LAReview
photo credit: Brant Cox
Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant
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Between all of the Zoom calls, online spinach discourse, and slight (but palpable!) growing sexual tension between you and your next-door neighbor, the last thing anyone needs right now is for things to be more complicated. So we’ll make things easy.
Place an order from Lalibela in Little Ethiopia, and do it now.
You’ll want to start with the Veggie Utopia. Which, admittedly, does sound a little hyperbolic, much like the time we called Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping a work of “Mensa-level genius.” But with 14 different types of Ethiopian dishes loaded onto one plate, the word “utopia” is anything but an exaggeration as Lalibela dares to ask the question, “Why can’t you have it all?”
Berbere spice blends turn chickpeas into a fiery, mouth-burning stew. Collard greens live next to sunflower seeds, spiced red lentils, and fosalia, a green bean and carrot medley that tastes slightly sweet and is ripe with thyme and rosemary. All of this is served upon their excellent injera - flatbread that’s so good, we’d happily eat it as its own dish. It’s tangy, sour, comes by the (seemingly) one-ton brick, and is nice and porous, able to absorb anything paired with it.
The sambusas are a treat, too. The little deep-fried pockets are filled with lentils, grilled onions, jalapeños, and herbs - a combo that tastes like a Los Angeles vegetable garden in the middle of spring, but without all of the pollen or mild-to-severe allergies. You’ll want a few of these, even more if you’re sharing.
This restaurant in Little Ethiopia remains one of our favorites in the area - one that we always find ourselves returning to. Especially after a long day of virtual meetings, doomscrolling, and finding out that our next-door neighbor in fact does have a girlfriend.