Queen Sheba (Land Park)
food: 4.5/5
experience: 5/5
overall: 4.5/5
Wow, it's been a bit, Queen Sheba.
Queen Sheba is Sac's main source of Ethiopian food, located in Land Park down the street from Tower Cafe. If you've never had Ethiopian food, it's an experience in itself.
Upon ordering, you will be served with a basket full of what appears to be spongey rolled-up dish rags. These are edible, and they are called injera. They are also delicious. This is what you'll be eating your food with, not forks. Bonus: it's gluten free.
The last time I came here was when I was vegan; in other words, another lifetime ago. I ordered the vegetarian combo. Ethiopian food doesn't have dairy so vegetarian is also vegan. Be forewarned: like Indian food, you eat this for the flavor, not its visual appeal. This is their signature vegetarian dish.
Yes, it looks like baby food. Definitely don't give this to your baby though because it can be spicy. The veg combo comes with red lentils, yellow split peas, a spinach/collard greens/tomato/onion mix, cabbage, and a potato/carrot mix. Oh yeah and there's a teeny tiny salad on the side just in case you wanna fool yourself into thinking this stuff is healthy. My favorite part of the dish was probably the yellow split peas, just because of the texture and heartiness of them. The red lentils were a close second, but beware: they are on the spicy side. Least favorite: definitely cabbage, for obvious reasons.
One thing about Queen Sheba, well, at least during involuntary COVID house arrest, is they constantly run out of what I want. I called four separate days to see if they had lamb. They finally got it.
I got the awaze tibbs. They're not too spicy, really, even for being labeled "moderately spicy" (awaze means spicy). It just tastes like lamb with, well, spices. Kinda vinegary a bit. Not sure what berbere spice is but they use that. The lamb isn't cooked too tender. It's not tough but it's definitely not tender. Awaze tibbs also available as chicken, fish or beef. Speaking of which I also tried their fish. I think they use basa.
Fish wot. The wot is an interesting flavor. It's made with berbere too but it tastes different. I can't place the flavor but it's something exotic. There's also a lot of garlic in there which always makes things taste better.
Their turnovers are decent. They have ground beef and lentil. The ground beef is pretty plain to be honest. I like the lentil better.
Last thing I tried was the gored gored. It was advertised as coming with house-made cottage cheese but I didn't get any so I guess I'll never know how that tastes. It arrived cold which was a huge bummer because I hate nuking food. The beef itself is definitely cooked medium-rare. They give you a good twelve ounces. And it is indeed spicy, be forewarned.
The grease factor in Ethiopian food, gotta say, is major. It's one of the turnoffs, actually. If it weren't so damn delicious otherwise, I probably wouldn't eat it because of that. The injera it is served in is caked in oil, which to be fair, does make the injera rather delicious, but when it's gotten to that state you can't pick it up with your hands anymore and it does become a rather messy affair. Injera, if you haven't had it, is fairly sour in flavor and rubbery in texture.
Vegan alert: their lunch buffet is all vegan. Yum... (also, cheap to prepare)
As an intro to Ethiopian food, Queen Sheba gets it right. Leave the silverware at home and wash your hands first!
experience: 5/5
overall: 4.5/5
Wow, it's been a bit, Queen Sheba.
Queen Sheba is Sac's main source of Ethiopian food, located in Land Park down the street from Tower Cafe. If you've never had Ethiopian food, it's an experience in itself.
Upon ordering, you will be served with a basket full of what appears to be spongey rolled-up dish rags. These are edible, and they are called injera. They are also delicious. This is what you'll be eating your food with, not forks. Bonus: it's gluten free.
The last time I came here was when I was vegan; in other words, another lifetime ago. I ordered the vegetarian combo. Ethiopian food doesn't have dairy so vegetarian is also vegan. Be forewarned: like Indian food, you eat this for the flavor, not its visual appeal. This is their signature vegetarian dish.
Yes, it looks like baby food. Definitely don't give this to your baby though because it can be spicy. The veg combo comes with red lentils, yellow split peas, a spinach/collard greens/tomato/onion mix, cabbage, and a potato/carrot mix. Oh yeah and there's a teeny tiny salad on the side just in case you wanna fool yourself into thinking this stuff is healthy. My favorite part of the dish was probably the yellow split peas, just because of the texture and heartiness of them. The red lentils were a close second, but beware: they are on the spicy side. Least favorite: definitely cabbage, for obvious reasons.
One thing about Queen Sheba, well, at least during involuntary COVID house arrest, is they constantly run out of what I want. I called four separate days to see if they had lamb. They finally got it.
I got the awaze tibbs. They're not too spicy, really, even for being labeled "moderately spicy" (awaze means spicy). It just tastes like lamb with, well, spices. Kinda vinegary a bit. Not sure what berbere spice is but they use that. The lamb isn't cooked too tender. It's not tough but it's definitely not tender. Awaze tibbs also available as chicken, fish or beef. Speaking of which I also tried their fish. I think they use basa.
Fish wot. The wot is an interesting flavor. It's made with berbere too but it tastes different. I can't place the flavor but it's something exotic. There's also a lot of garlic in there which always makes things taste better.
Their turnovers are decent. They have ground beef and lentil. The ground beef is pretty plain to be honest. I like the lentil better.
Last thing I tried was the gored gored. It was advertised as coming with house-made cottage cheese but I didn't get any so I guess I'll never know how that tastes. It arrived cold which was a huge bummer because I hate nuking food. The beef itself is definitely cooked medium-rare. They give you a good twelve ounces. And it is indeed spicy, be forewarned.
The grease factor in Ethiopian food, gotta say, is major. It's one of the turnoffs, actually. If it weren't so damn delicious otherwise, I probably wouldn't eat it because of that. The injera it is served in is caked in oil, which to be fair, does make the injera rather delicious, but when it's gotten to that state you can't pick it up with your hands anymore and it does become a rather messy affair. Injera, if you haven't had it, is fairly sour in flavor and rubbery in texture.
Vegan alert: their lunch buffet is all vegan. Yum... (also, cheap to prepare)
As an intro to Ethiopian food, Queen Sheba gets it right. Leave the silverware at home and wash your hands first!
Comments
Post a Comment