Everything to try at this West Philly restaurant, including life-changing fried chicken

West Philly's Doro Bet is a first-of-its kind Ethiopian fried chicken house that's become a destination for fans from miles around for its crispy, tender, juicy, Ethiopian-spiced fried chicken.

This week, it was named one of USA TODAY's 2024 Restaurants of the Year, alongside 46 other restaurants from across the country.  

"Oh my gosh, that's amazing," said Doro Bet co-owner Mebruka Kane when she was told she'd be named among the most exciting restaurants in the country this year. "I don't know what I did to deserve this, but that's wonderful news."

How many have you been to?Check out USA TODAY's 2024 Restaurants of the Year.

What Makes Doro Bet so special?

Not everyone can claim to have invented a cuisine. But before Kane made her first batch of berbere-spiced, wafer-crisp and unendingly juicy Ethiopian fried chicken, it’s fair to say nothing like it existed in the world. 

“Fried chicken is not traditional in Ethiopia,” she said. “I didn’t grow up eating it.”

Our criteria forUSA TODAY's Restaurants of the Year for 2024: How the list of best restaurants was decided

But her young American-born children loved fried chicken. They loved Chick-fil-A. And they kept asking their mother to make fried chicken at home. American recipes tasted bland to Kane’s Ethiopian palate, so she instead added her own twist of earthy, fiery, complex berbere spice. 

Thus a new food was born, a merger of soul food and African spice that seems to embody the character of West Philly. 

At Doro Bet, the clean-lined fast-casual Ethiopian chicken house Kane opened in 2022 with her sister, Hayat Ali, you could die of tender heartbreak tasting the rich flavors of Kane’s traditional doro wot chicken leg, simmered for hours in sauce made with onion caramelized into a symphony of sweetness and savory.

The same goes for Doro Bet's Ethiopian-spiced chicken shawarma, built fresh each day and shaved off a slow-cooking spit to order.

But it’s fried chicken that launched a thousand articles, sending food-hounds running from New York or Washington, D.C., to try a new and earthshakingly delicious food that didn't yet exist anywhere else, but felt like it should have always been in our lives.

Kane spent months dialing in her recipe, using the same Ethiopian teff flour traditionally used for spongy and springy injera bread. To this she added tapioca flour for extra-crisp and durable crackle, and chickpea flour to bind it all together. 

But the spice comes from within: Before being breaded and fried, each cut of the spicy (awaze) fried chicken is marinated in buttermilk with fiery berbere spice made from a secret recipe by a sister in Ethiopia. 

Like it mild, instead? The gentle turmeric and cardamom in the mild (alicha) fried chicken will soothe you into submission. You'll also find that turmeric in Doro Bet’s heavenly collards, earthy and savory and aromatic with garlic.

Even better news, for those long denied their fried chicken fix? The fried chicken at Doro Bet is gluten-free. It is also halal.

What to order at Doro Bet 

Chicken: Berbere-spiced (awaze) or mild (alicha) lemon-turmeric fried chicken; tender and saucy doro wot chicken; simmered and cubed Ethiopian tibs; and Ethiopian-spiced shawarma shaved off the spit.

Sides: Gentle garlic-turmeric collard greens, lightly seasoned and gooey mac and cheese; fiery-spiced crinkle-cut fries of uncommon crispness.

Specials: Look out, always, for whatever wing flavor Kane has on tap today, layering her crispy-nutty Ethiopian-style fried chicken with the flavors that struck her fancy, from African spice to all-American Buffalo.

Drinks: Kerkede, a lightly tart-sweet hibiscus tea with lemon and a warming cardamom syrup made in-house, garnished with a sprig of mint.

See the full menu. 

Details: 4533 Baltimore Ave., Philadelphia, 215-921-6558, alifamilyrestaurants.com