Lion of Judah Ethiopian American Cuisine — Restaurant in Valdosta

Mr. and Mrs. Gemeda are outstanding professionals who provide excellent Ethiopian cuisine to a culturally starving food community. The food is so fresh and flavorful that there's no doubt that it's been prepared and served with love and commitment.

Though they don't serve Indian food or West Indian/Caribbean food, make no mistake about it, like those places, the quality food is of excellence and made with some of the same great ingredients, spices, meats and fresh veggies that are so rewarding to the body that it touches the soul!

Their service is second to none, as they always seem to work on better food ideas and service to the community, constantly refining their cooking techniques to reach broader audiences; beit classical eaters or more daring crowds who have an abundantly rich taste pallet and who are looking for the next best thing to diversify their experiences.

At the Lion of Judah, it's all about the herbs and spices piling into home-made oil based and veggie pureed, smoothly reduced sauces, lean bits of meat like beef and chicken, freshly diced and sauteed veggies of choice with the infamous ingera which is Ethiopia's renown slightly tangy sponge-like bread to sop everything up together with each finger-snatching scoop. This is not a sit pretty and fine dine with forks and knives ordeal unless you wish to be culturally boring. This is a hit-home hearty, roll your sleeves up and dive those clean soap-washed-hands-into the-food type of get-down feasting!

My only hope as time goes on is that they offer lamb and even goat which is a major staple culturally attributed to the famous Ethiopian dishes. It is for this reason and this reason alone why I give them a review of 4.0 out of 5 stars. It is my pleasure to order and reorder often from Lion of Judah, as the experience is nothing less than remarkable.

I personally had a few orders including the Taste of Ethiopia which includes 3 choices of meat and 9 choices of wots (stewed meat or veggies with spices and herbs) as well as a lightly seasoned garden salad, sambusas (empanadas or meat and cheese or veggies stuffed in fried, triangular shaped flakey/crusted pastries/patties) as well as their lightly seasoned watermelon slices in the shape and size of French fries and yellow rice; all phenomenal. Please note the watermelon fries are not photo featured below as I forgot to take a picture before swiftly consuming them. 😆

With quality food combined with courteous and skilled staff always improving and going above and beyond to satisfy their customers, Lion of Judah looks like it's here to stay as a Valdosta, GA...

October 4th, 2025 approximately 1100 hours. Didn't know what to expect. It happens to be one of the cultures and people that I know nothing about. Apprehensive.

Service: Surprisingly the young man that waited on us did better than majority of all restaurants and a 50 mi radius. Including the really nice restaurants. That young man did better than even they. He did better than most twice his age and twice his experience.

Food: I tried to figure out what kind of category this food would fall under, being a man categories is a necessity. Give myself a headache trying. LOL There are no realistic similarities to this food; not really Mexican ish, not really mediterranean-ish, it is in a category of its own. The closest thing that I know, is tribal ish. Simple foods that seem to be grown, harvested, and cooked locally even though I know that's not the case yet it maintains the flavor similar to that, if I was visiting a local cultural native people. Yet it's surprisingly different and thus far, pleasant.

We ordered the Ethiopian spiced teas. I had no idea what to expect. Each tea was three bucks. That's a bit expensive for my taste yet I figured I could at least try it once. It definitely tasted good, a little Rich for my blood. I couldn't drink it everyday. I ordered the appetizer samba something or rather for my meal because I did not want to eat a lot especially on something that I had no clue about and I wasn't all that hungry to begin with. Surprisingly it filled me up. Could have been the tea too that added to my fullness.

It also did not seem to hurt my stomach like most other things do. So I am confounded because it was so different that I could not put it in a category, it filled me up, It didn't hurt me, And it didn't require much. I was definitely satisfied.

That's...

WOW is all we can say about Lion of Judah Ethiopian American Cuisine in Valdosta!!!! I would give it 10 stars if I could. They weren't even open when we walked up, but Jarra (sp?) unlocked the door and welcomed us in. His wife, Crystal (sp?), sat down and explained Ethiopian cuisine and a little history behind their family. We were treated to some watermelon fries to start. We told her to surprise us with the Vegan's Dream. As seen in the photo, it was loaded with everything from tofu tibs, lentil wot, chickpea wot, gomen (greens), salad, roasted beets, roasted vegetables, vegan cheese, and Ethiopa's traditional injera. The injera is made fresh daily by Jarra's mom. We had spice tea with our meal, which was full of flavor. We finished with Ethiopian buna (coffee), served by Jarra's mom in a jebena. It is roasted in-house! She also gave me frankincense to burn over a hot coal, which I've learned is part of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Everything was incredible! Their sons were there as well and one of them, Mikey, brought us our spice tea. Crystal's mom was also there, so it is a true family affair. You could just feel the love of family and culture. This will be our new stop between Orlando and St. Louis both ways. We wish them...