QUEEN OF SHEBA

Live Ethiopian Music Every Friday & Saturday Night

With its brick and ocher walls and good-looking crowd, Queen of Sheba is one of the more inviting Ethiopian restaurants in New York. And the food is pretty good, too: beef and lamb stews flavored with a rousing dark-red hot sauce, and wonderful vegetarian dishes seasoned with complex spice blends.

Located on the corner of 10th Avenue and 46th Street in Midtwon Manhattan just a few blocks away from heart of the city 'Time Square'. Queen of Sheba is simply perfect for sharing an Ethiopian traditional meal, stories and culture with family and friends. The atmosphere is lively and always full of excitement.

At Long Last, New York Is Ready for Ethiopia - By Eric Asimov
The New York Times 2001

''... The brick and ocher walls glowed softly in the low lights, the place was packed with a good-looking crowd, and the chef was making the rounds, kissing familiar faces and asking if everybody was happy. But nobody at this new restaurant was praising the foie gras or the tuna steak. Here at Queen of Sheba, which opened just a week ago in Clinton, the crowd had turned out for fine Ethiopian fare: beef and lamb stews flavored with a rousing dark-red hot sauce, and wonderful vegetarian dishes seasoned with complex spice blends, all eaten not with forks but with pieces of injera, a spongy flat bread with the enticing flavor of sourdough..." >>more

''Ethiopian immigrants must be among the nation's canniest restaurateurs. Though numbering only 33,000 nationwide, they've assembled an impressive collection of restaurants in major American cities: Washington boasts 17, Seattle 11, and New York 12, plus a pair of Eritrean joints. Many share an assortment of predictable names like Blue Nile, Red Sea, Queen of Sheba, and Meskerem (the joyous first month of the Coptic Christian calendar), though none seems part of a chain. Sadly, they also mount nearly identical menus of brick-colored meat stews and hard-to-differentiate pulse purees. Between the intriguing and sometimes fiery spice combinations and the chance to eat with your fingers without your parents lurking around to scold you, most of these places are pretty appealing anyway. But Ethiopian cooking is much broader.

New York finally has its own Queen of Sheba, recently opened in Hell's Kitchen... " >>more

Taste of the Month

" WHAT'S THE MOST EXOTIC TABLE where editors have sat down recently? The mesob (traditional basketwork table) at Queen of Sheba. We went totally native at this Ethiopian storefront, breaking off shreds of injera, a spongybuck wheat bread, and scooping up delicacies like azifa (green lentils onions and chili peppers). Tibs wot was an adventure; think morsels of beef spiced to the nth degree with peppery berbere sauce. We also tried kitfo Ethiopian steak tartar and doro wot, a zesty stew containing chicken legs and whole hard boiled-eggs. Aromatic cinnamon-infused tea carried us through the meal. If you need help in ordering, ask owner and chef Philipos Mengistu who is as gracious a host and as adept a cook as your are likely to find along the length and breadth of Tenth Avenue. "

The New York Times
GOOD EATING; Out of Africa

" February, which is Black History Month, is a good time to explore the exotic foods at these often overlooked African restaurants...

With its brick and ocher walls and good-looking crowd, Queen of Sheba is one of the more inviting Ethiopian restaurants in New York. And the food is pretty good, too: beef and lamb stews flavored with a rousing dark-red hot sauce, and wonderful vegetarian dishes seasoned with complex spice blends...." >>more