhood.

This restaurant offers large portions of spicy Ethiopian food. The beer is bottled.

I recently was introduced to Era as I am not familiar with Ethiopian cuisine and though it was very tasty it was dingy inside which sounds trite but did not help with enjoying the dinner.

Era was my favorite restaurant for many years until 2-3 years ago. I’ve eaten in or taken out from there several times over the past year because it’s so close to my friend’s house and we absolutely love Ethiopian cuisine. Every single time has been a bigger disappointment than the last and I’ve finally sworn off for good unless I hear they have made changes. The portions have gotten SO small. The prices have gone UP by 50% for half the amount of food. The last time I ordered from there I ordered a full order of Doro Wot with 2 side. What I got was 1/2 a piece of injera (usually 1.5-2 full piecesand the Doro Wot was 99% sauce; there was only about an ounce of chicken. I have no idea how they figure that constitutes a meal. Seems the management will do absolutely anything to cut corners in cost. They have lost a long-standing customer.

Best bartenders in philly and very yummy food

Service is slow but the food is absolutely worth it. Great spot with incredible lamb. I will be returning.

This place is the t*ts. First time having Ethiopian and it was awesome. Food was amazing and the portion sizes are generous. Lots of menu options and the staff were all really helpful. Great flavors. Be back soon:)

The portions keep getting smaller and smaller. Last time I came, they were so small I left hungry (sides were about 1 tsp each, and the entree was about 2 tablespoons!!I asked for an additional side, listed on the menu for $2, was charged $5. The quality of the food does not make up for the tiny amounts. I now just take the trip out to center city (Almaz caféor west Philly and have Ethiopian food there

The food itself was yummy and I was happy to see there were a range of vegetarian/vegan options to choose from. They are understaffed and the service we received was transparent and friendly throughout. That being said, we waited over an hour for food and despite not expecting large amounts of food, the vegetarian option was significantly smaller than the meat option.

Unfriendly waitress focused on the bar, 💯 empty restaurant, food took forever to arrive, quality not as expected.Oh, did I mention the flies?

If I could give it six stars I would. Great Ethiopian, affordable drinks, and super friendly bartender, whats not to love?

The perfect neighbourhood bar, staff is great and welcoming. People are always eager to chat. Good food and to be fair so satisfying after a few drinks.

Great bar when you get the right bartender. Some of the new ones are just not nice and broke a glass over the ice and then served me a glass of water out of it anyway. I tip 40%on the regular and never bother a sole. As a food service professional tjis is unacceptable

Era provides delicious traditional Ethiopian food in a relaxed atmosphere. With a large menu and fun family-style presentation, the perfectly-spiced dishes satisfy vegetarians and carnivores alike. The spacious outdoor seating area is adorned with lights and plants, creating a cozy, private dining experience. The indoor area hosts a large bar and pool tables, perfect for late night fun. Era is a family-owned restaurant, and the care and pride of the owner is apparent. We had a delicious meal and a fun experience visiting Era!

Love the outdoor seating, and the food is always spectacular, our waitress was nice and attentive. Very reasonably prices especially for how much food you get.

Veg combo is so good and filling. Great beer selection. Friendly and hard working staff. Love this place.

Great food, especially the beef, and a huge beer selection. Outdoor seating is really nice too.

The meat is amazing. The vegetables are good depending on what night you go. The patio is nice. Its a quiet street. Well shaded. I wish they provided wet naps considering you eat with your hands.

Stopped by for takeout with some friends but ended up dining in. Since we werent seated in the bar area, we were the only customers inside and they let us prop the door open. The outdoor dining was full but otherwise a great option too. The food was delicious and very well priced. I got the Dora Wot with the curried vegetables and collard greens on the side. My husband got the Gored Gored and it was also quite good.The wait was a little long but it seems like there was only one waitress.

The Ethiopian food was delicious and in great quantities. There was a decent beer list, but I wish there were more. They have a nice pool table, and the outdoor socially distant eating "cubbies" are perfect. I cannot recommend this quiet local place enough.

The service is always with a smile, the food is consistently good home cooked fare and the Guinness is without doubt one of the best in the area. Not bad considering its next to a Philadelphia Irish area.

Veggie combo was pretty good! A bit too mild on the spice for my taste, but still tasty. Rosemary cocktail was nice and refreshing, but a bit pricey for what it was.

Awesome food and the summer pineapple rosemary cocktail was wonderful!

Great food with a great ambiance! Only place I know in Philly where I can get authentic Ethiopian food (the owner and all staff are Ethiopian too)! Lots of options at a very reasonable price!! Go check it out!

In these very unsettling of times, wanting to support small(erbusinesses, even in the highly gentrified areas, where the color of your skin contributes to the quality + level of customer service + portions ONE will receive, STILL.Just NOT a fan of THIS place (Era). Food is quite bland. Service leaves a whole LOT to be desired. Wait time doesnt align with portion + quality of food.This isnt the 1st visit here, BUT it most very well be the last!

