Ethiopia's coffee culture is alive in Gondar. The traditional coffee ceremony — roasting beans over charcoal, grinding them by hand, and serving three small cups in succession — is offered at many traditional restaurants and some guesthouses. It is worth sitting through at least once.
Tej houses (tej bet) are a Gondar speciality. Tej is a fermented honey wine, served in flask-shaped bottles, and the tej houses are informal neighbourhood institutions — usually a few tables in a bare room, very cheap, and mostly frequented by local men. They are welcoming enough to travellers who wander in. The Piazza area has several options.
The hotel bars on the ridge above town — including the Goha Hotel with its view over the Royal Enclosure — are where foreign visitors tend to end up in the evening, and the terrace setting makes the slightly inflated prices worth it.