Review Cafe Lalibela - Footscray

A wonderful, authentic Ethiopian dining experience when visiting Footscray. I loved the presentation of the food and how the staff recommended which ones we should try, considering it was my first time to eat an African food. The traditional coffee is a must try, too. Thank you for the complimentary tea before the meal. We enjoyed the food that we visited twice❤️

The vegan platter for two was amazing and such good value. The owner is a really lovely guy as well, had a great chat with him about food afterwards. Great experience.

Fantastic place and experience. We decided to try a bit of everything and got the half-half with beef tibs and kitfo as well as the beyeinatu combo of 5 vegetarian dishes. Spicy tea was perfect to warm up during these wintery months. Would recommend for going with a friend or in a large group!

Konjo never disappoints. They are always friendly and warm. The food is what you would expect from a restaurant: flavourful, warming, fresh. Always get the set, it's more than enough for sharing with another. I tend to order extra injera too :P

A lovely lunch experience sampling authentic Ethiopian cuisine. See photos below. The previous time we tried was many years in Abu Dhabi!

Really delicious food and plenty of Ethiopian collectables to look around while you eat. Pricing is also quite reasonable for the area

Great Ethiopian cuisine and a very friendly manager. Most mains ~$16.

Had a good lunch at Konjo, the spicy lamb was excellent

My score 3.75 stars. J and I had a pre-football dinner here on Fri 2nd Aug.  We chose it for convenience > Off the train from Yarraville, 5min walk, eat, 5min back to Footscray station and into Sthn X – easy as! I booked it through Zomato, which was also extremely easy. <br/><br/>Place was pretty quiet being so early, plenty of space between tables (for those who don't like being squished), large TV a little bit distracting.  Service was ok, they except cash only BTW. <br/><br/>Doro wat ($15) - Nice gravy, 1 chicken leg (moist), moderate spice. 1 hard boiled egg, which J liked. The DW bowl was poured onto the inerja by the owner, which eventually made it soggy (and hard to eat) - I would ask for this not to be done on future visits.<br/><br/>Vegetarian platter ($15) - 3 lentil dishes, brown, green and yellow. 1 other “lentily” dish which I liked a lot (could have been Pea flour stew)? Pickled carrot and cabbage, with a piece of potato. All nice, Jane especially liked the yellow and brown lentils, I really liked the green (so everyone happy). <br/><br/>The 2 dishes came with 1 white and 1 wholemeal inerja.  We really liked both. The wholemeal one had more structure and flavour, the white one was beautifully soft. <br/><br/>I had a St. Georges beer ($6) – It was ok and went well with the spicy food.

Found slightly out of the way in Footscray but totally worth the deliciousness and bargain prices. Everything was full of flavour especially the chicken dish and the injera bread helped mop up all the sauces<br/>However, i wish the service was a bit faster, but I have a feeling this is a family owned so they only have so many staffs. Total with tricks between 4 it was $20 pp with local ethiopian beers each.

Got here upon the recommendation of a friend of mine for a must try spot. Nice small spot with around 6-7 tables and they've kept it relatively clean.<br/>The menu was simple and small. We got a beef stew dish, chicken stew and a special Which was a lamb Mince. All of these dishes come with a large softer version thosai like. These 'stews' were just gravy and not a stew like texture at all, so don't be fooled by the name.<br/><br/>The stews were so yummy mainly due to their seasoning. This was a good flavor which didn't highlight salt like others, but an African identity. The only disappointment was the lamb Mince which wasn't great. Overall a very good experience and a very good way to experience the Ethiopian taste.

I walked past Café Lalibela on my way to Fooscray station for months before I finally tried it out, and when I did, I was not disappointed.<br/>I'm certainly no expert on Ethiopian food, but I know that what I had tasted great, and I definitely want to go back for more.<br/>Another standout - the traditional coffee, which comes black, in a cute little shot glass with a handle. The coffee was exceptional.

I ate here this evening with a girlfriend and we had the most enjoyable dish! We asked for a recommendation from the staff which was the combination meat and veg. Was so incredibly good! Unfortunately I’m not too familiar with ethiopian cuisine, and this was my first, so couldn’t recommend what we had.. Though it was beyond delicious!! Love the customary way of eating with your hands (the bread is incredible to grab food as well as it soaking up the contents!) the meats as well as sides were so filling and we both left bloated! Will definitely be back. Thank you for a lovely evening with great food and beer!

Fun, cheap eats! We had a beef, a chicken and a lentil curry between two and certainly didn't leave hungry. The Ethiopian beers are great and the guys are really friendly.

Delicious, cheap, no frills food with African beers to suit. The vegetarian options are the best choice, some of the meat can be a bit overdone. One of our regulars for a quick meal!

