Lalibela Restaurant

We went out with a group of friends, none of whom had been here before. Most of us had not tried Ethiopian food before. We were so happy to visit and try the most delicious food!

A very rich familiar place!! First time on ethiopian cuisine experience!! ..and was winderful! Great tastes, surprising and delicious… we’ve to learn a lot about this food and culture.. Coffee, as per the ethiopian style, is a must!!

Had a great Ethiopian dinner with some friends. Very filling, wonderful spices.

Holy cats what a meal! 🤤 Phenomenal all around! If you've never been, spoiler alert, you scoop up the food with the bread. So not knock it you absolutely must try it!

I don’t ever come to Columbus without visiting this restaurant. I’ve been to Ethiopian restaurants all over the US, and I promise that no one has anything on this spot here. HOWEVER! I don’t know who these new staffers are or if I always go at a time when the better workers are here, but the service has definitely gone down. You’re not greeted, they don’t ask if you want anything to drink, they play the saaaame song over and over and over, and the cherry on top is that there are so many incense being burned that it smokes you out of the place! It’s just too much now and I hate that because I love this restaurant so much. I miss the woman who worked there who I would always converse with, was a great hostess at the bar, and the cooks made your food quicker than they do now. Idk. I hope the next time I come, things are MUCH more improved. But just LOOK AT THIS FOOOOOOD!!!! OMG, it’s so good. TOP TIER!!

First time at an Ethiopian restaurant. Very interesting. Food was different but very flavorful and spicy. I liked the beef tebs and red lentils. I really enjoyed the salad. However I didn't enjoy the spongey bread or the collard greens.. Not that it is bad, just wasn't to my taste.

Food was amazing. It was not much different than the other Ethiopian restaurants I have been to..great atmosphere. Dont get upset with the location. Service was good. The best part is the fresh snacks made by a lady there. She was nice enough to explain what it was and let her to try it..I would highly suggest this place to you if you are curious to check out some good Ethiopian cuisine..

Loved this resturant and the vibe it brings! Traditional, authentic and delicious Ethiopian food with some really great servers. Loved the kitfo with firfir!

this is the exact type of place I expect to get amazing Ethiopian food and Lalibela never disappoints! not your typical "restaurant" as there's a little dance floor bar area when you first enter, but as you progress through the space there is plenty of restaurant sitting - feel free to seat yourself wherever! we ordered to-go so we took our seat at the bar, placed our order with the nice young lady, which let us know our food would be about 10/15 mins. portion sizes are definitely worth the price which isn't too expensive (we got the vegetarian combo). I'll snap some pictures next time ha

Best Ethiopian food in Columbus! It's so flavorful and they can reduce spice levels if needed. I love getting their platter that comes with a bunch of veggies and you can choose either beef or lamb. I love their yellow lentils and beef! It's absolutely amazing! The first time I tried this platter I was over the moon. It was a 10/5 tbh and absolutely perfect. I just went there recently and got the lamb which unfortunately was a different experience. It tasted good but was really gummy and I felt like it was not as good as the beef. I would rate this a 3. I'm definitely looking forward to going back! I like that the majority of tables are family style, they offer coffee service and I've always felt the staff to be very friendly and accommodating. When you first enter there's like a bar and dance area but if you keep walking to the right then it turns into a restaurant with tables. I really enjoy this place and can't wait to show other friends and family!

The menu keeps changing in a negative way. No longer has Sambusa for an appetizer which is unfortunate. I have been here twice since I moved out of Columbus 4 years ago and I think new ownership has taken over. Service keeps getting slower.

Another visit to Lalibela and just as good as before! Great and friendly service, excellent food and flavors, nice smell of the coffee being roasted in the back, and very reasonable prices.

This place is absolutely amazing. Our server was so kind and gave us recommendations. Please please please try this place out. so incredible and such kind people.

Small shopping plaza, next to Santiago Supermarket, tattoo parlor too. I hear a pool table by the front and ba Ordered 1 #35 to start, so we could get one round of the veggies with the chicken tebs, spicy. Ordered a second round #35. $42.98. Their only veggies here: cabbage, collard greens, red lentil, ground chick peas and salad. Not a lot of veggie options here. All of the veggies except for the collard greens are spicy, all good. The chicken is a tad dry, but super flavorful. The collard greens are ok, as was the salad. These two weren't my favorite. The cabbage, red lentil, yellow lentil, chick peas are all good. Some parts of the yellow lentil is a bad hard and clumpy. The injera here has a nice bite and tartness to the dough. Food is good, service too.

My first time trying traditional Ethiopian and I'm excited to try other places in our city. The food was flavorful and everyone was very welcoming. They did not assume we weren't sure how to enjoy the food. It were happy to answer questions when we had them. Between the beef and the lamb, I found the lamb to be more soft and tender. I enjoyed the injera when it soaked in the flavor from the tebs. The fish was very crunchy and I enjoyed the spicy dipping sauce it was served with.

