Beza Vegan Ethiopian is the Runoff’s favourite vegan joint and has been bothering our top ten 10 list for a number of years. It started its local life as a pop up in Elephant and Castle shopping centre in 2016 and lives on close to the new ‘so hip it hurts’ dining area Sayer Street in Elephant.

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 will 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.

We went to Beza on a warm July Friday night without a reservation but it filled up quickly.  All in all we felt very healthy when we left. Well, maybe not with the bottle of wine that we managed to neck in half an hour, but don’t judge us. 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. This is the perfect spot to take your friends who dither over menus, as there is really only one choice.  አስገራሚ!