i have never had vegan ethiopian food that i didn’t like. while in dc we saw a lot of ethiopian restaurants but instead of just popping into any random spot i relied, once again, on my buddy @kmudrick. he recommended Meskerem and we quickly headed on over.

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we already told you about the new year’s eve shindig over at tony’s darts away, and we just got wind of some more epic gatherings you should know about at rahel ethiopian and surly goat. these parties go from early evening until after midnight, and are pretty close to each other geographically…so we are thinking you should attend at least one of these, if not both. here are the details.

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heyo! time for another vegan field report from barcelona, spain by dadatamonkey! this one is pretty awesome, if i do say so myself. not only does the food sound amazing, but this post will give you some serious ethiopian food education. read up!

Having spent some time here in BCN (Barcelona) I was getting a tad bored of the usual vegan places here, and decided to try out a few non-vegan places and see how I got on. The power of google led me to Abissínia. Which is cool as I spent time in Ethiopia as a kid! I had not found it reviewed on any of the usual suspects (yes it’s there now!) etc, but know Ethiopian food fairly well so knew I would be able to eat there. A number of traditional review sites seemed to rave about it so I popped along! It’s to be found within a 5min stroll of the metro in the Bohemian area of BCN, Gracia. This area used to be the main place for the large anarchist community here but less so now.

This tiny frontage is like the opening to the Doctors Tardis. With foodie heaven hidden inside!

Abissínia opened in 2006 I think, and is headed up by the brothers Behe. Ethiopian food is often vegan by default, due to the Coptic and Orthodox religions practiced by most people requiring avoidance of animal products at certain times of the year. Be aware though that butter is also widely used in cooking so check first in any other place. Meat is prepared and cooked totally separately so you have no issues with cross contamination in this kitchen!

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since the first time we reviewed the all you can eat brunch at rahel ethiopian vegan cuisine, a lot has changed. the restaurant has had expanded to take over the space next door, making for a much brighter and more comfortable dining experience, and has introduced a buffet table to their lunch special (rather than a server bringing you plates of food as you ask for them). overall, these improvements have transformed lunch at rahel from decent to downright exceptional.

new space along with buffet table

the way the all you can eat lunch works now is, you walk in and tell the server you’d like the buffet special. she then brings you your choice of soup or salad as an appetizer.

both are small, but very tasty.

after your warm up course, it’s time to dive in to the main event: plate after plate of hot ethiopian stew and spongy bread.

grab a plate and get your fill from the seven vegetable and lentil dishes, the two types of rice, and basket full of injera. also, be sure to get a huge helping of the bright green sauce. i dunno what it is exactly, but it’s incredible.

typically, ethiopian cuisine consists of various stews or wots served atop of and with a side of injera, a porous stretchy bread. you are supposed to use your hands to neatly scoop up the stew with the bread and stick the whole thing in your gob. presented with an all you can eat option, though, it’s really easy to go overboard and load your plate up with way too much stew. luckily, rahel’s provides forks for this very reason.

when i visit the buffet table, i like to spread a piece of injera out on my plate and then stack it up with the various vegetable dishes. as you can see in the picture at the top of the post, i get a bit of everything. we’ve got some red lentils, yellow lentils, potato stew, kale, carrots and green beans, cabbage, and more. i have no idea the proper name for all this stuff, but it is all mind-blowingly flavorful.

whatever you do, be sure to go to rahel’s all you can eat lunch with a completely empty stomach…because the food is so good, you can’t leave without at least a couple trips to the buffet table.

view from rahel's new section. the restaurant used to be only the room with the umbrellas on the ceiling.

seriously, i can’t think of a better way to spend a rainy afternoon than relaxing with plate after plate of warm ethiopian cuisine in such a light and spacious environment. the all you can eat buffet takes place everyday from 11am-3pm, and costs $8.99 per person. while that’s a damn good deal any way you look at it, it has to be noted that nyala directly across the street has an all you can eat vegan buffet for just $6.99 (over 20% cheaper!). however, considering rahel’s new buffet is so plentiful and tasty, and the atmosphere is so pleasant…i’d rather shell out an extra 2 bucks and support the only vegan business on the block.

so be sure to hit up the new rahel vegan ethiopian cuisine as soon as you can. all you can eat vegan food, under $9, 7 days a week. hell yes.

rahel vegan cuisine
1047 south fairfax avenue
los angeles ca 90019
323-937-8401
open daily
11am to 11pm
all you can eat lunch special
11am – 3pm

want a massive vegan dinner for 2 priced at under 20 bucks? head over to little ethiopia on fairfax and hit up rosalind’s. i know, i know, i probably shouldn’t be sending any business whatsoever away from the vegan ethiopian restaurant across the street…but i just like the food and atmosphere at rosalind’s sometimes for a change. plus, it’s always good to know this place is here and super vegan-friendly if you are ever need to dine ethiopian-style with some omnivores.

