Lulu EthioVegan Cuisine — Restaurant in Minneapolis

I just happened to stumble upon Lulu EthioVegan while browsing DoorDash and let me tell you, it’s the best thing DoorDash has ever done for me! As someone who loves both Ethiopian food and plant-based cuisine, I immediately knew I had to try out this new restaurant with my parents while they were in town. Based on our first visit, I can say that we will DEFINITELY be back.

After browsing other rave reviews, I couldn’t help but expect wildly great things from this recently opened spot - and Lulu EthioVegan easily exceeded my high hopes! To start off, we enjoyed the spiced tea (presented in a gorgeous pot) and Telba, a uniquely delicious flaxseed drink (thick and slightly sweet, almost like a healthy milkshake). Then came the sambusas, fresh pockets of delightfully earthy lentils in crunchy dough. For our main course, the four of us shared the large veggie sampler and an order of mushroom tibs, and it amounted to a generous feast of flavors and textures. If you’re a fan of mushrooms at all, the tibs are absolutely not to be missed - served up sizzling on a cast iron platter and redolent of rosemary, this dish engages all the senses. The sampler offered up too many distinctly delicious pleasures to name them all, but they included tender collard greens, soft potatoes, saucy lentils and a whole spice market’s worth of terrific tastes. And of course, abundant fresh injera. We almost always order an additional helping of injera when we eat at Ethiopian restaurants, but Lulu offered up so much of their wonderfully tangy bread that we had extras at the end of our meal. We wrapped up with the baklava, which was airy and crunchy, much lighter than the average traditional dessert.

In addition to the magnificent food, we experienced attentive service bestowed with a welcoming air. It is obvious that Lulu EthioVegan is fueled by love and care, in the kitchen and beyond. I hope that Minnesotans will flock to our state’s first fully plant-based Ethiopian restaurant to enjoy its one-of-a-kind...

The food was phenomenal. I'm used to Ethiopian food, as it's one of my favorite cuisines, and have eaten it coast to coast.

Most restaurants seem to use the Exotic Ethiopian Cookbook (no longer in print), which is why getting the same dish at a completely different Ethiopian restaurant even in a different state often tastes nearly identical. How do I know this? Because I've used this cookbook for decades to get restaurant-quality Ethiopian dishes. The problem though, especially for Americans, is both that the spice level tends to be very hot and the amount of oil used in the dishes is... a lot.

So, I was really pleased to discover that this particular Ethiopian restaurant bucks all of the trends. The restaurant only serves vegan food, the spice level is very tolerable, and the dishes taste very healthy in terms of added oil.

I had sambusas, a large veggie platter (I like leftovers), and the jabena coffee.

The sambusas were delicious, pleasantly spiced, and I loved the sweet and sour sauce they were served with.

The veggie platter was well-portioned, every single item that was served on it was equally delicious. I was glad to see more than enough injera was served with it. This is usually a problem I've encountered at most other Ethiopian restaurants... there's usually just not enough injera for the whole meal, even if you also eat the injera the food is sitting on.

I was excited to try Janbena coffee. I'd seen it served at other Ethiopian restaurants, but had never ventured to try it, despite the fact that coffee is believed to have originated in Ethiopia. It was very good. Dark roast, ground fine, and left to settle with the grinds. It's served with an incense burner and a few grains of frankincense, which was a lovely accompaniment to the experience, and definitely worth the price.

The only real criticism I have is that things, especially the chairs, could use a good scrub down. Things have become...

I came with three of my friends for a little birthday lunch and I will be coming back as much as I can (2 of my friends have already been back). We got the lentil Sambusa’s which were so good we got a second order and the dipping sauce that came with it was the perfect addition. We also got a large veggie platter. It came out warm and me and my friends absolutely demolished. It even came with extra injera! My friend got the ginger tea which came out in a beautiful pot and an extra tea bag. It was so ginger filled that I would come get it if I was sick. I got the jebena coffee and was so happy I did. It came out on a beautiful tray, with bakhoor. It came with enough coffee that you could sip on it all day (reminder that this is traditional Ethiopian coffee similar to other African/arab/turkish coffees so it’s thicker than American coffee and meant to be drank in smaller quantities!) The best part was the daughter sneakily talking to my friend and busting out the back with a cupcake and a candle singing happy birthday to me. So sweet and attentive because no one told them they just overheard me say it. The family that owns this restaurant are some of the kindest people you will meet and so genuine. We talked with them for a little while before we left and it was such a funny and sweet conversation. You see the love in the food. 100/10 I can’t sing their praises enough. (Also to the idiot who wrote a review saying that the SAMBUSAS made with lentils aren’t “traditional” because they weren’t made with potatoes. I’m pleased to inform you that’s because SAMOSAS are made with potatoes not SAMBUSAS. It’s also absolutely insane to call a young woman’s energy “insecure” as a fully grown woman. Maybe you should reassess why you felt that way, because she was sweet and professional with us. Maybe it’s because you came in with a...