I'm always a fan of Ethiopian food and Lalibela is a great restaurant on the East side of town. Its a quiet, casual restaurant tucked away in a strip mall. There's a large bar/dance? area that you walk through to get to the seated dining space. Our waitress was nice and patient as we tried to make decisions for food and drink. We got the vegetarian platter along with a lamb and beef tib of sorts. I also got some honey cider to go along with my meal. The food was excellent and so filling. There's just always so many flavors and ways to combine the various dishes along with the wonderfully spongey, soury injera. The honey cider was also great, strong honey flavor, sweet, and went great with my meal. Definitely a must go for Ethiopian food or for anyone wanting to try something outside of common American fare.

The food was absolutely delicious and large portions for low prices! I'd come again if I'm in the area.

Whenever I want some delicious rice and lamb with extra sauce and spice this is the place I go to. I've been going here for 3 years and it never fails. I really enjoy the Italian bread and the salad. I really enjoy the music. It makes me feel at home. The customer service is great. As soon as I walk in the dore there is a person waiting to take my order and the food does not take long to get to me. Beautiful people, beautiful culture and amazing flavorful food.

Ethiopian restaurant that uses halal meats, but serves alcohol - take it for what it's worth. Veggie combination plate - this plate literally has a little bit of everything. Unfortunately, there are no substitutions. I wanted to try the Shiro so we ordered the Shiro plate. These plates are massive. It's challenging to finish an entire plate solo. The presentation is ON POINT! Some people like their injera soggy by mixing everything together. The additional injera (on the side) is GLORIOUS! my injera was nice and firm with every single bite. Would 100% revisit.

Love this place! Can't wait to come back with students! This is such a nice laid back place to chill!

I've eaten at Lalibela Restaurant & eaten some catered events where Lalibela food was served and it was so delicious. The service is always wonderful & food served within a short period of time. I would highly recommend Lalibela Restaurant & catering needs.

It has been a few hard days and after two doctors appointments this morning, I needed a hearty meal and do we got a combo platter with beef, and a lamb platter substituteing their cauliflower and potatoes veggie for their great greens. Everything was amazing.

Everything was great! The customer service was amazing. The food was fresh and very flavorful.

It reminded me of top Ethiopian restaurants I've been to in DC and New York. Beef, lamb, vegetarian dishes were of high quality and very flavorful. Especially the Kitfo

I had to update my review, because I realized my last one was pretty old and this has become one of my family's most frequented restaurants. My husband and I came here pretty regularly before but now our daughter is obsessed with it and if asked what she wants for dinner, she'll always say the sour bread place. The food is always somewhere between really good or great. I feel like the variance is indicative of how homemade it all seems. We all love their injera. We typically get the Mahberoch with the chicken tebs as the protein and an order of the ye siga wot added on as well. The servers are lovely, and it's been the same gals for about as long as I can remember. The owner usually will stop to chat if he's around, he's very kind. It's charming inside, with some traditional looking decor and there's a small space in the dining room dedicated to the coffee roasting ceremony they'll do periodically. I believe they have live music sometimes too. The quality of the food plus the experience is always worth the cost as far as I'm concerned, and it's definitely a very reasonable cost at that. Try them out!

We ended up moving further away from this restaurant but still end up making the drive to come eat here. It is truly the best Ethiopian restaurant here in Columbus and worth checking out. The food is delicious & the service is great.

Dinner at Lalibela last evening was a real treat. Service was reasonable, and included a visit from the owner. We enjoyed our meals - Ye Beg Wot, and Beef Tibs. Ordered mild, both were plenty of spice - not for the faint of heart :). The Ethiopian beer helped with the spice!Ethiopian food is a rare indulgence for our family, as most aren't adventurous enough. I'm a fan, though; I think it offers delicious and interesting flavors, and the base of injera is a tasty alternative to, say, rice or noodles. Spicy, never boring! Eating with our hands (no utensils) can be really fun - and as a side benefit, it's really hard to eat with one's hands and also manage a cell phone ... a nice respite. Thanks Lalibela - I'll be back soon!

I love Ethiopian food and wasn't disappointed here. My husband and I came as part of a Meetup group and I'm glad that this was the place they choose. It was clean, service was good for our size of group, and the food was good and presented well. The prices were reasonable too. I especially loved the coffee. Because the coffee charges must be done separately and she won't accept a credit card, remember to have cash with you. Each tiny cup is$3 and worth every drop. My husband had the Netanyahu, which is the combo. It was flavorful, but my shuro was fabulous. Just the right amount of spiciness. The only negative was parking. We had to go in another restaurant's lot and walk over. What that means was others have discovered a good place to eat and reasonably priced. We will go again.

