Addis Abeba at The Night Heron

228 Nicholson Street
Footscray 
Victoria
3011

Although we'd previously popped in to the Night Heron for drinks, we'd not checked out their food options. These include the in-house 'FriendTime kitchen' on Sundays and on other days ordering from the near by Addis Abeba and coming in March Mexican from Los Pollos.

It took a couple of visits before we realised that the bar now occupies the space that once contained Taj Palace an old favourite haunt of ours. The new fit out is quite a change, with a wooden bar featuring some great craft beers.

Out the back the small garden area offers a surprising number of tables...

...and shade from a surprising number of trees.

On Wednesdays there is a regular deal of a veggie combo from Abbis Abeba and a pint of the house lager for $20.

The full menu is also still available.

The better half went for the Sega Firfir. The lamb was finely chopped and the torn injera took up the sauce full of flavour from the tomato, garlic, onion and chilli.

I took up the special offer and received my special vegetarian combination which featured all of the  veggie options available on the menu.The mild Shero featured chick peas and splint spicy powder cooked with onion and garlic. The more spicy Miser Wet had a kick with its red lentils cooked with onion and garlic in a chilli powder sauce. The Vegetable Combination mixed lentils, yellow peas, potato, carrot ,cabbage, silver beet and chick peas in a spicy sauce. Crushed fava beans cooked with onion, tomato and garlic went into the mellow Foul. The Firfir was a stew which consisted of tomato, garlic, onion and chilli powder tossed with injera. Along with this came an Addis Salad, all on top of a slightly darker than regular injara. Each element  was great and I loved the variety of flavours and textures.

It was pretty quiet the day we ate, but on other visits it has been busier, although that has been later on with more of a drinking crowd. The barman mentioned that somedays it gets busy with diners too especially on Wednesday when the deal is on. It took about 25 minutes for our meal to make it down the street, and it is great to have the option to get some of Footscrays great Ethiopian food in a different type of venue. It's also good to see the varied businesses of Nicholson street working together.

Queen of Sheba and the Nicholson South Popup Market

222 Nicholson Street
Footscray
VIC 3011

We wandered down to the the Nicholson South Pop-up Market not quite knowing exactly what we'd find. There were more stalls than I expected and plenty of tables and chairs set up in the street, as well as a stage at the southern end of the street. After checking out a few of the marquees, picking up some Christmas gifts and having a look around the Colour Box Studio we were hungry so sought out some grub.

There were a couple of food trucks, including the Taco Truck and lil' nomnoms in attendance, however based on some appetising plates of food we spied, we decided on the Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant. I'm glad we did especially after reading about the challenges they face at the moment in The Age. We received a friendly welcome on entering and were offered specials for the event as well as the standard offerings, we opted for one each of the large veggie and chicken special combinations. We found a table near the restaurant with a view of the stage, it was great to be able to enjoy the wonderful weather out on the street. Unfortunately the licence hadn't come through and as beers weren't allowed out of the Colour Box Studio I made a quick trip for byo beers, assuming it was OK to drink outside as we'd spied the mayor enjoying a Corona.

The veggie combination a couple of wats or lentil based Ethiopian curries, salad, vegetable stew, rice and a darker injera than I'd seen before. The wats were beautifully spicy and the large size was plenty for me!

The chicken combination contained similar ingredients, with the addition of a couple of drum sticks and a small serve of a beef based stew.

We'd only ever eaten at one of the African restaurants on Nicholson streets ''Little Ethiopia'', mainly visiting the sadly now closed Taj Palace when in this end of town. The owner of the Queen of Sheeba came out and she briefly explained that she'd moved from Brisbane and set up here after her children got uni places in Melbourne. It was certainly a tasty and great value meal, and we will try and make a return visit soon. Hopefully this strip of shops and restaurants can survive the challenging time with their direct link to central Footscray shut until the bridge re-opens and the new offices nearby open. The pop-up market seemed to be a success and a return, either before or after the work is completed would be great.

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African Taste

124 Victoria St
Seddon, 3011

Finally we've eaten to somewhere new in the Footscray area!

We'd wandered past African Taste a few times without going in. Its at the northern end of the Seddon stretch of Victoria Street, and is fairly small.

I like the Ethiopian places I've tried in Footscray, but the everything served on and eaten with injera bread style doesn't work for everyone. It was reasonably busy when we did try on a Friday evening.

We started off with a couple of Ethiopian beers, which were both good, reasonably hoppy in flavour, which I like, one was quite fruity too.

For entrée we shared some cramped/crumbed cauliflower which were nice and some of the sambusas or African style samosas, which were great, a bit smaller than the Indian style ones I'm used too, with fantastically light pastry and a spicy meaty beef filling.

I also tried the stout beer, which was a little milder and lighter in colour than a British stout and very enjoyable.

We shared a couple of mains, the chicken Genfu African Fufu, a gnocchi made from toasted barley flour. This gnocchi was a little nutty in flavour and sauce wonderfully flavoured and just a little spicy. The African Fasting Food was a combination of 5 vegetarian dishes, featuring, lentils , pumpkin and eggplant, split beans, cabbage and carrot as well as beans and carrot. Injera bread was served on the side The range of flavours was great, and there was almost too much to eat!

We had a great meal, and the atmosphere was cosy and pleasant. The service was fantastic and very friendly! I'm sure we will be back soon...

Update: We were back again a week later, and mostly had more of the same - with the addition of the Spicy Fish Tibes, another winner with plenty of garlic.

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Cafe Lalibela

91 Irving St
Footscray, 3011

We've eaten at Cafe Lalibela occasionally, but not that often, as M isn't a big fan of the injera bread on which everything is served. We decided to give it another go, and we do like the restaurant atmosphere, on of the nicest vibes in Footscray, whether we've been 2 or on a table of 15...


I'd tried Ethiopian food once before I had visited Lalibela, and have tried one other restaurant serving food from this part of Africa, so it is hard for me to say how authentic it is... The menu starts with a description of the cuisine and how it is presented and eaten.

We ordered the mix of vegetarian dishes and a lamb curry, as can be seen these were served on the injera bread. We ate it with our hands following the tradition (and because you don't get any cutlery). Both the meat and vegie curry's were tasty in a distinctive way. Grabbing the food with the injera bread is a great way to eat in my opinion, but once the bread starts to get soggy and cools it can put people off.

Cafe Lalibela is a great place to eat, and pretty keenly priced, our meal came to $31 including corkage, there are good imported Ethiopian beers on offer too.






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