Beyaynetu @ Ge’ez Ethiopian & Eritrean Cuisine
296–298 Kensington, Kensington, L7 2RN
On a recent walk down Lodge Lane I was disappointed to see well-loved Ethopian and Eritrean restaurant Red Sea Liverpool now boarded up.
The past couple of years has also seen the closure, on the same stretch of road, of two other great restaurants — the Malaysian diner Nasi Lemak and the Persian eatery Reyhoon.
It’s true that L8 (or El-Ayt, as the graffiti on the wall of Granby Development Trust has it) is still the best place in Liverpool to eat Arabic food — and maybe the best place in the country to eat Yemeni food specifically — but the loss of variety in restaurants around this bit of town is a sad phenomenon.
It’s a different story in L7 where, on Kensington and Prescot Road, you can find excellent Sri Lankan, West African, Thai, Nepalese and — happily — Ethiopian and Eritrean food.
Ge’ez is the largest of the handful of places in the neighbourhood serving this cuisine, and its menu is stuffed with classics — from Lamb Tibs (stir-fried with berbere spices) to Doro Wat (fiery chicken stew).
The highlight, though, is the Beyaynetu. Probably the best known of all Ethiopian dishes, it’s a collection of lentil stews and cooked vegetables.
The centrepiece is Miser Wat — made with red lentils, it’s warming, sweet and spicy. Accompanying this is an intensely savoury and moreish Kik Alicha made from mashed split yellow peas and a complex and earthy Ye’difin Miser made with brown lentils.
Green beans, humming with garlic, are also part of the platter alongside braised collared greens, salty as seaweed, thinly sliced white cabbage with carrot and red cabbage cooked down until almost chutney.
It’s all served on a huge injera — a tangy, fermented bread with a texture between naan and crumpet. The injera acts not only as cutlery, ripped and dipped in the various pulses, but also adds sour contrast to each rich mouthful.
The restaurant itself is an inviting place — the walls are decorated with the bright pinks and yellows of Addis Ababa bungalows, East African pop music buzzes gently from the speakers. Ge’ez is somewhere you’re always guaranteed a warm welcome, and a cold bottle of Asmara beer.