My Husband and I visit Lalibela regularly and can't get enough. We have both grown a huge love for ethopian food and introduce all our friends and family to Lalibela to try the cuisine. It is by far our favourite restaurant in Melbourne. We love the smell, the authentic food and the service. Everytime we enter, the owner shakes our hands and makes us feel apart of Lalibela. We highly recommend doro wat and lamb tibs. We are always counting down until our next visit. All the local Ethopians eat here regularly which in itself shows that the food is fantastic. Such a great vibe and always love to return for our favourite food in the whole wide world. A MUST TRY

What is Etiopian Cuisine?<br/><br/>Ethiopian cuisine (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ምግብ) characteristically consists of vegetable and often very spicy meat dishes. This is usually in the form of wat, a thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread, which is about 50 cm’s in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour (mmm, fermented bread!) Ethiopians eat exclusively with their right hands, using pieces of injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes.<br/><br/>UTENSILS ARE OPTIONAL!!!<br/><br/>This was a cheap and cheerful meet! Easiest way to get there is via train, then its a short walk from Footis-Craay station.<br/><br/>A couple doors up from Lalibela is an Ethio-jazz bar, where you can ajourn to and soak in the righteous tunes on weekends.<br/><br/>We ate:<br/><br/>Injera, with our hands, topped with:-<br/><br/>Kei Wot (beef stew)<br/><br/>Gored Gored (diced lean beef)<br/><br/>Doro Wot (chicken stew)<br/><br/>Beyainetu (a selection of Ethio vegetable dishes)<br/><br/>token salad<br/><br/>We drank:<br/><br/>St George Beer<br/><br/>Would we go again? Yes, totally! Not only is Ethio food tasty and healthy, its FUN to eat with your hands.

This is a great little Ethiopian joint located in the heart of Footscray. The owner is lovely and always keen for a chat. I've been coming here for years and have never had a bad meal. If you're new to Ethiopian food, try Lalibella. Order the Derek tibs and beyanatu!

It's good, we have had a variety of dishes more often our favorites such as doro wot, kitfo & tibs<br/><br/>POSITIVE: it's well presented, doro wot (chicken) sauce is always great perfect flavour & try amber beer for a spiced brew. <br/><br/>NEGATIVE: compared to the multiple Ethiopian restaurants that have been born in the surrounding area it is expensive. Also in the last 2 years i have failed to find it buzzing with patrons as it used to be.

Average food. Crap customer service. My friend and I were regretting coming here when there are tons of African restaurant in short proximity. As an African the treatment was blunt and quite opposite to how the owner treated non-African. Won't be back here.

I want to give a fairly detailed response as I have a lot of experience with this place.<br/><br/>I've been going to this restaurant for 7 years, pretty much since they opened. Often on a weekly basis. For a long time they were completely satisfying, generous portions and a lovely feel to the place. To the point where I would never go to a different ethiopean restaurant.<br/><br/>About 2 months ago I went there and I noticed that when we got out food, there was far less meat in the meal. Still tasted nice but was a little bit disappointing.<br/><br/>Fast forward another month. I went there to get food for my family. Spent about 70 dollars on different meals. I was absolutely disgusted in the way I was treated. None of the meals we got contained nearly enough meat. <br/><br/>Now, I don't want to sound excessive but when you are paying $16 for the doro wat and you get maybe 50 grams of chicken (at absolute most) then it is getting ridiculous. I felt quite personally betrayed because I had been a longtime very loyal customer.<br/><br/>They pushed me away with absolutely meager portion sizes to the point where not only will I never go there again, but I will advocate others to go elsewhere. These people do not deserve customers, especially loyal ones. I'm so angry I hope they go out of business (which they won't because the white hipster crowd has suddenly moved on to African food).<br/><br/>TL;DR if you want $1 worth of chicken for $16 dollars come here. <br/>On that note, I am making Ethiopean for dinner myself.

Wow. Diamond in the rough! What greAt service and taste! Ordered one of each meats. Amazing sauce and bread to dip it with. St George beers washed it down well. We live in Sth Melb and well worth the drive

Absolutely loved the African flavours! Staff friendly and fairly priced. Good atmosphere and food didn't take too long to arrive. Make sure to bring cash because they don't accept eftpos

Absolutely delicious authentic Ethiopian cuisine! Lovely service and great food! Highly recommended. The key wet is to die for and they cook everything to your liking 😍

Wow! What a way to spend a Wednesday evening. The atmosphere was vibrant and the staff were delightful! My friend with me is vegan and I'm not however I still found the vegan/vegetarian platter full of flavour and very satisfying! The price was unexpectedly inexpensive for how much delicious food you're given. Can't recommend this place enough! Will definitely be back

@meacordner and I make it a point to try and make it here once a month. Always have great food and not to crazy in price especially considering how filling it is!

