Eat
AddisAbeba.
Lime-green injera on Nicholson. The hours widget is a rumour.
Location
What people get wrong
220 Nicholson, Footscray. Addis Cafe is 226. Little Africa is West Melbourne. Directories print 11am-11pm, 11am-10pm, and a 1am Sunday. Call (03) 9041 2994. We last walked this on 2026-09-20. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Addis Abeba known for?
Addis Abeba is known as the lime-green Nicholson platter room: injera laid down like a tablecloth, stews daubed on, a host who treats a stranger's hunger as a house visit. You walk it when the group wanted Ethiopian food without a Time Out star and without a speech about authenticity.
You come off the station plaza onto Nicholson and the street does remittance desks, grocers, a painted Argentine bodegon at 205-207, then this door at 220. Consider the Sauce, May 2011, found green walls, a heater on a cold Tuesday, and a kitchen that would not let a table order only salad and tibs. The Age, 7 June 2011, Nina Rousseau: a two-storey shopfront gutted for a kitchen, a bar of Ethiopian beers. Halfway through the build they ran out of money. Mesnoy Injera Bakery, which already supplied the bread, lent an eight-burner stove. Cafe Lalibela helped. Bitsat's family helped. That is the sourced origin, not a slogan on a tray.
Good Food, February 2012, names Bitsat Seyoum and Tesfaye Gebrehana. She is the singer. He is the actor, writer and director. Rousseau had them open six months by June 2011. Bitsat started singing from 6pm so families could hear it. Footscray Food Blog sat in frankincense and watched her refuse to let a journalist who said he did not like African food walk out until he ate. One bite. Hospitality as a trap with a tray behind it. Live diner notes still mention a host, sometimes Bessie, who makes the table feel like her house. Do not invent that the 6pm set is still the clock.
This is not Ras Dashen's Time Out Barkly sitting. It is not Lalibela's Irving pioneer story. Concrete Playground, April 2017, still put Addis Abeba on a short Footscray Ethiopian list with Awash and Abesha. Those other names are not your booking. 220 is. The public listing now says family-owned, 100 percent vegan, traditional Ethiopian. Rousseau's 2011 plate had weekend doro wot and kwanta firfir. Menus move. Ask. Amharic and English both work because this is a family room on the African strip, not a QR-only counter.
What should you order at Addis Abeba?
Order the sharing platter. That is the argument the room has been making since the blogs showed up with cameras.
You sit. Injera lands as landscape, sour, spongy, the size of the tray. Stews go down in lobes. You wash your hands. You tear from the edge. You scoop. Footscray Food Blog, January 2012, walked the veg combo clockwise: soft yellow lentils, melting cabbage, Bitsat's potato with berbere, rich red lentils that were the favourite, potato and carrot yellow with turmeric, nutty brown lentils. Rousseau added garlicky chickpea and silverbeet. The 2012 Good Food card said ask for extra berbere, hot paprika and ginger. Diner notes name red lentils and a lemon-dressed salad as the hits, and a sharing platter for four that lands like a feast. Ask for the special chilli powder on the side. Heat is a conversation, not a dare you inflict on the quiet person.
If the house is vegan tonight, that tray is the meal. A vegetable combo is not a side for the person who does not eat meat. It is half the cuisine, and on a fasting day it is often the whole point. Go with more than two people if you can. Two can still eat. Eight should phone.
Older plates, dated: special tibs, tiny tender lamb, onion, butter, green chilli. Weekend doro wot, on-the-bone maryland, boiled eggs, onions stirred for hours so they do not catch. Kikil as lamb-bone broth. Those are 2011 and 2012 sittings. The live directory copy is 100 percent vegan. Ask before you perform surprise at a missing maryland. Breakfast ful sat on Consider the Sauce's 2011 menu. Do not send a 2026 morning walk here without calling. Jollof is Calabash at 143. Barkly groups are Ras Dashen. Irving heritage is Lalibela. Sudanese overlap is Queen of Sheba at 224. This door is Nicholson platters.
