Lula’s Ethiopian restaurant by the train station has quickly become an Oxford staple, offering traditional injera dishes with a delicious assortment of veggie and meat stews to mop up with the salty, tangy wrap-like bread.

Starting off as a stall in Gloucester Green market, Lula’s has now been a restaurant on Park End Street for roughly three years, and this year they opened up their second location in Oxford. Trading one market for another, Lula’s has opened a Deli and Café in the covered market. Their Park End restaurant is still open and running as usual, so fear not if you had become attached to the honey wine and spiced red lentils.

However, their new location has taken on a new twist. Offering a more casual, café-deli experience, the covered market branch does not take bookings and embraces the coming and going energy of the market. They have also partnered with local producers to offer you Lula products to take home with you, like honey, coffee and their famous sauces. Now in the run up to Christmas they will be offering gift boxes with Lula products that is perfect for someone who wants the Ethiopian taste to linger that little bit longer.

When we visited, it felt like Lula’s always had a place in the covered market, it fit so seamlessly into the fabric of the Victorian shopfronts. Occupying the spot that the chocolatier Wicked used to have, Lula’s joins the main square of the market opposite Il Corno and Gulp Fiction. Lula herself was at the shop and we had a lovely evening hearing about her vision for the place and the brand and why she started Lula’s Ethiopian in the first place.

Serving only veggie dishes, you can still find the injera and a variety of hot dishes to go with it, although at a reduced capacity to the main restaurant. Lula prepared us a tasting platter and I can safely say it did not disappoint. Everything you come to love and crave from the restaurant is lovingly replicated here, with the classic red lentils offering a hearty, spiced richness, the creamy chickpeas balancing them out, mushrooms bursting with flavour, green beans and carrots loaded with garlic and herbs, all perfect for scooping up with injera or rice. The food is comforting, hearty and healthy and offers a nice update to the food choices in the covered market.

If you are looking for something lighter, the salads are not to be overlooked, packing those usual Ethiopian flavours but in a refreshing alternative, the salads are a great side or if you are looking for a light lunch.

However, I think the main difference of Lula’s Café and Deli versus the restaurant is the relaxed atmosphere of the place, really embracing the covered market vibe. Lula didn’t want this to be a place where people felt they had to spend money and move on, she wants it to be a community where people can just get a cup of their delicious spiced tea (which you can buy to take home!), have a chat, spend an afternoon in a cosy environment.

With the covered market nights being a firm staple of the market schedule, you can also enjoy Lula’s Café and Deli in the evenings on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Although they do not yet have their alcohol licence, it is in the process so you will soon be able to grab a glass of the famous honey wine and chatter the evening away. In the meantime, Lula is very happy for you to grab a drink from one of the surrounding bars to have with your food as the covered market is exactly that, a community that shares and helps each other out.

Lula’s, The Covered Market
Unit 26, Covered Market, Market St, Oxford OX1 3DZ

Bitten were invited as guests, all views are our own