Beza Vegan Ethiopian is the Observer’s favourite vegan joint and has been since it started its local life as a pop up in Elephant and Castle shopping centre in 2016. It now lives on close to the new ‘so hip it hurts’ dining area Sayer Street in Elephant. And the only thing better than the food is the fact that it is female owned and operated.
If you don’t know a great deal about Ethiopian food they make it easy for you as there is only one thing on the menu, and the very friendly Ethiopian staff can tell you all about it. The food is served on a giant platter and is intended to be eaten without cutlery by means of a glorious bread called injera, but you can choose rice (but don’t). Injera has a slight tangy flavour to it and they’ll bring you as much as you want. On the platter we had red lentils with garlic, sautéed mushrooms, chickpeas, spinach, beetroot and cabbage cooked in a variety of ways. The heat level was moderate but if want to ramp it up we were given two condiments. One was hot and the other felt like we were chomping down on molten lava, mitigated by free minty water. All extremely pleasing.
The crowd at Beza are primarily thirty somethings who just left the gym with their water bottles and who probably live in those new flashy towers nearby. This by no means describes us, but they appeared envious of just how quickly we downed our big glasses of wine. And at only £39 for two people it was certainly good on the wallet. They also serve an even larger (were talking car tyre size) portion for four people, creating a party sharing vibe.
Why Ethopian food isn’t more popular is a great mystery to us, like that giant pong that used to be in Kennnington tube or why you never see any baby pigeons. But this shouldn’t be a mystery to you, and take your friends who dither, as their is really only one option! አስገራሚ!
