Lalibela, Tufnell Park

Ethiopian. Nice ethnic atmosphere and although there were low tables with small seats we took regular table for two.

House wine was spanish red and ok . Didn't spot any ethiopian wine. For starters spicy grilled chicken served cold and potato & beetroot sald served warm. Both served in a shell like lettuce leaf.

For mains we opted to share a Beyaynetu which was mixed types of lamb and veg and ethiopian raita served ona huge "bread" on a huge wooden plate that went between us. Lamb was good. One pot was mild, one was spicy, salads and veg were good. The mystery was the bread. It was rubbery and had the appearance of tripe. It stretched, it didn't crumble, in fact it was very un bread like. It was called Injera. The various portions were placed on the bread and you tore off small strips from the edge and used them like chapatis. Naturally all the juices and gravy soaked into the bread so when you'd mopped up all the food you ate the bread which was soaked in many flavours. Interesting but it still reminded me of tripe and rubber...

£48 for 2 wasn't too bad. Next stop an Eritrean restaurant.

Bella Italia, Birstall near the showcase

In a word Crap

Fitted us in at short notice but drinks took an age to come. When we started ordering it got worse.
"Chicken xxxx".
"I'm afraid we have no chicken"
" at 8pm on a saturday night?"
"yes"
"OK I'll have spicy meatballs"
"We have no spicy meatballs"
"Starter of xxx,yyy and buffalo wings"
"We have no buffalo wings"

Time passed. Drinks arrived. The meal was taking so long that some people ordered more drinks.
Eventually a lasagne was thrown on the table so hard it knocked a glass of wine over(ontothe lasagne) ; A Pizza with fresh green chillies had no green chillies at all. Cannelloni was basic. No heart No Pzazz, no nuthin'. Some dishes were OK but we were planning our exit strategy way before they offered coffee or desserts.

To sum up it was crap. The man at the till offered to cut down the bill but that's not the issue. It was crap service, crap shortages and crap delays. I'll never go there again. I'll tell all my friends. Will it make a difference? I suspect not. There'll always be a sucker who fancies a meal before or after the film so he'll try BI. He'll be dissatisfied and never go there again but there will be another sucker the following week and the following week. How do we resolve this? I'm not sure we ever will. They wouldn't stand for this level of service in Italy - the place wouldn't last 5 minutes.

More crappo italia than bella italia.