Eat · Partner
Queenof Sheba.
Molokhia and injera. Closed Wednesday.
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Location
What people get wrong
Closed Wednesday. Ethiopian and Sudanese on the same menu. 224 Nicholson, next to Addis Cafe at 226, not the platter at 220. We last walked this on 2026-09-20. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Queen of Sheba known for?
Queen of Sheba is known as Nicholson's mixed Horn of Africa table: Ethiopian wats and Sudanese stews on one injera, a family room this suburb uses when Ethiopian was not the only word for hunger.
You come off Footscray station toward the plaza, then north on Nicholson. Remittance desks. Grocers. A painted Argentine fascia at 205-207 that is asado, not this bread. Lime green at 220 if Addis Abeba has the lights on. Then 224. Outdoor chairs on the pavement if the Tripadvisor still matches the kerb. Addis Cafe is 226, beans in the back, a weekday sit that is not your banquet. You want the door between them.
The Age, 4 November 2013: Carey standing with Nega while heavy machinery ate the bridge fifty metres up the street. Seventy-five minutes, no customers, a landlord default for $7777.43 that Nega paid with a loan. Taxi drivers and shift workers were the bloodline. He called the closure "blocking our bloodline, our customers." The strip was supposed to die. You are reading a live order page.
FoodsCrazy, 14 December 2013, walked the Nicholson South pop-up thrown at the same wound. Andy sat outside, veggie combo and chicken combo, a darker injera than he had seen, drumsticks and a small beef stew, spicy wats that actually filled him. The owner came out. She had moved from Brisbane after her children got Melbourne uni places. The blog still prints 222. The restaurant is 224. Do not invent that the same faces are still on the floor.
There is no Time Out star here. There is Tuckerfox, Ethiopian and Sudanese in the header. OpenTable reprints the house line about feeling at home, then tells you it is not on the booking network. Call (03) 7001 9971 if the group is bigger than a two-top. Weekend social posts still sell coffee ceremony and music. That is atmosphere, not a reservation system. Calabash at 143 is jollof, a different country on the same street name.
What should you order at Queen of Sheba?
You should order injera and a mix that actually uses both sides of the board: a wat, the veggie combo, then molokhia or bamiya if Sudanese was why you walked past 220.
You sit. You wash your hands. Injera lands as landscape, sour, spongy, the size of the tray. Stews go down in lobes. You tear from the edge. You scoop. Beyaynetu is the vegetarian combination on the live menu: shiro, mesir wat, alecha cabbage, hamli or gomen, beetroot, stewed split peas. Andy ate a version of that tray in 2013 and called the wats beautifully spicy. A vegetable combo is not a side salad. Mesir wat on its own if you wanted one lentil colour. Shiro if ground chickpea was the heat. Gomen if collards were enough.
Doro wat or sega wat if berbere chicken, beef or lamb in onion was the plot. Tibs if you wanted lamb braised with green chilli, caramelised onion, tomato. Derek tibs if the lamb was a saute with red capsicum. Zil-zil tibs if beef strips in a clay pot sounded like the night. Kikil if lamb on the bone was the quieter bowl. Quanta firr if jerky and chilli sauce was the chew. Kitfo only if raw or rare beef was a conscious choice: finely chopped lean beef, berbere, mitmita. Ask how they are serving it. Raw spiced beef is not a mild stew.
Then the Sudanese reason this door exists beside Addis Abeba. Bamiya is okra and lamb. Molokhia is the green leaf stew, beef or vegetarian, the plate people skip because they came in saying Ethiopian like a synonym. Ful medames if fava beans with chilli, tomato, feta and egg were the lunch. The 2020 is 500 grams of grilled lamb, bread, chilli sauce. OpenTable still lists a house selection: any four dishes, four injera, built for three or four people. Sambusa to start. Extra injera if you ran out of landscape. Prices move. The order page is live.
Hours, payment and queues at Queen of Sheba
Quoted hours from the Tuckerfox order page: closed Wednesday, Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday 11am to 9pm, Saturday and Sunday 12pm to 9pm. OpenTable prints 11:15am on those weekdays. Call (03) 7001 9971. Last checked 2026-09-20.
Walk-in for two. Cards sit on the ordering site. Cash still works on Nicholson. Groups should not treat a Tuesday 11:15 open as a table for eight without a call. OpenTable is an hours card, not a booker. Delivery exists. Delivery is not dine-in. Apps have closed earlier than 9pm.
AGFG still prints Wednesday 12pm to 9pm. HappyCow, last touched November 2021, still prints every day 11am to 9pm. Those cards are how you eat a sandwich at dusk and decide the suburb failed you. Wednesday this coffee still works next door at 226. Saturday, if you needed injera, 224 lists a dinner window and 226 may already be dark. Read both clocks.
How do you get to Queen of Sheba in Footscray?
You get to Queen of Sheba by walking Nicholson from Footscray station, plaza side, to 224. It is not Hopkins. It is not the other Nicholson Street that still sends people toward Parliament.
Count the numbers as you walk. Caminito La Boca is 205-207, the painted Argentine bodegon, asado, not injera. Addis Abeba is 220, the platter a few doors back. You want 224. Addis Cafe is the next door at 226, espresso and a bag of beans if Mel is roasting. Calabash is 143, further south, jollof, a different cuisine. The library is the civic neighbour around the corner. That is a hold shelf, not a second dining room.
You do not need a car. Albert Street plaza is the nearby deck if you drove anyway. After dark, leave via Barkly or Hopkins rather than improvising Paisley because dinner made you ambitious. 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 Queen of Sheba?
They mash 224 with Addis Cafe at 226, sit down for espresso, and wait for a tray of wot that the coffee room does not serve.
- 224 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011. Phone (03) 7001 9971.
- Closed Wednesday. Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri from 11 or 11:15am to 9pm. Sat-Sun 12pm-9pm.
- Ethiopian and Sudanese. Molokhia and bamiya sit on the live menu.
- Not Addis Cafe at 226. Not Addis Abeba at 220.
- Not Calabash at 143. That is jollof. OpenTable is not taking bookings.
Questions people ask next
- Does Queen of Sheba serve Sudanese food?
- Yes. The live Tuckerfox menu is headed Ethiopian and Sudanese. Bamiya is okra and lamb. Molokhia is the green leaf stew, beef or vegetarian. Ful medames sits on the same board. Ask what is Sudanese the night you walk in. Menus move.
- Is Queen of Sheba the same as Addis Abeba or Addis Cafe?
- No. Queen of Sheba is 224 Nicholson, Ethiopian and Sudanese, closed Wednesday. Addis Abeba at 220 is the injera platter restaurant. Addis Cafe at 226 is the weekday roastery, house close 4pm. Three doors. Three clocks.
- Is kitfo at Queen of Sheba served raw?
- The live menu lists kitfo as Ethiopian beef tartare: finely chopped rare lean beef with berbere and mitmita. Cubed rare beef in niter kibbeh sits next to it. Ask how they are serving it. Do not treat kitfo like a mild stew.
- Can I book Queen of Sheba on OpenTable?
- No. OpenTable prints hours and (03) 7001 9971, then says the restaurant is not on the booking network. Walk in for two. Call that number for a group. Tuckerfox is the order page for takeaway.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Caminito La Boca
Asado on Nicholson. Chimichurri first.
205-207 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Addis Cafe and Roastery
Watch the roast at 226. The platter house is two doors down.
226 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Addis Abeba
Lime-green injera on Nicholson. The hours widget is a rumour.
220 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011