Blue Nile is nestled among other ethnic restaurants in a complex at University Drive and Rural Road, providing a unique, close-to-campus spot for lunch or dinner with a group of friends.
Though you might be distracted by the drumbeats and melodies of the mood-setting music, don’t forget to wash your hands before sitting down to eat at Blue Nile, as many of their appetizers and entrees are utensil-free. For a more traditional and intimate Ethiopian dining experience, sit in the back room on small stools and share a platter with lovers or friends at one of the basket tables.
Marketing junior Aubrey Morgan was a newcomer to Blue Nile and prefers it to other Ethiopian restaurants around the Valley.
Settle in with a glass of Blue Nile’s rosewater lemonade and pair it with a taste bud surprise of goat cheese and plantains with a spicy fruit sauce. A pair of sambussas, tasty deep-fried pockets of veggies or meat, is also a great beginning bite.
Entrees come with baskets of warm rolled injera, a cushiony sourdough flat bread, to scoop flavorful bites of lentils and split peas, to name a few tasty veggies.
Blue Nile waitress Molly Crowl, a long-time vegetarian, loves the vegan combo and specialty raw desserts.
Desserts at this Ethiopian treasure change every week, but the sumptuous and rich raw chocolate is a staple. Morgan says her favorite part of her meal was the piece of vegan strawberry Ethiopian coffee cake she shared with a friend.
Chef Abel, born and raised in Ethiopia, does all of the cooking with his Kuwaiti wife, and brings Middle Eastern influences like hummus and brown rice to the menu. Crowl says Abel learned how to cook raw food, which is enzyme- and nutrient-dense uncooked food, from a chef he met about five years ago. In addition to cooking up a weekly raw menu, he creates a new menu each weekend that’s served up on Sunday and Monday evenings for the restaurant’s huge raw foodie following.
Blue Nile is special in that it’s an all-organic restaurant with free-range meat, Crowl says. She says Abel doesn’t advertise this because “he’s too modest!” She adds that most of Blue Nile’s advertising is by word of mouth, but if the news got out, “this place could be packed full every night.”
If you go: 933 E. University Dr., Ste. 112, Tempe 480-377-1113, bluenilecafe.net Daily, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Contact the writer at melody.parker@asu.edu.