I love this place! It was perfect for my large group for drinks and delicious food. There was even a trivia night while we were there. If youre visiting Philadelphia, or if you live in Philadelphia and have never been, I strongly recommend going!

Really loved eating at this family-run restaurant. The food was excellent (best Ethiopian food Ive had in Philly, definitely!), the bar was well-stocked (gotta love that Philly citywide special!), and the staff was so kind (accommodating our huge group of 50ish students very patiently!). Highly recommend!

Really good ethiopian! Sunday evening I had the special lamb tibs which was outstanding and gf had the doro, also very good. Injera had a nice sourness, and the portions were absolutely perfect. Sides were well spiced, and they were nice enough to serve us good food even at a late hour. Friendly wait staff, really reasonable prices! We will be back.

Do NOT get a pickup/To-Go order from here. They have messed up my order FOUR TIMES CONSECUTIVELY! The food is tasty when they give you the right food! Luckily I checked the food while I was there this time. Instead of having gone home and realize I have the wrong items. Oh the disappointment.

ERA is a bar as I would understand the traditional definition, with a curved counter around the beer taps. But there is also food--and food that is not hamburgers and frozen pizzas! This bar has some hyper-specialized delights from Ethiopia/Eritrea. The food is wonderful, and for Brewerytown (and Northwest Philly in general), it is a go-to for those of us who appreciate heavily spiced curries and sauces to be sopped up in a slightly sour rolled flatbread.If you dont know what Im talking about, I hope you try it! These delights are most welcome with beer.To boot, there several decent beers on tap, and many more in bottles. AND they have a pool table! Eat your heart out BYOBs!

Unfortunately, my family and I did not have a good experience at this Bar/Restaurant. My Aunt has been a patron for over 3 years and chose this restaurant for dinner for her 50th birthday. We were approached by a man who claims he “has money invested in this restaurant” in a aggressive and nasty tone and told that we could not bring outside food (cake). This same man asked who we were and also said that we did not look familiar. We were also told that we did not have a reservation (it was confirmed by the assistant manager that we did). We had to ask several times for ice and when we did receive it, they provided a small quantity and acted as if we were bothering them. My mother tried to make the best of the situation but we had to contact several family members that had not yet arrived and instruct them not to attend as we felt the environment was not safe due to the aggressive men that made us feel unwelcome. None of the staff made us feel welcomed. They acted as if we were inconveniencing them and asked how long we would be. I would not recommend this place. There are several Ethiopian restaurants in University City that I would be more than happy to support, but we will never visit this one again.

As a dive bar its alright, but didnt love the food. I dont really know anything about Ethiopian food but Ive had it quite a few times and loved it every time. This I didnt really like at all. Didnt really get any variety of dishes, and several had the same dominant flavors. Maybe we just didnt order right?

Unreliable and inconsistent food quality.Called to place an order as a first time customer for takeout. Woman answered phone, I said I wanted to place an order and had questions about pricing and menu because their website seemed to be missing some info... I hear phone CLICK. I called back a few times, no answer. So I guess she wasnt interested in providing me with the info...Update: So, I went there to eat a number of times now. Food is delicious.2nd Update: I started doing takeout orders. My pickup order was ruined when I got home and they must have ran out of the lentils and vegetables bc they gave me like a teaspoon of veggies and covered up with meat. I have pics. If I am spending $30 on food here, I want all my food, not half of it. I called, they offered to rectify if I came in. I wasnt able to go in, but I have not returned since.3rd Update: Against my better judgement, decided to give them another try with a takeout order. I even told the lady about my last prob, so she could make sure extra care was taken with this order. Told her I wanted the beef wat and the lamb wat. Yesiga wat and yebeg wat. I get home, and my Beef Wot has no sauce, no spices. Just bland beef cubes. It NEVER tasted like that before. And terrible presentation, just thrown in the box.And on the 2nd platter I ordered, it was the wrong item! More beef (so i never got any lambbut with onions and jalapenos and tomatoes, something I would never order because I hate onions and tomatoes. Human error, sure, but this will be my last time getting food from here. Ill go back to my fave place in West Philly.So incredibly disappointing because I liked this place! But never again... they are unreliable and inconsistent.

No frills, real deal tibs, veggie options, cold beer. i have a buddy who didnt want to go because he never had Ethiopian before, so I went without him and had a great meal and a great time.

This place was some of the best Ethipoian weve had. Made my wife very happy on mothers day. And when Rhett made my sons food too spicy, they made him another batch and it was perfect.

Wasnt crazy about the seating but we came for the food. Well worth it.

Great, cheap, local bar. The beer is affordable, though you wont see the $1.50 cans you can find in Fishtown. The selection is quite wide, and the place is rarely crowded. The food is exotic and quite good, but Ive had complaints about it from friends that have eaten here.

