Queen Of Sheba Intl Foods

Recommends

Sarah S.

Joined 1 year ago

We ordered the vegan sampler for several people, and everything was quite flavorful and beautiful. Way more food than we could eat, though. The place is a bit dingy, but go for the food.

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PIECESOFPDX

Joined 2 years ago

I love eating here!. This is one of my top Portland picks.

There is nothing fancy about Queen of Sheeba and this makes it great. I would not say it is a good first date place as you are eating with your hands and it is pretty spicy. It is good for big group of people and a fun meal. Whenever I have quests in from out of town I take them here and the Montage.

The food is always good the meal is fun and the owners are so kind and make you feel like you are in their home.

Yum Yum Yum!

Doesn't Recommend

srkkreddy

Joined 8 years ago

Pretty normal food, not great interiors. This was quite ordinary ethiopian food. I definitely tasted much better ethiopian food. The much smaller Ethiopian restaurant in Hillsboro (Lalibela) is much better.

I somehow did not feel good about the place - don't know whether it's the interiors/decors or the atmospher, it did not feel right.

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Glucose

Joined 4 years ago

Best Ethiopian in the Northwest. I travel for my job and I have made it a tradition to always eat at a local Ethiopian restaurant in EVERY city I visit. I've been doing this for 6 years now and have had Ethiopian in Norway, Germany, Spain, South Africa, and every major city in the US.

Queen of Sheba is the best in the NW, including Seattle, no question.

Suggestions: Have the Zilzil Tibs and Atakilt Alicha. It's a nice combo of meat and veggies and is great for folks who are new to Ethiopion as well as old timers.

The owner's name is Alem, and if he's in the day you eat, be sure to chat with him. He's 90% of the ambiance, and if he's not around the service can be a smidge spotty, but it's Portland, so expect that everything is on its own time. :)

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northwestshopper

Joined 6 years ago

Yummy, but a bit of a weird atmosphere.. I took my boyfriend here last fall and although the food was good and the smell of Ethiopian coffee roasting was nice, I doubt if we'll go back. It had a very weird vibe. The decor was old and outdated and looked as if it was an old bookstore that someone threw a few cafeteria tables and chairs into, and then added a few paintings and artifacts to give it an authentic look. No music was playing at all, which was sort of weird too and the service wasn't so great. All in all, if I exhaust all other choices in this category, I might come back, but I doubt it.

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VeggieGirl98

Joined 5 years ago

Check your bill carefully - shady.... Went with some friends to the Queen of Sheba one night, because another Ethiopian restaurant we wanted to go to was closed. We chose the 3-veggie combo and two meat dishes. When we placed our order, the waitress abruptly said "you need more food!" We awkwardly looked at each other and one of us said, "ok, then double the 3-veggie combo." (One 3-veggie combo costs $10.00, by the way.) The food came and it was very good. We laughed, and decided that since the portions were comparitively small that sure, we were glad we had more to eat. When we finished eating, we looked at the bill and it was more expensive than we thought it would be. After finally deciphering the waitress's chicken scratch, we see that she charged us for three 2-veggie combos, which are 8.95 each. What we asked for were two 3-veggie combos, which are 10.00 each. So we should have only been charged 20.00 for the vegetable dishes, but instead we were charged almost 27.00. One of us went to her to correct the mistake. She proceeded to argue and yell. The manager came out, apologized and fixed the bill for us, so it was fine. But, what really gets me is that the woman said a lot of people don't know what to order, and so she orders for them. We didn't ask for any help ordering. We have eaten Ethiopian food before, and knew what we were ordering. The waitress basically admitted that she overcharges people without their knowledge, which is exactly what happened to us. We felt like we were taken advantage of. It was very shady and unfair, especially how the waitress reacted. She made an obvious attempt to charge us for the most expensive option possible, which was absolutely not what we asked for. The amount of money in question was not a lot, but that definitely was not the issue. I liked the food, but I would certainly warn customers to check the bill and make sure it matches what you order.

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breezyl

Joined 5 years ago

best ethiopian in portland!. I have been coming here for almost a decade, and have been a life long ethiopian food lover and this is the place to go! vegetarian and vegan friendly, the veggie sampler is to die for! yummy mushrooms, excellent collard greens, the potato/carrot/cabbage stew will make your mouth water and there is ALWAYS leftovers. I would highly recommend this place if you are a lover of good food!

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exerrex

Joined 5 years ago

Great food ok location. First time eating ethiopian food and i have to say the food was excellent. We ordered the platter for the whole table and it worked out fine with 2 of them for 12 people with lots of extra's. The round tables were tough for a group over 5 some square tables would be a good investment. Besides that everything was great.

Doesn't Recommend

rima101

Joined 7 years ago

Grand rip off, Totally Overrated.... Went there with my wife and kid. Each of us ordered a dish and a salad combo. The dishes were $14.50 each and the salad was $8.00. The food tasted really bad, and we got 2 spits of salads ($8) and few cubes of meat as main dish. I am not joking when I say that sizzling meat in oil at home tastes much better. And to top it off we were served the checks few minutes after we were served the food. so, bad food, small portions, and you look at a $40 check while you are still forcing yourself to eat the bad food. That was my frustrating experience. For those who write good review, I really doubt that you are really customers and not the owners.

Recommends

Aven

Joined 5 years ago

Great Food! Don't be scared by the bad service reviews - we live in Portland after all.... I was wary of eating here due to the bad reviews regarding service, but my husband and I wanted to try it out anyway.

We're glad that we did. The Queen of Sheba was well lit, clean and the food was great. The service we received was good - though we did see others waiting a while for their orders to be taken.

The portions are smaller than out previous Ethiopian haunt, so order several dishes without the worry of being stuffed.

The lamb was fantastic - the lentils were out of this world!!

As far as crappy service -- one doesn't have to live in Portland long to understand that service all around is pretty lackadaisical. High end restaurants, bars, tapas - it doesn't matter. If you're in Portland, be prepared to have a server who comes by...whenever... So why are people surprised?

Those at the Queen of Sheba who were waiting kept their server headed back to the kitchen with questions about meat products and vegan alternatives. While I support all types of lifestyles, no one has to be a pain in the a** regarding their diet. If it's such a problem for you finding the gluten-free, non-dairy, mushroom protein chicken substitute, then don't go out. Just - don't go out.