Lalibela Restaurant

Les restaurants dans le quartier né manquent pas, mais cela faisait longtemps que nous voulions remanger éthiopien! Grand bien nous en a fait, nous sommes rentrés ici, et avons eu le sentiment d’être dans un restau local, et servant de la vraie nourriture éthiopienne. Les serveuses sont adorables, les plats et l’ambiance délicieuses! Foncez!

This is my favorite Ethiopian Restaurant in Washington, DC. It’s a small, no frills restaurant (not quite a dive, but close) with delicious food and friendly service. Parking is always tough, so metro there or set aside an extra 15 min to find a meter or street parking.

Lalibella is our go-​to neighborhood Ethiopian spot. The owner and staff are very friendly and the food is priced well. The food quality is usually good but it’s been hit or miss lately. I’ve visited this place dozens of times and I’d say 80% of the time the food is good. I just love the vibe of it. I’d give it a go if I were you.

I’ve ordered the vegetarian combo several times, usually take out, and it is a generous enough portion to be shared. It includes spicy red lentils, yellow lentils, spinach, fresh tomato salad, and savory potatoes, carrots, and cabbage along with plenty of fresh injera.
Dining on the patio is a nice option if the weather is nice; I’ve never eaten inside but it looks a little dim. The ambiance is refreshingly casual on bustling 14^th Street — Lalibela is a reliable neighborhood choice. The servers are always very quick and pleasant.
Food: 4, Service: 3.5, Ambiance: 3

I’ve eaten at several Ethiopian restaurants in DC and this is one of my favorites. Our particular visit this week was great! Four of us shared the mix of vegetables and meat platter. The service was fast and attentive. A favorite part was the Ethiopia spiced tea! Definitely will go back.

Quaint place that made me feel right at home. If you’re up for an ethnic experience and some excellent food, this is a great place. The staff was very friendly and helped me choose the right dish. I was a bit uncertain not having experienced Ethiopian food before. I was more than pleasantly surprised by the dish. It was outstanding and incredibly flavorful. Nice off-​the-​beaten-​path alternative to your typical dining experience. I would go back for sure

We shared a combination platter for 2 here. The portions were generous and the food was a good variety of vegetables, chicken, beef, and lamb. The injera was light, spongy, and went well with the dishes. One of my favorite parts of the meal was eating the sauce soaked injera that was lining the platter. My favorite dishes were the chicken/​egg dish (Doro wat) and the cabbage with carrot.
Service was friendly, but they did not come to refill any drinks and the only time they came over after we were seated and received drinks was to deliver our check.
I’d definitely come here again for the delicious Ethiopian food. They are open late as well which is very nice!

It was my first time trying Ethiopian food, and I liked it! The people were nice but the service wasn’t the best. Nice place to sit outside and eat if you’re not in a hurry. Lots of vegetarian-​friendly options.

I’m going to be a bit sad when this place is inevitably put out of business and replaced by something nicer, trendier and much more expensive. I’m going to be sad because this is by far the closest Ethiopian restaurant to my office and I like the idea of having an Ethiopian place nearby where I can take out of town guests.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the food here is terrible and every time I eat here I promise never to go back. It happened again last night. Really all I need to say is stale injera. Yes, we got stale injera. What a meal killer. There were a ton of Ethiopians here and I’ve had cab drivers recommend the place to me, but I was eating with a friend who spent time in Ethiopia and she was equally unhappy, so maybe they get the good stuff. No matter the reason, it was terrible.
I want a place like this to exist, I want them to thrive… I just want them to serve good food. Unfortunately, I still have to go to Silver Spring for my kitfo fix.