Because things are made from scratch, if you order ahead, things go a little quicker but the food is phenomenal! The coffee service is an experience and wonderful, unlike any other coffee!

Delicious authentic Ethiopian food, great service and very pleasant people. Everything was seasoned perfectly with nice presentation by beautiful and friendly African ladies!

Food was very flavorful, and came out in a timely manner ! Staff was very hospitable had a nice family vibe to it. They burn incense through out the restaurant, it didn't bother me at all but May bother some. Very very authentic food, coffee ceremony was amazing.

The food is definitely ethnic. Definitely delicious and definitely worth getting. And it put service back on the map when you go in there they attend you and make sure that everything is OK and I highly recommend it

First time I ate Ethiopian food. Not my favorite style. However the food was authentic.

One word - wonderful! Coming from a city where there is a huge Ethiopian diaspora and some amazing food, this was a gamble to try and we were not disappointed. All of us being carnivores opted for an all meat selection with the exception of the shiro. The service was excellent and the food was absolutely delicious and we ate to our hearts' content. We definitely will be back on our next visit to Columbus!

Outstanding food. We got a combo and also a lamb ye beg wot. Everything was terrific. At least on par with if not better than the best Ethiopian food I've had (in D.C. and in Frankfurt, Germany).

Wonderful service and great food selection. The restaurant space itself is welcoming especially on a rainy night when I craved some comfort food. The vegetarian combo is generous for 2 and if you add one meat dish, it's the perfect dinner for two. I wish the dishes were a tad more flavorful but other than that, we will be back.

Love Love Love! This restaurant has never failed to bring me pure joy! Ithe staff is great! Get the special coffee if you can its amazing! I wish i could eat here every week! Bringing my grandkids soon!

This is where I started going after blue nail downtown closed. Our whole family loves it! We come in from out of town once a month. My daughter really likes the lights they put up a few weeks ago. The Kitfo is my go to. So glad they have been making the cheese with it again.

Let me start by saying that I love Ethiopian food, and the food here is pretty good. The injera here is quite good and the couple of dishes we had nice flavors, although I've eaten better berbere sauce at other locations. The staff is also quite friendly although a bit more reserved than typical Ethiopian places. I'd probably give it 4 stars on the food itself. But the 3 star overall rating is really related to the cleanliness. The table we sat on had stains on the tablecloth, and the floors was very dirty. The latter became especially apparent when my wife broke the heel of the shoe and had to walk bare feet for a bit. My breakdown would be as follows: Food: 4 stars Service: 4 stars Cleanliness: 1 star

Wonderful prices, great portion sizes and the food tasted great. The space is also very large as well. We both ordered a lamb dish. We live in the north of Columbus so it's a bit of a hike, but we will be back. Highly recommended for Ethiopian food.

I'd give it six stars ****** if I could! I love this place. Years ago, I went there with my two kids, little at the time. I really enjoyed it then but my girls thought it was too spicy so it fell off my radar. About a year ago, my wife and I decided to give it a try and we both loved it. We've been back over and over again. The derek tibs are my favorite, hands down, but I've never had anything that I found disappointing. The place is not fancy, but it's clean and comfortable. The owner is there often and he politely makes sure everything is working as it should. The food is always fantastic and the prices are totally reasonable -- actually, they're really good considering everything you get.

This place was amazing! My friend from Ethiopia took me here and it was a true experience. Lalibela has food true to the culture and atmosphere true to the culture. My friend walked me through every decoration they had and where different pictures were from. The food was so good. We got shiro and maberoch with beef. It was delicious and such a good portion of food to share! This is a really nice place to sit and enjoy dinner with a friend.

I love the people here. I love the food. I wish it were something like this closer to where I lived in Dublin. I have never had the opportunity to sit down and eat there, but I always get the food to go. I'm always getting excellent suggestions from the staff

Love this place. Delicious food and very authentic. The atmosphere is not super fancy but it's authentic and the service is great (just don't expect fluent English). Highly recommend!

Great robust flavors for meat and veggies. The only problem is parking. Enjoyed all the food . I just asked them to give me a veggie dish and a meat dish. So they gave me a combination of the two. It was all great. As always is this a place I would bring a friend from out of town. Hell Yeah! Chicken was moist and all veggies were soft and delish.

Our meal was incredibly tasty. Went with the marinated beef (tebs) and the chicken drumsticks with sides of collard greens and cabbage. Everything was really good. Next time, I'll definitely go with the beef again and maybe try a lamb dish. Don't get me wrong, the chicken tasted amazing, but it's hard to eat chicken on the bone without utensils (i.e. injera). Can't wait to come here again.

