Zeret Kitchen

A London editor who ranks restaurants for a living put this corner room next to a newsagent in his Top 25 for the whole city and called it arguably the best Ethiopian cooking in London (The Infatuation).

Why go

The room is on the corner of an estate on Camberwell Road, warmly lit, with a piano soundtrack and bottles of St. George on the tables. By seven it is full of families, couples and people eating alone, and every one of them is reaching into the same enormous silver platter of injera.

The cooking is what earns it. Jake Missing scored it 9.1 for The Infatuation in September 2024 and assessed the bread rather than the vibe: the injera is "baked thin and springy with just the right amount of tang". Shuro wot arrives with a heavy hand of berbere through the chickpeas. Misir wot, the green lentil stew, is "vibrating with garlic and ginger". Kitfo is raw beef worked through smoky spiced butter, which is a dish most London kitchens will not serve.

George Brown and Faddy Velmi of Cutie Pies, two chefs who cook pop-ups and residencies around the city, name the person running it: "Tafe Beleynah, the matriarch of this unassuming Ethiopian restaurant, will encourage you to order from the sharing platter, with a view to reordering your favourite options" (Trippin).

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Zeret Surprise if there are two of you, then kategna to start. Shuro wot and misir wot off the vegan side, chicken tibs and kitfo off the meat side. Ask for more injera when it runs low.
• Avoid: a weekday lunch, because the kitchen opens at four. Do not ask for cutlery, and do not order a dish each off the group menu unless you want to take most of it home.

What locals & experts say

• Jake Missing, Editorial Lead for The Infatuation London, September 2024, 9.1: "London is blessed with a tonne of Ethiopian restaurants and Zeret Kitchen is arguably the best. The injera is baked thin and springy with just the right amount of tang, while the stews, vegan or otherwise, are superb." On value: "The two-person Zeret Surprise is an enormous amount of food for GBP 30." ref
• George Brown and Faddy Velmi, the chefs behind Cutie Pies, writing jointly for Trippin in April 2023: "The platters are arranged on injera, a fermented flatbread designed to grip and dip at the various lashings of vegan and meat stews. Cutlery is not provided as standard. Eat with your hands, get tactile; feed yourself and each other." They are one interest between them, not two votes. ref
• No national critic has been. The Guardian, the Standard and Vittles were searched by name on 1 August 2026 and none carries a review of a restaurant that has been trading for at least fifteen years. That absence is stated rather than dressed up, and it is what keeps confidence at medium.

Good to know

• Where: 216-218 Camberwell Road SE5 0ED, on the corner of an estate next to a newsagent. Nearest rail is Denmark Hill.
• Timing: the venue lists 4pm to 10pm Monday to Thursday, until 11pm on Friday, and 1pm to 11pm on Saturday. No Sunday hours are published.
• Booking: worth doing. The room fills from seven and it is small.
• How you eat: one platter, no cutlery, right hand, shared. The injera does the work of the fork.
• Diet: the menu carries its own Vegan section, and The Infatuation tags the room for both vegans and vegetarians.
• Price: the two-person Zeret Surprise was thirty pounds when The Infatuation priced it in 2024. There is a single-diner section too.
• Sites: one. The FSA holds a single Zeret Kitchen nationally.
• Hygiene: the FSA holds this premises at 5, rated 1 July 2024, under Southwark. FHRSID 364404.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His saved-places export carries an empty note against this row, so nothing here is attributed to him. The master CSV line "Camberwell Ethiopian save; injera classics" is a curation label rather than his words.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

must-visit — Build the evening around it. Zeret Kitchen sits on the corner of an estate next to a newsagent on Camberwell Road, and The Infatuation's London editorial lead Jake Missing scored it 9.1, put it in their Top 25 restaurants for the whole city, and wrote that 'London is blessed with a tonne of Ethiopian restaurants and Zeret Kitchen is arguably the best.' Being the best of a deep field is a harder thing than topping a thin one, and London's Ethiopian field is deep. The injera comes out 'thin and springy with just the right amount of tang', the shuro wot carries a heavy hand of berbere, the misir wot is loud with garlic and ginger, and the kitfo is raw beef through smoky spiced butter, which most rooms in this city will not put in front of you. George Brown and Faddy Velmi of Cutie Pies name Tafe Beleynah, the woman who runs it, and give the house rule: no cutlery, eat with your hands, feed each other. The two-person Zeret Surprise is thirty pounds and defeats most tables. It opens at four, it takes single diners seriously, and it is one of the few rooms in London where the format itself is the reason to go. Held at medium confidence because one outlet is carrying most of the evidence and no national critic has been.