This restaurant is an amazing place to eat. FVOR the most important point, but I have a daughter that is a gluten intolerant and she had the best gluten free bread she’s ever had. The food was great, service was great, and the waiters are really helpful and informative. Everything was very tasty, including the chicken.
Gluten free or not such variety and each one so distinctive and tasty. The regular bread was so fluffy and perfect. As far as the negative reviews about hygiene, I guarantee you that the host/​owner was more appalled with your ethnic ignorance of customs than you were about his attempt to educate you. Yes. There is no forks and NO using of left hands. The staff are great and engaging. A must Washington DC experience. We’ve had Ethiopian food in NYC and California and this place holds their own.

If you have never had Ethiopian food and you are looking for the tourist introduction, then this is the place for you. The location is great. That’s where the positive reviews end.
The service is terrible, the portions were overpriced and remarkably small. Maybe in keeping up with the new trend in DC they were trying to serve small plates, tapas style. I had the Lamb and my wife had the veggie combo. The serving they gave us was about half what you could expect at other less convenient but less expensive Ethiopian restaurants. We ordered a lentil samosa afterwards because we were still hungry. After waiting half an hour, we got a cold samosa. We wanted to complain to the waitress, but we couldn’t find her. Eventually I had to walk inside to pay after having asked for the bill twenty minutes before from another server.
Maybe the hamburgers are better, but it should have been a tip off that they were on the menu to begin with.
If you want authentic Ethiopian food and find yourself in Logan circle, walk over to 9^th st. Lots of options. I can’t attest to the service, but the prices and the food will be much better.

This was my go to spot when I lived on 14^th.
14^th has changed, and they did update their menu, but the food is 85% the same.
Getting There — Closest Metro is Shaw, but it always seems like a hike when I get off there.
Parking — Fugheddabout it.
Service — Super friendly. The owner greeted me like a long lost son. The waitpersons were also super nice.
The Food — I went with a Taye Kitfo. Raw meat, warmed with butter, with some jalapeño peppers sliced into it. I believe this either had some Farmer’s cheese (kinda like a paneer), but I don’t recall if it did. I like the interplay between the pepper, meat, and cheese, but I don’t recall it being there. It might have been.
The beef was served with some nice spinach.
What was missing, was the pile of Berbere that used to come on the side. Maybe I just dont’ remember it right, but if you wanted to add some spice to the heat, you had forked a little bit over.
I can’t really expound upon this spot, other than to say it’s my favorite above Dukem, Meskerem, Etete, and most of the other local Ethiopian joints.

I learned that one of THE things I had to try while living in DC was Ethiopian food. I had no idea that there such a high volume of Ethiopians in the area, therefore there are so many Ethiopian restaurants to choose from! After exploring a few coffee shops along 14^th street, a few friends and I stumbled upon Lalibela and decided to give it a shot.
This is definitely a hole-​in-​the-​wall kind of restaurant. You are well-​aware of this once you enter and it might be a little concerning to the eye, but don’t let that stop you from coming to get food here! It’s a little run-​down and may need a few upgrades here and there for décor to increase ambiance levels, but overall — service and food here is quite food!
One of the things I really want to commend and praise Lalibela on is their customer service. Even though my friends and I were not knowledgable about what dishes to get or how Ethiopian food tasted, etc. etc. the workers did not mind educating us and recommending the best options for Ethiopian food first-​timers!
We ended up with one of the combo platters that came with Ethiopian bread (not sure what it’s called) and it was quite an experience for my tastebuds! I have to say that after this experience I have learned that Ethiopian food is not on my TOP list of favorite foods, but it’s not on my worst either. I think that what you need to prepare yourself for is that bread is going to have a sour tang taste to it because it’s supposed to! I was definitely unprepared and unaware that this was going to happen so at first I was concerned until one of my friends told me she heard this is how it was upposed to taste! When you mix/​dip the bread with the meat curry-​like sides!
I believe we chose the Taste of Lalibela, which is one of their combos where you get to choose the meat that you want and what not. So it’s pretty customizable! I forget which meats we chose, however, I do remember that I really enjoyed lamb (but tbh, I’m quite a sucker for lamb hahaha, it’s one of my proteins of choice).
If you run out of bread servers usually ask if you want more and bring you out some as needed!
For the combos, don’t be afraid to ask what’s the most popular! Servers are so hospitable, welcoming, and understanding! I felt right at home because the owner even approached us several times to make sure that we were having a good time and that we were enjoying our food!
While Ethiopian food is not my favorite, the combination of great service and the authenticity and uniqueness of the meal really added to the experience. Since this restaurant is also located in Logan Circle you’re surrounded by so many other places to see, visit, and explore — so it’s not a bad choice to try out Ethiopian food if you’re an adventurous eater and down for some authentic grub!
Also good to note, you USE YOUR HANDS to eat these dishes! No utensils required! So be sure to wash up or bring on the hand sanitizer before you get to munchin’

