Queen of Sheba offers an Ethiopian feast

[Robin Garr]

Queen of Sheba offers an Ethiopian feast

The veggie combination at Queen of Sheba tops injera with two colors of lentil misir wot, Atakilt and Gomen wot.


If you like to eat Ethiopian food the traditional way, you’ll eat with your hands, tearing off pieces of tangy, tan injera flatbread and using it to grab morsels from the common plate while your friends are doing the same.

Unfortunately, the pandemic has put an end to that practice at Queen of Sheba restaurant for now. Dine-in service will be on individual plates only for now, the popular Ethiopian restaurant tells us on its online ordering page. Following standard protocols, customers must wear face masks when away from the table, and everyone is expected to practice social distancing.

But there’s an easy workaround if you want to eat with your fingers: Takeout is available with ordering online or by phone, and you can arrange delivery via Grubhub or Doordash. Once you’ve got your Ethiopian repast home, you’re welcome to dig in, and no one will judge you.

“We want to assure our customers that we are taking every precaution per health department guidelines to protect the spread of Covid-19 to our customers and employees by sanitizing all contact surfaces regularly and offering fast minimum contact transactions while keeping social distancing,” the restaurant assures us. “We have always provided our customers hand sanitizes at our door and tables for your convenience and protection. Let's all be safe!”

That makes sense to me. I’m still resisting dining in anywhere until there’s a vaccine that works. But takeout? Yes, please! Queen of Sheba isn’t offering curbside pickup, but takeout orders are scheduled, and it’s easy to approach the pickup area without violating social distancing.

Queen of Sheba has been around for 16 years, operating briefly in a Frankfort Avenue storefront before moving in to its current location across from Bowman Field – once the home of the late, lamented Mazzoni’s – in 2008. The menu hasn’t changed much over the years. ...

Read the complete article on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/queen-sheba-ethiopian

You'll also find this review in LEO Weekly's Food & Drink section today.
http://www.leoweekly.com/category/food-drink/

Queen of Sheba
2804 Taylorsville Road
459-6301
http://queenofshebalouisville.com

One of my favorites. Hard to imagine the single plate mandate, though.

[Robin Garr]

One of my favorites. Hard to imagine the single plate mandate, though.

That's certainly part of the fun, but we can't complain about the thinking behind it. And of course, therein lies the benefit of bringing dinner home.

I get it. Just a distraction from the experience.

Went to Queen of Sheba with my wife some years ago.

Next day I noticed that I did not have my wallet. Credit cards and a couple hundred dollars cash.

Called them and asked and was told that they had found wallet. Went to pickup. Cards and cash intact. Tried to offer a substantial reward and the owner lady refused. Impressive.

I have been back a number of times. Not just because of the above but because food and service have always been great. Hope they have another sixteen years.

[Robin Garr]

That is impressive. Thanks for the remembrance, Steve.

Did an online order here tonight. My only previous Ethiopian food experience has been at Abssinia downtown, which I really liked. The online ordering gave a relatively vague ready time of "up to 45 minutes." I got there probably 5-10 minutes before the 45 minutes was up and was immediately greeted and given my order. They did not seem busy, early on a Friday evening. Although I was in and out in what felt like under a minute, from what little I saw, they appeared to be following social distancing guidelines.

I ordered a chicken tips and vegetable combination and a meat combination platter. It was still warm after the 10 minute drive home. Once I opened everything up, I realized I'd received a veggie combination platter instead of the meat combo I ordered. No worries, since almost all of the things on their menu are completely new experiences to me. I really want to try the doro wot, though. I really enjoyed the atakilt. The fossolia was interesting--at first I mistook the carrots for sweet potatoes! I'm not a big fan of lamb, but the alicha sega wot was really good, although if I were making it myself, I would probably just omit the lamb.

I got the six extra rolls of injera, as well. Given that it seems fairly impervious to liquid, I'm pretty sure that and the rest of my leftovers will be fine in the fridge for a day or two. I also have a side salad left--the one I had tonight was a little bland. If it's still good tomorrow, I may try to dress it up with some pepper rings and kalamata olives. Overall, a good experience.

[Robin Garr]

I'm sorry they messed up your order, Nathaniel, but glad you liked it anyway!

FYI, we got a really big roll or two of injera with our takeouts, and we tried toasting some of the leftovers in the toaster oven. It tasted pretty good that way, although you've got to be careful not to scorch it.