sambusa: pastry shell stuffed with green lentils, onions, jalapeno and herbs. $2.50

to start at rosalind’s, we always get a couple lentil sambusas. at just $2.50 a pop, these things are pretty big and they come with a fresh and crispy green salad. a sambusa is basically a fried up pastry shell, and in this case it’s filled with a dark lentil stew that’s absolutely delicious. i could eat these things everyday, and no matter how hard i try to resist, i definitely end up eating one every time i’m at rosalind’s.

as a main course, the two of us always without fail order the vegetarian combination to split between us. this comes with several stew-type dishes including collard greens, chick-pea, yellow split-pea, red lentils and cabbage. this stew, also known as wot, is served on a huge piece of injera (aka radical spongy bread) with a plate of injera rolls for scooping. that’s right, you don’t use silverware in little ethiopia, you eat with your hands. keep it clean and tidy by only handling the bread, but don’t ask for a fork or you will give yourself away as a n00b. the combo is huge and with a sambusa each, it’s definitely enough food for two people. that means before tax, tip and booze 2 peeps can eat for just under $19!

vegetarian combination. $13.95

my favorite thing about ethiopian cuisine, is all the rich and deep flavors that come packed into every dish. all the tastes are so unique and unlike any other food i’ve had before. rosalind’s especially, makes stew that is so thick and delicious, it tastes like it’s been cooking for days to bring out the right balance of spices and seasonings. if you have never tried this stuff, you are seriously missing out on some of my favorite food in los angeles.

now i know i’ve written about rosalind’s before, but that was well over a year ago and i wanted to remind you that this place existed. the food is what i would consider the best in little ethiopia, the atmosphere is totally classy, and the service is friendly and attentive. next time you feel like some ethiopian food and wanna step your experience up a notch, hop over to rosalind’s. just be sure to tell them you are vegan, and they will take care of you.

oh, and did i mention they have a full bar? yes!

rosalind’s ethiopian restaurant
1044 S Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 936-2486

For those people in Ethiopia who are fortunate enough to get a square meal on a regular basis, the usual menu consists of a slab of meat with several vegetable side dishes and some flat, unleavened bread to scoop everything up into your face. It’s a coincidence that the vegetable side dishes fit into that unusual intersection of “naturally vegan, yet tasty”. Yeah, naturally tasty vegan food isn’t that common in ethnic mainstream (if you can call Ethiopian “mainstream”!) dining. After all, just about the only thing vegan at a Chinese restaurant is plain, white rice – the antitheses of tasty.

I’m really glad that LA has a thriving Ethiopian community. Even though there are pockets of Ethiopian ex-pats all over the city, the Ethiopian dining center (called, strangely “Little Ethiopia”) is one short block of Fairfax Avenue between Olympic and Pico Blvds., and we vegans can take advantage of the excellent food and warm hospitality at any of over 20 restaurants, pretty much any time we like. One common menu item is the “vegetarian combination” which is, in fact, entirely vegan as it consists of hearty portions of each side dish with some bread on the side.

I’ve eaten at many of the restaurants in Little Ethiopia over the years, and the vegetarian combination tastes exactly the same everywhere. I’m convinced they have one large kitchen in an alleyway somewhere that prepares all the side dishes and runners dash from there to each restaurant every time somebody places an order. OK, probably not, but the consistency is within a very fine tolerance of identical at each establishment.

So, when choosing where to dine, I used to decide between Nyala and Rosalind’s – two of the larger and more established restaurants on the “strip”, largely as a preference over the kind of ambiance and atmosphere I was seeking. However, after discovering Rahel Vegan Cuisine I’m somewhat torn with my loyalties. You see, Rahel’s is entirely VEGAN – the staff are right up my street because they are nice, polite and wear tee-shirts with things like “Vegan POWER!” written on them. It also offers consistently tasty food, and is on the opposite side of the street to the aforementioned establishments – which is a good, because I come from the west and crossing Fairfax here is like being Frogger in the video game.

I was fortunate, recently, to go back to Rahel’s with a friend and colleague who is much more of a regular than I. The lunch special during weekdays is an “all you can eat style” lunch, although a full a la carte menu is (surprisingly) available. I’m used to all-you-can-eat affairs being buffet-style where half the fun is pigging out on the dishes you really like, while ignoring the ones you don’t. Sadly, Rahel’s brings you one plate of food with no choice about what you get – probably due to the fact they don’t have room for a buffet setup as the restaurant is so small inside. This complicates things somewhat, and takes the fun out of scooping the food out of catering trays, as one would normally do at an all-you-can-eat session.

Lunch Special at Rahel Vegan Cuisine

Injera bread for scooping up vegetables

Once you’ve eaten the food, there are two choices: another plate of what you just had, or a delicate negotiation with a server who knows WAY more than you’ll ever know about what you just ate and how to pronounce it, so that you can get more of the dishes you want. Having to ask a server for more free stuff feels sort-of guilty to me, and the gluttonous nature of all-you-can-eat is mitigated to a degree by the proxy of a human whom has to acknowledge and process every order. Compounding this is the fact that, like most ignorant white people, I’ve never managed to memorize the real Ethiopian names of the food I enjoy so much – so I’m reduced to explaining things in terms of color and texture: “the black, creamy lentils, but the ones without potatoes” and “the green salad-type thing with the large tomatoes on it” when I want more of something.