Id love to try Ethiopian food, but it probably wont happen here. Fairly priced drinks with a sports bar ambiance. Very slow service for drinks, took nearly 45 minutes for a second round to be offered while we were waiting for food, and another 25 before they realized they hadnt placed our order with the kitchen (they claimed it had been sent to someone else, but no one else in the bar had received food since we arrived).

Ive gone here dozens of times over the past two years. Not normally too crowded, and the prices are reasonable. But the owners have a customer-second attitude. As mentioned elsewhere, Era is chronically understaffed, and yesterday, our food took an hour to arrive, and no one made any effort to rectify the situation (free drink, discount, apology?). While the majority of our experiences have been positive, there have been several, more minor instances of this type of behavior, such as errors on the bill that "could not" be fixed or waitresses disappearing for 30 minutes. Yesterday was the last straw. I invite the owners to contact me to discuss how they can earn a better review. Weve enjoyed going to Era because its a cozy local joint, but thats despite -- not because of -- the service.

This bar is not getting a 3 star rating because it is bad. The food is good although a little pricy for Ethieopian. The bar is cozy, although since the compeating bar a block away closed it has been getting a little too crowded for my taste.

Food was delicious as always! And I have to admit, there is something thats fun about eating your whole meal with your fingers. Also, they have a decent beer selection, and drinks are very affordable. Side note- you pick up your food by pinching it in between bits of unlevened bread, so if your watching your carbs or gluten youll have to order some lettuce or bring a fork lol!

The food was spot on and authentic. Our bar tender was lovely. Its a super casual, local spot. Theres not much by way of decor or ambience, but the food is shareable, you eat with your hands, and you can stay as long as you want. The prices are incredibly reasonable.

Good Ethiopian good in a cozy setting. A neighborhood bar thats always comfortable to hang out in. Quizzo with JB on Wednesdays. Sunday specials. Overall a nice place for anything.

Food still taste good, and its still a relax environment. Downside is your portions of food on your plate has decreased tremendously and they increased the price by $3.00. Also they no longer carry some of the good beers.

Great Ethiopian food for decent prices. Pretty good beer selection too.

This is the worst experience Ive ever received at a restaurant. Starting from the food and management customer service was simply horrible and in need of a whole lot of training in both cooking and managing a business simply . I will not suggest anyone to go to this place. As an Ethiopian simply it was funny to see how small the portion of the food and uncooked beef to be served claiming to own an Ethiopian restaurant. We have a strong hospitality and tasty food background. It was beyond disappointing to experience this place . Never go to Era PH.

I only give about one bad reviews per year and this place really deserves it. Ive worked in customer service and understand how things can get tough but this was some of the worst service Ive ever received. The place was under staffed. The waitress seemed to be doing her best but was overworked. There was some sort of major issue with the management. Im not going to rant, long story short it took us an hour and a half to receive poorly prepared food. It was cold to the touch, parts below room temperature. The meat was undercooked and cold but it was too chewy to eat. Like it was prepared hours ago, poorly, and they didnt even want to microwave it properly. Ive eaten pizza that has sat all day and I did not trust this food to be safe to eat. The other reviews are good so maybe it was just bad timing. Maybe the oven was broken and they were doing the best they could, Ive worked in food service, I understand that sometimes its difficult to serve a high quality product every time but this was unprofessional. We offered to pay for our drinks but not the food and the manager did not seem to care about our satisfaction or seem to understand why we were disappointed by food that was below the quality of leftovers that were not reheated properly. If the manager had acknowledged his mistake I would no be leaving a bad review.

My favorites local dive AND delicious Ethiopian food! Very low key, but friendly bartenders and very inexpensive. Theres also a small sitting area in the back for larger parties to dine.

ERA is essentially one gigantic bar with a small dining area off to the side. Ethiopian food is available both at the bar and, of course, in the dining area for those looking for a little more peace and quite. You really cant go wrong with anything on the menu, as everything is exceedingly delicious! Most items contain meat, but there are options for vegetarian visitors as well.The beer selection here is impressive, with a wide selection of bottles, cans, and drafts. Nightly specials. The bartenders here are great, offering fun and personable conversation when the bar is less busy.Wednesday night Quizzo finds this place consistently packed. The quiz master is one of the best in the city and offers up one of the most challenging Quizzo experiences I have had the pleasure of consistently losing. Despite this, Quizzo here is genuinely fun and carries an enthusiastic energy that always leaves you feeling gratified at the end of the round.Definitely dont miss out on this place. Its certainly a good time with delicious food, great drinks, and wonderful people.

There are other Ethiopian dive bars in the city, but this one is a personal favorite...and the only one I know if that is not up in West Philly. This is over near what was the North Star Bar, and has a great bar, good beer, cheap prices, and a pool table! The food is stellar; great injera, large portions, and reliably good Ethiopian fair. There is also a large side dining room if you want a restaurant feel rather then bar feel to your meal.