USA Today has compiled its inaugural list of the Restaurants of the Year, with 47 entries on the list across the U.S.

Doro Bet has earned the distinction of being named the top restaurant in Philadelphia. 

Owner Mebruka Kane made her first batch of berbere-spiced, wafer-crisp, and juicy Ethiopian fried chicken in spring 2021. 

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

Her American-born children, however, loved fried chicken — especially Chick-Fil-A — and often asked her to make fried chicken at home.

Kane decided to add her own Ethiopian twist to her fried chicken recipe, essentially inventing a new style of cuisine: a merger of soul food and African spice. 

In 2022, Kane, alongside her sister Hayat Ali, opened Doro Bet in West Philadelphia.

The fast-casual Ethiopian chicken house allows Kane to produce rich, unique flavors that can’t be found anywhere else, from the tender and saucy doro wot chicken to the Ethiopian-spiced shawarma shaved off the spit, 

Sides include garlic-turmeric collard greens, lightly seasoned and gooey mac and cheese, and fiery-spiced crinkle-cut fries, as well as a variety of specials. 

Read more about the unique flavors of Doro Bet, and the other restaurants that made the “2024 Restaurants of the Year” list at USA Today.

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