Second plate of food after heavy negotiations with the waitress!

Bottom line, Rahel’s has a lot going for it because it’s entirely vegan, but falls down in other areas. It’s small and cramped inside, with strange décor (upside down umbrellas on the ceiling?!), extra-small, glass-covered two-top tables and a lunchtime vegan buffet that’s a full buck more than Nyala’s vegan buffet across the street. Nyala’s is a much nicer place to be (high ceilings, expansive floor space, booths) and has a self-serve buffet, to guarantee that fatty vegans like me will always be satisfied.

Remembering that Rahel’s is entirely vegan (although related to the anything-but-vegan Messob next door), it certainly warrants a visit – as do the other fine establishments in Little Ethiopia – but it falls short somewhat on atmosphere and convenience. Supporting a vegan business is always my preference, but I’ve added Rahel’s to my rotation of restaurants on this block, rather than going there exclusively.

rahel vegan cuisine
1047 south fairfax avenue
los angeles ca 90019
323-937-8401
open daily
11am to 11pm
all you can eat lunch special
11am – 3pm

with such a huge selection of local restaurants, being a vegan in los angeles is easy…but it sure isn’t cheap. most meals cost anywhere between 9-14 bucks, and if you are one to grab lunch from a restaurant during the workweek, this can add up really fast. luckily there is at least one place in this town where herbivores can get stuffed at lunch time without too much wallet damage—nyala ethioipian on fairfax has an all-you-can-eat vegan lunch special from 11:30am-3:30pm on weekdays for just $6.95. that’s right, for under 7 bucks you can eat all the ethiopian food you want, and it’s all animal-free. if i worked anywhere near this place, i’d probably be there every day.

nyala vegan buffet $6.95

you may remember that i’ve written about ethiopian food before on this blog and described how most meals consist of several thick, spicy stews called wots and that are served on top of a large piece spongey sourdough bread called injera, with more rolls served on the side. traditionally you use the bread to scoop of bits of the wot and eat it, without any utensils. for the vegan buffet, nyala’s doesn’t serve the stew on injera (i guess that wouldn’t be practical for getting seconds), but they do offer plenty of bread on the side.

i got my fill of spicy stews consisting of lentils, potatoes, assorted vegetables and greens. it was all absolutely delicious and i took extreme comfort in the fact that every single thing offered at the buffet was vegan. the bread worked well on the side, and was perfect for scooping up the thick wot. with so many different flavors of stew and the option to go back and get as much as you like, i can’t see how they keep this buffet under $7! seriously, it’s the best vegan lunch deal in this town that i’ve ever come across.

the atmosphere is also quite lovely at nyala. the place is large and spacious, and has big windows that the sun shines through during the day. the booths are comfy and there’s a mix of modern and traditional ethiopian decor.

so for a delicious and cheap vegan lunch that will stuff you to the gills, hit up nyala on fairfax for their weekday special. all those who work in the area, consider yourselves very lucky. i am just waiting for the next federal holiday so i can eat nyala’s lunch special again–president’s day this week was my first opportunity!

nyala ethiopian
1076 south fairfax avenue
los angeles ca 90019

(323)936-5918

i’ve been frequenting the little ethiopia district on fairfax for years—from rahel’s, to messob, to nyala, i’ve tried plenty. and of all these similar ethiopian restaurants, i like rosalind’s best. sure, maybe i am being a traitor. maybe i should blindly pledge allegiance to rahel’s, because it’s 100% vegan…but something about rosalind’s just keeps me coming back. maybe it’s the super chill atmosphere, or the fact that the same waitress is always on duty and she has my order memorized. i dunno. whatever it is, it’s more than just the amazing food.

vegetarian combo: a combination of collard greens, chick-pea, yellow split-pea, red lentils and cabbage. served with injera. $13.95

sambussa: a pastry shell stuffed wuth green lentils, onion, jalapeno and herbs $2.50

now for the uninitiated, ethiopian food is something quite special. it’s massively tasty, reasonably healthy, and some of the best vegetarian fare in los angeles. i love the fact that the vegetarian dishes are kinda just, well, vegetarian. i don’t worry about chicken stock, fish sauce, lard and other horrors like i do at many restaurants. ethiopian food is pretty much pure herbivore goodness, and if you order it sans the obvious meat, you are almost always safe.

for all y’all who have never eaten ethiopian food, i’ll let wikipedia break it down for you:
“Ethiopian cuisine characteristically consists of spicy vegetable and meat dishes, usually in the form of wot (With a hard ‘t’ noise), a thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread, which is about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour. Ethiopians eat with their right hands, using pieces of injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes. No utensils are used.”
yum.

now, as i hinted earlier, most of the food that i’ve tried in the little ethiopia district of fairfax is totally comparable—i urge you to sample every last restaurant and make your own mind up. but one thing that really sets rosalind’s apart is the incredible atmosphere. nyla’s decor is too bright, rahel’s isn’t quite cohesive (umbrellas hanging from the ceiling…wtf), and messob is just too small and kinda blah. rosalind’s on the other hand…well, it’s hip, dim, slick and authentic—all rolled into one.

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