I’m not sure how this no frills Ethiopian restaurant has managed to hold tight to its prime location. Lalibela serves great Ethiopian food — delicious injera bread, $ 4 Sierra Nevadas, and a delicious vegetarian mixed platter leaves me a happy woman. It’s a plastic table/​chairs, friendly service and scrumptious food kind of place. I hope it can manage to stay in the neighborhood (with all the gentrification going on around it).

Lalibela is one of the better Ethiopian restaurants in DC. It also has the lovely distinction of being located right by logan circle which makes it an easy place to meet friends for lunch or dinner. The restaurant serves both full and part teff injera. And, if you haven’t tried the pure teff version, it’s a revelation, thinner and more sour than its partially whole wheat compatriots.
The vegetarian dishes at Lalibela are fantastic, particularly the gomen. The vegetarian platter is an easy order, as are most of the chicken and beef dishes.
Lalibela has the added advantage (for me) of having been endorsed by my friends who spent two years in Ethiopia and offered that the food is much like what they ate there, a testament to the restaurant’s cooking.

Tried this little hole in the wall place, although 14^th st is hopping these days so maybe this designation is no longer correct…
We got the combo platter and I’ll say that except for the lega tibs everything was pretty good. The tibs are sauce less and by themselves are cooked well, but lack flavor. Be sure to dip them in anything else and then they are better.
The chicken was good but the drumstick was puny and the egg was way over boiled. I dont want a runny yolk, but 7 minutes would be perfect.
This place could use an upgrade in the décor and play some Ethiopian music as well. Service was quick and no other issues. I just feel like I can get the same or better in MD and the bar over here is kind of low…
DO NOT GET THE ETHIOPIAN HONEY WHITE WINE!!! It tastes like maneshevitz took a dump, you have been warned!

This isn’t the best Ethiopian restaurant I’ve been to, but it’s still pretty good if you need a quick fix of delicious injera and tibs!
Don’t be put off by how the restaurant looks from the outside. In all seriousness, the more run down an Ethiopian restaurant looks, the tastier, cheaper and more authentic the food will be. If you want to go to some classy restaurant and eat with silverware, this isn’t the place for you. My friend and I knew this was an authentic Ethiopian restaurant when the waitress didn’t even bother to give us forks and knives (which we didn’t mind).
We got the meat combo for two. The food was aplenty though one thing I did notice and disliked was that our injera (the one served on the side) was a bit cold. And the waitress wasn’t too generous (albeit friendly!) with serving us extra injera toward the end of our meal. But I also might just be spoiled having dined at Atlanta Ethiopian restaurants where they just give you a basketful of injeras from the onset. But otherwise, I loved everything. The lamb and spicy beef were especially delicious.
Also, the Ethiopian soccer team happened to be playing on TV when I dined so the restaurant was full of good cheer, which is always a plus!

