Lalibela Ethiopian - Edgewater

As someone mentioned in the openings and closings thread, there is a new Ethiopian restaurant in Edgewater - Lalibela. Was planning on heading over to Broadway Ave. tonight for an early meal at one of the many choices over there, but my dining companions drove by Lalibela on the way to pick me up and we decided to give it a shot instead. We're very glad we did.

The menu is small but offers the basics. There are six vegetarian entrees and three veggie combo options of varying sizes. Five or six meat entrees and then three other options (kitfo and gored gored, don't recall the third). It's BYOB for now.

Three of us got the five-choice vegetarian combo and the Lalibela Special Tibs. Special Tibs is like Awaze Tibs but with a choice of lamb or beef, fried, and the sauce also lists rosemary as an ingredient in addition to more typical berbere components. Veggie options we got were (I'm going from memory of the dishes, not the names on the menu, so the descriptions are right and I'm piecing together the rest from knowing some of them and looking at other Ethiopian menus online): Gomen (greens), Atkilt Wat (potato, carrot, cabbage), Misir Wat (red lentil & berbere), Shimbra Asa (chickpea & berbere), and Azifa (cold lentil salad).

Everything was great, but highlights were the cold lentil salad, the special tibs, the gomen, and the atkilt wat. I'd never had the cold lentil salad before but will seek it out from now on. The atkilt wat and gomen were much more strongly flavored than I've had other places, not so bland, so the seasonings really came through and stood up to the injera, something that doesn't always happen. The special tibs were indeed special, though I could have stood a bit more heat (when asked about spice level two of us said spicy but the third questioned us, so I blame her, not the restaurant; they just wanted to please the whole table).

Injera was spongy and just the right amount of sour.

We chatted a bit with the owners, who said they've been open about four weeks. They said the neighborhood has responded nicely to them being there, and I hope that's the case because it's friendly, delicious, and inexpensive. Three of us ate for $22 plus tip.

The restaurant isn't large; there are 10-12 tables total, all two- and four-tops. Very open space, though, with beautiful natural wood/tree stump chairs and lighting fixtures.

I'll definitely be returning to Lalibela, and encourage you all to give it a shot.

Lalibela Ethiopian
5631 N. Ashland
773-944-0585

Open 11:30am - 10:00 pm (I think they're closed Monday but I'm not positive)

I dined at Lalibela Saturday night and really enjoyed it. The owners were so welcoming and nice. My friend and I parked right outside the restaurant in a metered spot on Ashland, but discovered neither of us had change for the meter. When we were shown to our table, I asked the owner if I could have change for a dollar to feed the meter. He said he would take care of it, wouldn't take our money and went out to feed the meter himself. A very gracious way to start our evening!

The friend I was with doesn't eat meat, so we stuck to the vegetarian menu. As mentioned in the previous post, you can choose a vegetarian sampler plate of either two, three or four of the vegetarian entrees. We both went with the four-entree sampler which allowed us to try 8 of the 10 total vegetarian entrees (the two we dinged were the Yetematem Fitfit and the Quosta). Both of us liked all eight samplers with standouts being the Yemisir Asifa (cold lentil salad), Tikil Gomen (curried veggie stew w/ potato, cabbage, carrot) and the Gomen (collard greens). We also had the Yemesir Sambusa appetizer. Our total bill, with tax but before tip, was just under $26 - very inexpensive.

I really hope this place catches on. It was very empty for a Saturday night - only two other tables were filled the entire time we were there (from about 8pm to 10pm). The owners were so gracious and happy to answer any questions, plus the food was delicious so I am pulling for them to succeed. The only thing I would caution people to is that service can be pretty slow. My friend and I were fine with it as we were in the mood for a leisurely meal - but those looking for a faster paced meal may not be happy here.

They do have a website: Lalibela Online

Returning to a very old post, though I can't find another one on LTH. I think Lalibela is worth a trip for LTHers, even if you've been before. While we almost exclusively share vegetarian dishes, we think all have been truly excellent. In particular, try the Chickpeas in berbere sauce, the green beans, and the cabbage dishes. (I think the Vegetarian combination is one of the better dinner values in the city.) They also serve a dark meat chicken dish on the weekends, which is great. In all, we prefer Lalibela to places like Ras Dashen, and certainly Ethiopian Diamond. If you haven't been, give it a try. If you have, I think it's worth another visit.