Lalibela Restaurant – 1202 Danforth Avenue, Toronto ON, M4J 1M6
Country: Ethiopia
Seating: Limited outdoor seating (might have been expanded with DineTO) big indoor space
Must-try dish: Injera with everything 

The only thing you need to know is injera. 

We went back to the basics in Little Ethiopia at Lalibela Restaurant for some… Big surprise: Ethiopian food. 

As usual, we took all the server’s recommendations of what she would eat and sat down to enjoy our perfectly cardamom-infused chai in the sunshine on the restaurant’s petite street-facing patio.

The greatest thing about Ethiopian cuisine is that you don’t feel judged for eating with your hands, instead you watch the tables around you to make sure that you use the best technique for getting the tastiest handful wrapped into your injera. You can be precise with what you’re taking and how much of it, which isn’t the case when using a middle-man named cutlery. 

So we should start by explaining what injera is. 

Picture a massive crepe, bigger than a plate, almost the size of a two-person table. You break small pieces of it off to use it as a vehicle to getting the food into your mouth. The variety of meats, vegetables, and legumes are pilled on top in an artistic display that is both colourful and textured all in little piles spread across the injera. 

Don’t be alarmed though, there is plenty of additional injera for those first few bites. But where it gets interesting, and even more delicious, is when it comes time to eat the pieces of injera where the foods have been sitting near the end of the meal. The bottom layer of injera has been marinating in all the sauces from the food, and despite being a messy finale, it’s the best part of the meal. 

Although we were the only customers in the early afternoon, the restaurant seemed to fill up within minutes of our arrival and maintained a steady and busy flow throughout the whole day. Obviously, there’s a market in Toronto for diners looking to have Ethiopian cuisine. This is hardly surprising as there is something for everyone, even gluten-free injera is available! 

On top of this, the staff was friendly and offered excellent customer service. It’s evident that Lalibela is a family-run restaurant because of the community that they built around them and the way that they give special attention to each person that steps through their doors. There is a sort of hospitality here that is rare in Toronto’s restaurant scene. 

Eat with you soon, 

Mandrea Bike
(Mat & Andrea)