The food was very good. My wife is vegetarian and the vegetarian mix platter (the first vegetarian item on the menu) was delicious!! Definitely will go again.

Could Ethiopian food become the new Thai or Vietnamese in Melbourne? I have some doubts because it lacks the lightness and freshness of these cuisines. However walking near Footscray train station it seemed that every second restaurant or café is from thi

Café Lalibela seems to be the "starter restaurant" for Ethiopian cuisine. The conversation usually goes something like this: Person A: "Have you tried Awash/African Town/Harambe/Abesha/Dinknesh Lucy?" Person B: "No, but I've been to Lalibela." I'm not sur

Cafe Lalibela is a great place to eat, and pretty keenly priced, our meal came to $31 including corkage, there are good imported Ethiopian beers on offer too.

I rarely had time to escape the desk at Lonely Planet, so now that I’m back to full-time freelance writing, I finally had a chance to check out Cafe Lalibela, a neighbourhood Ethiopian restaurant that’s got strong street cred. I always get turned around i

Poor customer sercice but great food. We ate here on a saturday night. Arrived at 6:30pm and the owner (I assume) was chatting with friends before he casually greeted us. We had to ask three times for water and glasses. Whenever he came over to our table and we ordered something he would quickly turn and leave before we could ask for anything else. Food was delicious but I will not go back.

Have they gone broke!!!. I have been getting african food from hear since they have opened about 15 -16 years ago they were probably the fist african resaraunt in footscray they were great until last month which i got food that was left or have being at least 3-4 days old with peices of bread in my take away container i am a regular but today i got a peice of chicken which was almost as big as a wing and got a lamb dish witch had a small hand full off mince very watery and no currie what so ever!! the problem is that i am a regular and the owner knows me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what a shame !! plus the resaraunt was empy!! its always full are they cutting costs? they will end up loosing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love it. So spoilt for choice in Footscray for Eritrean and Ethiopian restaurants. Another favourite of mine. Tried most items on the menu and love them all.

I've been almost to all the Ethiopian restaurants in Melbs and at Lalibela i found the Doro Wot really really good. Nice atmosphere, clean and not expensive.

Great food and cheap with brilliant service. I have been to Cafe Lalibela many times and it always delivers. The food is amazing, both vegetarian and meat dishes, and the staff make the experience all the better.<br/>It is always our restaurant of choice when going out for a meal!!

Great little Ethiopian restaurant, friendly casual service. Order the vegetarian combination (vege tends to beat the meat dishes). Cheap, cheerful, and excellent Ethiopian beers especially imported.

Terrible food and service. The food here is horrendous. It's very bland and is either cold or overcooked!<br/>The owner also overcharged us and gave us attitude which made us feel very uncomfortable.<br/><br/>Do not recommend!!!

After many nice dinners here (Vegeterian), I can say they have been truly great. However, in my recent visit with a friend, this was not the case. We ordered Chicken tibs - which is pan fried chicken pieces with spices onion and peppers. It came out extremely crispy and dry: so hard. I knocked it against the plate and it sounded like it was a coin or a fork....sooooo awfully overcooked (Inside and out). I told the owner so we ordered another dish: more Red-Lentils....(Which were great). However, he owner didn't offer us free drinks or even take it off the bill, he just said "Sorry, maybe it was the chicken". I am really dissapointed that such awful service has been provided to me being someone who has dined there quite a few times (And owner recognising me). I would now never go back because of this Appaling attitude towards customer service, and the Actual worst chicken of my life!!!!!! And I mean....ever!

Fantastic tasty food and beer, service was great too, well worth a visit!

Love this place! I get cravings for the Kay Wat and the Yetsom Beyatnetu (no idea how to spell it!).

Whenever I'm in Melbourne I come back here each time. I've been comin to cafe lalibela for over 6 years. Just had another meal tonight and I'm still loving it. The 'full' is delicious as is the chicken doro wat. I always get a refreshing salad too. Dressed with a little lemon and chilli. Service is always very accommodating and friendly and the price is right. Love it.

I just keep coming back, yr after yr... This place does not disappoint.... Amazing food, great beer, nice place, great hospitality.

15 dollars for what is basically a piece of Ethiopian bread and a bit of curry, which wasn't that great. You are paying for the experience of eating without utensils. Though, I must say I was told by a friend that the curry we had was a bad batch, so maybe you will have better luck. Tip: The vegetarian sampler looks to be the best dish -with many different flavours to try.