Appearance
Yellow plain walls no décor. Was not impressed with the establishment. They need to create a ethiopian experience for customers. They dropped the ball on this.
Staff
The Ethiopian waitress was not attentive. She seemed to be bothered to want to serve us. We requested 4x to provide a straw for our drinks. We finally got two after the fourth request. When the bill arrived we were saw she put a 20% tip on the bill, this wasnt announced. I’ve NEVER heard of such behavior unless serving a large party of 6 or more, we were a table of two! We asked her why was the 20% tip added to the bill. To which her reply was that she «‘can do that». I corrected her by telling her as i am the customer and i decide that the tip is based on her service. She then removed the 20% tip she deserved she thought she earned.
The establishment was not busy, there were other servers on duty. Why would you charge a 20% tip for a table of two. This policy was not stated any where in their menu.
Food
We wanted to have a unique dining experience and we were severely dissapointed with this establishment. we ordered the sampler for two which consisted of a large roti like pan with several small tapas size dishes on the pan. Both of us didn’t enjoy the large spongy, bitter roti the arrived. The greens where not fresh but seemed to be thawed from a supermarket box, then lamb was bland and cold, the corn veggie dish was also cold and not appetizing. Spices didn’t seem to match the items they were matched with.
I wish I didn’t spend the money on this place as it was a huge dissapointment. We left with out finishing our diah. We actually went to a japanese Zentan, to satisfy our appetitie.
The waitress was not friendly, not welcoming, worst service i got in a long long time. I never plan to return to this establishment.
Price
Slightly above average.
I didn’t enjoy the food at all but due to the horrible service I recommend not to go here.

I’m secretly kind of hoping that this little spot starts to feel the pinch from all the new businesses recently exploding on 14^th Street. It feels like it’s been there forever — and kind of looks like it too. Overall the food is good and satisfying. This little hole-​in-​the-​wall certainly hits the spot when a craving for Ethiopian sets in.
I’ve tried the vegetarian combo, sambusas (beef and lentil) and beef tibs. All very good. I just wish these kind of places would put a bit more cleaning effort in. It doesn’t have to sparkly new, but, the place looks like it hasn’t been dusted in years and I don’t like how the staff seem to leave a service cart in the middle of the restaurant (it’s been there every time we’ve been).

3.5 stars! Recently, I learned that DC has the second highest Ethiopian population in the world. That only means one thing — legit finger grubbing! No wonder every Groupon, Livingsocial, Amazon, all the coupons you can imagine offered Ethiopian as one of their most popular dining deals!
We were just exploring the neighborhood, got hungry, and decided to give Lalibela a try. We had a choice of either eating outdoor by the sidewalk which I later learned aka eaten alive by mosquito or indoor smokey, incensed dining. We went with the sidewalk and were immediately seated. The service was a bit slower but our foods were served promptly. 2 of us got the veggie platter, my husband got the meat sampler for 1, and I went with the veggie platter with fish.
Overall, we were impressed by our dishes. This was my third time having Ethiopian and I must say it had convinced me to crave/​want more! All the veggies and meats were delicious. The (unlimited) injera soaked up all the stews nicely! In addition, I wasn’t expecting a whole fish to be presented on the side (just $ 4 more than a regular veggie platter). It was fresh, hot, crispy, and meaty!
With so many Ethiopian options available in DC, I can’t say I would be dying to return to Lalibela any time soon but definitely recommend others to at least give it a try!

I had a so-​so experience here. It may be because I’m not a big lover of Ethiopian food. The service is welcoming and very good, but I didn’t really find the food to be all that good. It’s generally tomato sauce based and there is flavor, but the quality was not overwhelming. We had a group dish where various dishes were placed on a spongy bread sort of platter where you scoop the dishes with that «spongy» starch.
Of the 8 – 9 different items, I liked the spicy beef ones most and the chicken was good too.
On the other hand, I strongly recommend a bottle of the honey wine. That was excellent. The vibe is comfortable and you can sit outside to enjoy the fresh air. It’s a great place to hang and talk with a friend.
I was at another Ethiopian Restaurant at Foggy Bottom and thought the quality there was better. Probably will not come here again, but if you have a craving for Ethiopian, and are hungry, this place will do the job if you do not want to walk around and it’s in front of you.
All-​in-​all, this place is awe-​ite.