Langano

Langano’s mere presence in Silver Spring satisfies two needs that have been quietly nagging me for some time. First, it’s an Ethiopian restaurant on the Maryland side of town, and not too many blocks away from the location of the last departed restaurant to hold that distinction for me. Second, and I have to grudgingly thank the Montgomery County smoking ban for this, it’s not full of chain-smoking cabbies. I myself don’t smoke and in fact, I’m hypersensitive to the stuff in a negative way, but my liberty-loving instincts _do_ sympathize a bit with those stinky and now-persecuted addicts. It’s especially weird to go into a bar like Ri-Ra and find that visibility exceeds 10 feet. But — DAMN is it nice to be able to properly smell my food without their distraction.

But I digress. Langano may lack the ambiance and subtlety of preparation of a place like Meskerem but it’s a bargain for the Ethiopian food addict. Prices are moderate, with the yefisik beyaynetu combo meal running a paltry $14 for what I can only describe as a mountain of food. We made the mistake of each ordering the combo, and ended up with enough leftovers to feed an infantry division. Perhaps this doesn’t impress you, but you probably haven’t seen me eat...I don’t usually leave a lot behind.

The dishes are prepared in a slightly dryer style than you’d find in Adams Morgan, but that’s good...what you’re missing is mainly excess oil. The platter is lined with not one but four pieces of injera, and there’s plenty of flavor still soaking into them. The key minchetabish was interesting, a spiced beef dish sort of pulverized into a paste, but the key wot was particularly tasty, as was my beloved misir wot. Somewhat less satisfying was the lamb, which was somewhat dry and not particularly flavorful. The injera itself, by the way, was perfect — moist, just the right bit of sour, and they’ll even sell it to go. Langano serves a variety of Ethiopian coffees, but curiously no tej.

It may not be the very best Ethiopian in town, but nor does it suffer from any huge weaknesses. It’s also open outrageously late, which is potentially a big plus in my book. We give it a 6+.

-dave