I know I have found a winner when I am still shoveling food into my mouth an hour after I have well and truly had my fill. And when I say food I mean just that: simple, homely, welcoming and nourishing stuff you eat with your hands. The dishes comprise of meat and vegetarian stews such as the delicious broad beans with fetta and tomato, creamy lentil and split pea, or the spicy lamb with capsicum and onion. We had the special minced spiced lamb topside with liver and tripe which came as a crumbly, salty and fragrant mix of meat with the warmth of chilli. The dishes are served in inviting mounds on top of injera bread: a spongy, pancake like bread (kind of like a flat crumpet) which soaks up their juices and which is used to scoop mouthfuls of the soul-satisfying food. Add a homely welcoming atmosphere and a cold Ethiopian beer (winner!) and your night is set!

Slightly enjoyable. I went on a quiet Tuesday night and it took a while for the owner to come out and give me a menu etc. When he did show up he was really friendly, talkative and genuinely interested that I was there. I ordered my food, the doro wot and a side salad. The sauce itself was delicious, however It had the smallest amount of meat, as in not even enough for one person. I'm not greedy but I thought it was a little underwhelming for the price. I would go back again because maybe they were having an off night.

Good meats, sour bread. The service here was super friendly and nice but it did take quite a while for our food to come out. The food comes out on a big platter layered with a type of unleavened bread and the meat/veggie dishes poured on top, the bread is then used to scoop us the meat/veggies. The dishes were tasty but we found the bread to have a sour taste which detracted from the meal. We ended up eating the dishes by themselves w/o using the bread to dip.

Very underwhelmed. The food took forever (even though there were only 2 other people in the restaurant) and when it arrived it was lukewarm (which is more than what can be said about the service). The food itself was average. You can find much better African within a 300m radius for cheaper. I would argue that their pride in being "the best African not only in Melbourne, but in all of Australia" is a very delusional. Spend your time and money in some better place around the corner from here, there are plenty to choose from.

If u like charcoal meat then this the place for you. If not and You Approach the owner be prepared for a scene!! (made on his behalf). Vegetarian OK had better, & only Given small serve more bread than food. Over all try else where in Footscray, had much better!

Food & service can vary depending on owner's attendance. When it's good, very good but at times disappointing.

Amazing rich flavours. I really love the incredibly rich doro wat (chicken stew) here, and they do the injera really well. The other dishes are okay, with interesting flavours and textures. Laid back atmosphere with tasteful decor. Enjoy eating with fingers and sharing the plate with your dining companion(s) in the traditional way.

Favourite restaurant. Lalibela is my favourite restaurant in Melbourne. The food is absolutely amazing! And so is the price. I love the idea of sharing a meal and eating with your hands. This is one place i will keep going back to and raving about to everyone i know.

Huge servings of injera, really tasty mains. Struggled to finish all the injera that was given to us. Only grief was that they didn't serve single cups of Ethiopian coffee - would have been perfect end to the meal

Delicious and satisfying. We shared a platter of traditional bread topped with deliciously spiced meats and lentils. Highly recommended.<br/><br/>The staff were very friendly and helpful. The eating environment is very pleasant and comfortable.

Just an off night?. We've been going to Lalibela for years. Always delicious food, relaxed atmosphere. But last night was disappointing. <br/><br/>We had the vegetarian combination for two. Oddly, it came out within two minutes. Everything was barely room temperature or cold. <br/><br/>But the main thing was - not that we're greedy, I hope - the servings were seriously half the size they normally are! We wondered if they'd given us a combination for one person by accident. It was a depressing meal. The lack of generosity, I think. And it was over in five minutes.<br/><br/>I like the fact Lalibela doesn't stand on ceremony. Who cares if you have to open and pour the wine yourself? But then being charged $3 for corkage on top of a very disappointing meal - so $31 total - seemed like a cruel joke.<br/><br/>Have other people noticed a similar phenomenon at other African places around Footscray? It's so rare to leave a restaurant thinking 'that was a rip-off', but I've felt that several times recently at African places I used to love.

My favourite African place in Melbourne - the owner is very hospitable - all my friends I have taken here love it. Cheap and delish!!!

Went here on a sat night. excellent ethiopian food and nice atmosphere. service needs improvement though, maybe hire more staff would help but other than that i'd reccomend this place

I came in with an open mind, never had Ethiopean before. I was rewarded with good wholesome food served on massive metal platter which we had to share. The injera bread, reminiscent of Indian masala dosai only a tad bit more sour, soaked with the doro wot (chicken stew) was good. Alas the lamb was a tad tasteless. And unfortunately the service was lacking and the ambiance was tacky - no one to seat or greet us, one guy doing everything and TV blaring? - which takes away from the food. A lot. I noted down that I "disliked" this place not because of the food, because I think it is quite decent, but rather because the restaurant had potential to be something more.

The ful is fantastic. Can't wait to try more dishes. Decor is chilled and relaxing.