Hours, payment and queues at Addis Abeba
Hours are a rumour you settle with a phone call or the glass, not with a widget. Mappaus and Yelp print 11am to 11pm daily. Corporate Keys, pulling Zomato, prints 11am to 10pm. All-opening-hours prints a 1am Sunday open that you should treat as garbage. There is no house site we can load. Corridor Kitchen printed addisabeba.com.au in 2012. Call (03) 9041 2994. Older blogs printed 9687 4363. That number is not the one on the live listings.
Walk-in for two. Saturday at 7pm for a group is a phone call, not a vibe. Cash is still common on Nicholson. Cards are a maybe. Rousseau had the room licensed, Ethiopian beers behind the bar. Older diner notes mention BYO. Confirm rather than arriving as a bottle merchant.
The kitchen has a finite number of platters. The host can make you feel at home. She cannot invent a second stove because your booking was an assumption. Yelp still flashes Try Our New Menu. Treat that as a prompt to ask, not as a tasting-menu promise.
How do you get to Addis Abeba in Footscray?
You walk Nicholson from Footscray station to 220, plaza side, past the painted Argentine fascia, not Hopkins and not Irving.
The strip is Ethiopian rooms, grocers and remittance desks sharing one pavement. 220 is lime green if the 2012 photographs still match the glass. Queen of Sheba is 224, closed Wednesday. Addis Cafe is 226, beans and a weekday sit, not a banquet. Caminito La Boca is 205-207, asado, not injera. Calabash is 143 if you wanted West Africa. Lalibela is Irving if you wanted the heritage sitting instead.
Albert Street plaza is the nearby deck. Irving is the market. After dark, leave via Barkly or Hopkins rather than improvising Paisley because dinner made you ambitious. You do not need a car. If you drove anyway, do not keep leftover injera in a hot boot while you do the hall. The hall is a different clock.
What do people mix up about Addis Abeba?
They mash 220 with Addis Cafe at 226, send the pin to Little Africa in West Melbourne, treat Calabash as backup injera, and trust a 1am Sunday widget.
- 220 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011 only.
- Call (03) 9041 2994. Directories disagree. Confirm the glass.
- House listing is vegan. 2011-12 press had tibs and weekend doro wot. Ask.
- Addis Cafe is 226, beans and a daytime sit. Queen of Sheba is 224, closed Wednesday.
- Little Africa is West Melbourne. Calabash at 143 is jollof. Ras Dashen is 247 Barkly. Lalibela is 91 Irving.
Questions people ask next
- Where is Addis Abeba?
- Addis Abeba is at 220 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011. Footscray station is the nearest train. This is the Footscray African strip, not Little Africa in West Melbourne, and not Addis Cafe at 226.
- What are Addis Abeba hours?
- Confirm before you go. Mappaus and Yelp print 11am-11pm daily. Zomato via Corporate Keys prints 11am-10pm. Do not trust a 1am Sunday widget. Call (03) 9041 2994. Last checked 2026-09-20.
- Is Addis Abeba vegan?
- The live directory copy says 100 percent vegan traditional Ethiopian. The Age in 2011 and Good Food in 2012 still plated special tibs and weekend doro wot. Ask when you book. Do not assume a maryland is waiting.
- Is Addis Abeba the same as Addis Cafe?
- No. Addis Abeba at 220 is the injera platter restaurant. Addis Cafe at 226 is the roastery, weekday coffee, a smaller plate. Two businesses, a few doors apart. Queen of Sheba sits between them at 224.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Caminito La Boca
Asado on Nicholson. Chimichurri first.
205-207 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Cafe Lalibela
The Irving injera that started the argument. Little Africa is a different suburb.
91 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Queen of Sheba
Molokhia and injera. Closed Wednesday.
224 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011