Dining Spotlight: The Old Milk House
This Addis Ababa institution offers a taste of the exotic
By Alex Rayner
The Old Milk House has gone up in the world. Well, literally at least. A few years ago this bar and restaurant acquired its good, though slightly unruly, reputation from a ground floor premises in central Addis, offering the kind of food, drink and company well suited to ex-pat appetites. Closing in the spring of 2006, the Old Milk House reopened some months later on the tenth floor of the Kokeb Building, a shabby tower block close to the UN Conference Centre and the Hilton hotel.
While the entrance to the building, down a quiet unpaved road, isn’t attractive and the hike up the stairwell (the lift was down when we visited) is gruelling – particularly given Addis’s altitude of 2,200 metres above sea level – both are worth enduring.
At the top you’ll find a wonderfully well-appointed restaurant, with a fine menu, including the usual Ethiopian staples (shiro, tibs) as well as pizzas and other Western favourites. The drinks selection is also good, the coffee very fine, and the company a lively mix of UN pros, grizzled ex-pats and trendy locals, enjoying the Milk House’s enviable views.
The Old Milk House, PO Box 2257, Addis Ababa (10th floor of the Kokeb building, near the Hilton)
