East Star Hotel Dire Dawa · Ethiopia

Home Dining

Restaurant · Bar · Coffee

Eat here first.

The kitchen opens before the first flights leave and closes after the last ones land. Ethiopian cooking done properly, international plates done plainly, and coffee roasted in front of you.

The restaurant

A dining room that keeps the city's hours.

Breakfast is a buffet and it's included with your room: ful and firfir, eggs to order, fresh bread, fruit, and coffee that keeps coming.

Through the day the menu runs both ways — doro wat, tibs and shiro on one side, grills, pasta and sandwiches on the other. Fasting-day (vegan) dishes are always available, and the kitchen cooks halal.

  • Vegan & fasting menu
  • Halal kitchen
  • Room service
  • Private dining on request
  • Group & event catering

What we're known for

A short list, cooked well.

A sample of the à la carte. The full menu, with current prices, is in the room and at the desk.

From Ethiopia

  • Doro wat

    Slow-cooked chicken in berbere with an egg, on injera. Order it for two.

  • Kitfo

    Minced beef with mitmita and niter kibbeh — raw, leb leb, or cooked through.

  • Tibs

    Beef or lamb seared with onion, rosemary and green chilli, still sizzling.

  • Beyaynetu

    The fasting platter: shiro, misir, gomen, atkilt and more, all vegan.

  • Firfir

    Injera torn into spiced sauce — the breakfast that gets you to lunch.

From everywhere else

  • Grilled lamb chops

    With roast potato and a tomato-and-onion salad.

  • Nile perch fillet

    Pan-fried, lemon and butter, rice or chips.

  • Pasta arrabbiata

    A leftover of the Italian years, and none the worse for it.

  • Club sandwich

    Chicken, egg and salad, with chips. Available to the room until late.

  • Seasonal fruit & juice

    Mango, avocado, papaya, guava — layered, if you ask for a spris.

Buna

The coffee ceremony takes half an hour. Take it.

Green beans roasted over coals at your table, ground by hand, brewed in a jebena and poured three times — abol, tona and baraka.

Ethiopia is where coffee comes from, and Harar, ninety minutes east, gives its name to one of the oldest beans still traded. Ask the desk in the morning and we'll set the ceremony up for the afternoon.

  • Daily in the lounge, mid-afternoon
  • Set up privately for groups on request
  • Served with popcorn, as it should be

Hours

When the kitchen is open.

Indicative — Ramadan, public holidays and quiet season may shift these. The desk will confirm on the day.

Breakfast buffet

06:30 – 10:00

Included with every room. Early breakfast boxes for pre-dawn flights if you tell us the night before.

Restaurant, à la carte

11:00 – 22:30

Lunch and dinner in the dining room or out on the terrace.

Bar & lounge

12:00 – late

Ethiopian beers, spirits, juices and coffee. Room service runs alongside it for guests.

Tables & events

Booking a group, or just a good table?

Message the desk with your numbers and the time — weddings, conferences and long lunches all welcome.

WhatsApp the desk All contact details