Lalibela — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Let me start off with... I've never ever had Ethiopian food before. But everytime I've seen it on TV...I would drool and lick my lips because omg the food always looked delicious!!

Well my friend and I were meeting up for lunch and I suggested Ethiopian food and she said that she loved it!! I was like sweet!! :) So she recommended a place but when we got there it ended up being closed. :( So I did a quick search and Lalibela Ethiopian popped up... And am I glad that Yelp led us here.

When we walked in, we were not greeted right away but they did a have a few tables and it looked like there was only 1 person overseeing all the tables. We walked in further and she greeted and pointed is to a table. She dropped off the menu and we got to reading and deciding on what we wanted to eat...

We started with the sambusa... Which is a crispy pastry filled with green lentils... Kinda looks like a samosa but the flavor is totally different! It came served with this amazing green sauce. Omg it was so good. Pastry was crispy without a hint of doughiness that you can sometimes get. The lentils had a great flavor and the green sauce was so yummilicious! It had a kick with herbaceousness that tasted like the best green sauce I've had in a long time. I loved my heat in food and this added that perfect amount of spice! I would recommend this dish!

We got the veggie platter (red, green and yellow lentils, Curry potato and carrots, braised cabbage, collard greens, and salad all served on top of an injera. We also wanted to get some chicken and beef so we got a braised chicken (doro wat) and a sauteed beef (Derek tibs). The beef was a little tough but the flavor was good... I most likely won't get this again. It was good but too chewy... Kinda like beef jerky but more juicy. The chicken on the other hand was juicy, tender and omg delicious. I could tell that it had been braised for a very long time. The sauce had hints of spice... It reminded my of an Indian dish I had a long time ago. It almost had caramel undertones from there long braising process. It was delicious!

The veggie portion was great as well. But I gotta say that the collard greens were my favorite. Second would be all three of the lentils and the others were next. They also served it with injera. There injera had a good texture but I was missing the sourness. My friend also said that it wasn't as sour as the other injera she's had other times. But I gotta tell ya... The texture was great and it soaked up the sauces and it was the perfect vessel for everything.

And if anyone was wondering, yes you eat with you hands!! I've always felt that eating with your hands made the food taste better. ;P you basically use the injera to scoop up your food and honestly shove it as fast as possible into your waiting mouth!! Lol

This was my first time trying Ethiopian food and it was delicious! I...

The Atmosphere is typical Ethiopian and lovely friendly people. Parking is on the street and also availavle back of the shop and use back entrance, its better. We lost our favorite Ethiopian place in San diego, Asmara. Also we heard goo words about LA Ethipioan places, so we decided to give a shot. This is the first time we did not order our favorite Sambussa, this time, we need no appetizer, we are already very hungry, so we ordered a lot 😊 Veggie Utopia, Ajebush, Bozena Shiro and Derek Tibs and Coffee

Veggie Utopia, Vegetarian Combination: 3 /4 A special combination of fourteen veggie dishes: Shibera Asa, Gomen, Shero, Miser (2), Dinich, Cabbage, Ater, Suf (sunflower seeds), Tematim Fifit, Fosalia, Keke aletcha, and salad, Yummm

Ajebush, Meet Combination: 3/5 A meat-and-veggie combination of Kitfo, Doro Wat Fir-fir, Gomen, and Aybe Ethiopian cottage-cheese (3 servings). This favorite balanced combination includes savory beef, sweet chicken, with refreshing collard greens, and Ethiopian style cottage-cheese--a perfect mix of diverse flavors and nutrients! The unlimited Injira was non-stop 😊 Also the individual Bozena Shiro and Derek Tibs we perfect, cant ask more.

Big bummer was, they did not Hakim beer. But we made it up with stronger, The Ethiopian coffee is really good, tasted like Turkish coffee.

Everything was tasty but was tasty and flavorful. The veggies were cooked to perfection. Food came late, and portions were not impressive.

The Staff are really nice & friendly. Will go again if we are around that area. Service was decent. The staff didn't come around very often, so if you're the type to wait for them to come to.

Overall, if this were any other place, I'd go 4 stars, for overall...

had lunch there this week and I have to say the experience was excellent. We shared the veggie combo and the awaze beef tibs for two and found the food to be entirely too much! I had a huge take home plate for dinner the next day. The quality was excellent especially the injera which was light and soft, almost melts in your mouth. The awaze tibs are expertly seasoned, delightfully charred and plentiful. We also had an excellent glass of pinot noir along with the flavorful Ethiopian Tea. Service was excellent and friendly! I highly recommend this place.

Update:

12/1/23: just returned from a long road trip and had a hankering for Ethiopian food, but didn’t want to sit down because I was tired from the trip and just wanted takeout. I again was pleasantly surprised. The staff put the food into perfectly sealed plastic food containers (as opposed to styrofoam) and separately wrapped the injera in two separate plastic bags. This is awesome! It kept the injera fresh for the next 2 days as well as the food; which i...