Lalibella was overall an amazing experience! We had such a good time there. This restaurant is great for either a big group or a date. There's plenty of seating and the server was very kind and stopped by our table frequently to check up on us. The portions are big! The dish we ordered was big enough (and some left over) for two people. The lentils, lamb, and sides were filling, rich with flavor, and still felt healthy to eat and not to heavy. Eati g with your hands and the injera is definitely a new experience, in which my friends and I loved! It's a new skill to learn and enjoy. My friend also ordered the vegetarian version and loved it. It's super affordable for all of the different parts of the dish that come with it. Parking is available but it's tight. The restaurant is tucked into a small plaza to the left and on the corner of the plaza. I loved Lalibella and will definitely be going back!

disclaimer i only ate the veg platter, cant speak on the meat dishes. first coming in i was very hopeful, place is a cool dive with pool and a bar. i shouldve walked out when i read they have pasta. think about this - an ethiopian restaurant serving pasta.. its silly to assume anything else than the preparation of that being anything better than microwaved out a freeze dried box. which shouldve clued me into the preparation of the rest of their menu its trash, stews tasted like mud puddles with a little salt and the cabbage/kale couldve been soaked with rainwater and food coloring. weirdly they have berbere spice in a shaker on the table, probably cuz the stews are less tasteful than dogfood. gets 1 more star cuz the place looks really cool

THIS PLACE WAS INCREDIBLE. I love Ethiopian food. It's one of my favorite cuisines and this place was amazing. I've tried other Ethiopian places in Ohio but this was the absolute best. The flavors are amazing & the serving size is huge! I had two meals just from my lunch! I would definitely go here again.

Few cuisines are more satisfying than East African food, and after telling a colleague about a great dining experience we'd had at Drelyse (which is West African), he recommended Lalibela, and my girlfriend and I ended up trying it out a week later. First of all, mentioning the location can't be avoided. Lalibela is in the Whitehall neighborhood, which is one of the more crime-ridden areas in the city. In fact, there was a fatal shooting a mere four blocks away on the day we ate there. Yikes. But if you're willing to drive to the area, the food at Lalibela is indeed rewarding. The atmosphere of the restaurant is a little strange, as it opens into a bar-like area, with the dining room off to the right. The decor is a little bland, and the lights were notably flickering, but we were seated and given our menus quickly enough. So many of the menu options are appetizing, and quite a few have pictures and thorough descriptions so that neophytes to Ethiopian food have a sense of what to order. I personally ended up getting the beef dices, while my girlfriend ordered the goden tibs, though we wound up sharing a lot of each other's dishes. The portions here are huge, and as much as I loved both dishes, there was definitely too much to eat -- this isn't a problem, obviously, but more of a feature. Since my meal was served on injera, and my girlfriend's on rice, we both had enough carbs to cause Robert Atkins to roll over in his grave. But the flavors of both dishes were so complex and delicious that we didn't mind stuffing ourselves, and we wound up doing our best to soak up some of the sauces in our respective carb-of-choice. The prices are more than reasonable for the amount of food you receive, so I count the entire experience as a win. Despite certain legitimate considerations like the location, we'll certainly return for the best East African food I've had in a long while.

I will give this place a one (1); their service sucks and are slow. They drinks are the smallest portion too.

In a strip center and don't mind the decor you will get a top notch Ethiopian meal. I like spicy and it was delicious. You can choose mild and the flavors are great. Don't miss this.

Enjoyed our Whitehall Chamber lunch here. So interesting to see the ethnic meal. Will go back

I've had Lalibela bookmarked for years. It has good reviews. The space is roomy. They have a big bar/entertainment area when first walking in the door. A big seating area past that with several four-top tables. Our waitress was young, very pleasant, gave a few suggestions for what she likes. Tried the Ye Beg Tibs: Marinaded lamb chunks mixed with onion and red pepper sauce (Berbere), served juicy. You have the choice of mild or spicy. Mild was a bit of a kick, but I could taste the awesome meld of spices. Great dish. Comes with a small side salad (FYI, the zesty dressing is tossed in before plating), and, of course, several rolls of injera. My mother also got a lamb dish, however her dish did not have "acidic", tomato (?) accents. Having trouble describing it, but at any rate, it was also very good.

Decent Ethiopian food. Nothing spectacular. Ive had way better elsewhere. There's a server there, a woman who has a mousy squeaky voice, she's rude. But the older gentleman who brings out the food is so kind. I'm vegan. I order the veg platter. Again, not great but not terrible. Subpar Ethiopian food. Some days are better than others which shows they are inconsistent.

This was the first Ethiopian spot I tried and I feel comfortable and saying it will be the only one I eat at! I love the envy and the food is always delicious and comes out fast! Love it! Something about eating with your hands that makes it taste better lol

Had a wonderful experience yesterday while dining in for dinner. The injera with lamb (I also get a side of rice) is my go to, but I always get takeout! I met a new friend, had a wonderful & friendly server/bartender & as ALWAYS ... the food was delicious & flavorful.