Red Sea offers good food, better atmosphere

I am proud to say I have been to almost every restaurant on Fourth Street, also known as Restaurant Row. I'm proud to say it because it means I've given my palate nice experiences, and it has broadened my horizons. But the other night I went to a small restaurant with cuisine I'd never eaten before. I hadn't even heard of it. I had no real idea of what to expect.\nI went to The Red Sea (a lot closer than I thought and no desert around) and had an interesting experience. The Red Sea, 404 E. Fourth St., is an Eritrean restaurant. Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia in 1993 to form its own country.\nMany have joked and said, "Oh you're going to anthiopian restaurant ... let me know how the plate is." But I can tell you there was more food than my companion and I could handle.\nThe meals there are done in two ways. Patrons can each get their own meal and eat or they can choose meal sharing and sample different entrees from everyone. We opted for meal sharing, although we never really ventured away from our own dishes because they were so good.\nWe started with Katena, a flat pancake bread with a sour cream and spice sauce. It had a zing and was spicy, but not too hot to handle. The cream helps with that.\nWe ate those fairly quickly. Next came our salads, nice mixed greens with a tasty, almost vinaigrette, dressing.\nI've never enjoyed a salad at a restaurant so much, because it was the first time the main lettuce was not iceberg, in fact there was no iceberg. And it was not too large to spoil the meal or too small to be insignificant.\nNext came our meals. A note about the menu at The Red Sea: There are few choices. There are only eight or nine dinner and lunch entrees and only two appetizers. It is a small, select menu. \nBut we were both able to choose something that was suitable to us. My companion ordered the Chicken Ziganey -- chicken with a hot and spicy pepper sauce with a hard-boiled egg over either rice or Katena. I ordered Lamb Alecha (the Eritrean word for Lamb curry) with carrots. We both ordered our meals over rice.\nMy companion is not able to eat things that are too spicy, but the Chicken Ziganey was OK, and my companion seemed to enjoy it. The Lamb Alecha was also good with the spices never overpowering the taste of the meat. The pieces of lamb were tender without gristle, and the carrots were a nice addition.\nThe only dessert offered was chocolate cake, and neither my companion nor I were in the mood for it, so we ended with just the appetizer and meals. Our bill was reasonable for the amount of food we got and compared to other Fourth Street restaurants.\nWhile I did enjoy The Red Sea, its lack of several menu items means there is a short limit as to what can be experienced there. Also, the best part of the evening wasn't the food, it was the company, because the quaintness of the house lent itself to wonderful conversation.