As the name suggests , the restaurant is Ethiopian and was yet another stopover in our NYC gastronomic adventure.Foodwise you have got to remember three things
- Injera - Flatbread made out of local Ethiopian grass called Teff.
The product has texture of a dosa.
- Kibeh - Clarified butter or Ghee
- Berbere - Spicy mixture mostly made out of red pepper, onions and butter
For the starter we ordered a Kalegna(pronounced Kali-niya), an injera toasted with a coating of Kibeh and Berbere paste. Pretty neat and spicy, although your hands could be messy by the time you are done.
For the main dish my friend ordered Awaze Tibs (lamb legs cooked with jalapenos) while I got myself Shiro, a split peas based curry cooked in berbere sauce. All of this is served on top of an injera with a pile of injera(s) kept on a plate beside you.Hence an injera basically becomes your roti and every dish you take is always rolled into this famous Ethiopian flatbread. We also ordered a South African red wine.
We personally enjoyed the meal as it had a lot of spice and tanginess to it. We are no wine experts so whatever wine we chose seemed to go well with it. However there is a bit of sameness to the food as they seems to have only one paste to make everything. Now I am not sure whether this is the restaurant's problem or the cuisine in general.
The location of the place is taxing as it is situated on 10th Avenue and regular visitors are well aware that there are no trains or regular buses through the upper west side of the town. You have to get down at the times square station and walk 3 avenues to get to this place. Also you have come to expect, that due to space and astronomical rents, restaurants in Manhattan can be pretty small. Queen of Sheba was exactly that. A highly cramped place, where the majority of space is taken up by a bar where there could have been more nicely spaced tables.
The service is kind of shabby, not that we had some terrible experience but it is general inattentiveness and there is really no ambience to speak of. Rates as always are standard New York city fare - pretty high as compared to the service. Ethiopian cuisine is extremely good , but the restaurant needs an upgrade. Would like to try Meskerem in Greenwich, the next time I am craving Ethiopian since Queen of Sheba is quite a pauper when it comes to good customer care.
