J&K Ethiopian Restaurant

J&K Ethiopian Restaurant opened November 2024 in Kansas City’s Northland — a self-funded, two-woman partnership by Obse Lamesa and Lalise Terefe, former Amazon co-workers who met in the Seattle area. The name honors their oldest daughters (J and K). Serves traditional Ethiopian breakfast, stews, and injera flatbreads in an area with no prior Ethiopian dining options.

Description

J&K Ethiopian Restaurant is a Northland KC spot opened by Obse Lamesa and Lalise Terefe — two Ethiopian-born women who met as co-workers at Amazon in the Seattle area before relocating to Kansas City. The name combines the first initials of their oldest daughters. They self-remodeled the space and self-funded the launch with no outside backing. The menu centers on traditional Ethiopian cooking: breakfast all day (firfir, egg dishes), stews (doro wot, tibs, shiro tegabino) served on house-made teff injera, and an authentic Ethiopian coffee and tea ceremony — all in a Northland neighborhood that had no Ethiopian restaurant option before they opened.

Tier classification

Tier 2 — KC-dedicated independent, non-native founders. Obse Lamesa and Lalise Terefe are Ethiopian-born and are not KC-born/raised.¹ They moved to Kansas City from the Seattle area before opening. Under the vault’s tier doctrine, they do not qualify for Tier 1 on the born-raised criterion, but their profile is exactly the KC-dedicated, mission-driven, independent local operator that Tier 2 is designed for: self-funded, no chain affiliation, filling a genuine dining gap in an underserved neighborhood. Women-owned (two-woman partnership; specialty tag added accordingly).

Menu

Last verified: 2026-07-25 · Source: J&K Ethiopian official website menu (jandkethio.com/menu)² · menu_status: verified · Confidence: High (full priced menu captured from the restaurant’s own site). All entrees served with house-made teff injera.

Breakfast

• Ethiopian Style Scramble Eggs — $8²
• Fasting Firfir — $12 · Beef FirFir — $20²

Appetizers

• Sambusa with Lentil — $1.60 · Sambusa with Beef — $2.00 · Sambusa Dip (awaze) — $1²

Beef & Lamb Entrees (Tibs)

• Beef Shekla Tibs — $25²
• Kitifo — $24²
• Afagn (Ukamisa) — $23²
• Awaze Lamb/Beef Tibs — $22²
• Awaze Beef Tibs — $20 · Gored Gored — $20 · Lamb Dulet — $20²
• Chicken Tibs — $16 · Kiki Alicha — $16²

Traditional Specials

• Kitfo Special — $25²
• Lamb Gaslight Special — $24 · Kitfo Dulet (Tibet) — $24²
• Chicken Doro Wot — spicy berbere chicken stew with hard-boiled egg — $20²
• Lamb Soup (Kikel) — $13²

Vegetarian Entrees

• Shiro Tegabino — $19²
• Veggie Combination — $18 (for 2: $25)²
• Misir Red Wot — $16²

Sides (small / large)

• Cabbage with Carrots, Collard Green, Red Beets, Ethiopian Style Rice, Kiki Alicha, Misir Red Wot — $3 small / $9 large each²

Kids Menu

• Rice with Chicken — $8 · Kids Burrito — $8 · Quesadilla — $8 · Avocado Toast — $6²

Hot Drinks

• Ethiopian Style Coffee / Jebana — $6 (for 3: $9 · for 4: $11)²
• Cappuccino / Buna Bewetet — $5.00²
• Espresso Machine Black Coffee — $3.50 · Fresh Ginger Tea — $3.50²
• Ethiopian Style Black Tea — $3.00 · Hot Chocolate — $3.00²

Cold Drinks

• Malta — $3.00 · Sparkling Water — $2.80 · Orange Juice — $2.80 · Soda — $2.70 · Birz (non-alcoholic) — $2.70²
• Mango Juice — $2 · Apple Juice — $1.60 · Bottle Water — $1.50²

Desserts

• Baklava — $5 · Ice Cream (vanilla/chocolate) — $2 (two scoops $3)²

Links

• Official site: https://www.jandkethio.com/

Sources

Footnotes

1. KC Magazine (Joyce Smith, January 2025) — “An Ethiopian restaurant has opened in the Northland” — https://kansascitymag.com/an-ethiopian-restaurant-has-opened-in-the-northland/ — Confirms: address (7104 NW Prairie View Rd, KCMO), owners Obse Lamesa + Lalise Terefe (Ethiopian-born, former Amazon co-workers, met in Seattle area), name origin (oldest daughters’ initials), self-funded self-remodeled space, November 2024 opening, menu items (doro wot, tibs, shiro tegabino, firfir, teff injera, Ethiopian coffee ceremony, breakfast all day). ↩

2. J&K Ethiopian Restaurant — official website menu — https://www.jandkethio.com/menu — Confirms: full priced menu (breakfast, sambusa appetizers, beef/lamb tibs entrees, traditional specials incl. Chicken Doro Wot, vegetarian entrees, sides, kids, hot/cold drinks, desserts) with per-item prices. First-party Wix site; rendered via Firecrawl. (Accessed 2026-07-25.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