Eat
Tasteof Ethiopia.
The Nicholson kitfo you have to specify.
Location
What people get wrong
House phone is (03) 9387 5780. Directories still print 9687 9620. Closed Monday on those cards. 121 Nicholson, not Queen of Sheba at 224 and not Lalibela on Irving. Say how you want the kitfo cooked. We last walked this on 2026-09-20. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Taste of Ethiopia known for?
Taste of Ethiopia is known as the quieter Nicholson Ethiopian sitting, the door Time Out and Good Food never bothered to star, the one that built a house site instead of waiting for a critic.
You walk off Footscray station toward the plaza, then north along Nicholson Mall, the terrace over the railway. Remittance desks. Hair shops. Slice Shop neon at 101A if it is after 4:30pm. Then 121. The house fascia is Taste of Ethiopia Bar and Restaurant. The photographs are platters: injera laid down like a tablecloth, stews in lobes, a jebena at the edge. The room sits south of Queen of Sheba at 224, closer to the mall and the library, which is why first-timers hunt Irving and miss it.
This is the room that published 21 dishes with Australian dollar prices and then refused to print hours. That refusal is a personality. So is the kitfo page, which will not let you treat minced beef as a mild stew.
The house about copy is hospitality, not biography. No owner named. No opening year you need at the table. Review patterns keep landing in the same place: a vegetarian platter, spicy beef, coffee after the meal, a host who treats a first sitting like a house visit. Stay for jebena buna if you have the time. The popcorn is on the drinks list. The conversation is the point of the clay pot.
What should you order at Taste of Ethiopia?
You should order kitfo at Taste of Ethiopia only after you name the doneness, then share a stew that does not need that conversation. You sit. You wash your hands. Injera is the plate and the cutlery, sour and spongy, and the house blog tells you to tear a piece, scoop, pass the platter. First time is expected. Cutlery exists if you ask.
Then the kitfo question, which is the plot of this room. House kitfo at $25 is finely minced beef mixed with mitmita and herb-infused clarified butter. The sentence on the plate page is not decoration: enjoy it raw or cooked to your preference. Texture changes with the cooking level. Confirm before they season it. Start with a small amount on plain injera. Kitfo Special at $30 adds gomen, the cooked collards, and ayib, the crumbly fresh cheese. Do not assume those sides come with the $25 plate. They do not. Res-Discover still writes rare, medium or well done and cottage cheese. The house split is cleaner. Ask for the house.
If you did not want a conversation about raw beef, order Doro Wat at $30: chicken in a dark red stew, eggs in the sauce, the plate the house photographs as a sharing spread. Ask which pictured sides actually arrive. Yetsom Beyaynetu at $25 is the vegetarian combination, lentils and vegetables on injera, which is not a side salad for the person who does not eat meat. Shiro Wot is the smooth split-pea stew. Gored gored at $30 is the other doneness trap: larger cubes, butter, mitmita, raw or cooked. Dulet at $25 is tripe, liver and lean beef. If you do not eat offal, do not point at it because the name was pretty.
Saturday and Sunday the board adds Tera Siga at $25, the weekend meat special. The house photograph shows thick slices with fat, injera, separate condiments. The written menu does not name the cut. Confirm the meat and the cooking. Chechebsa, foul and genfo sit as breakfast-shaped plates on a menu that directories still start at 1pm. Call if you wanted beans and egg at noon. Stay for jebena buna at $15, coffee with popcorn. Teji, the honey wine, is $10. Prices updated 8 September 2026. The board wins.
Hours, payment and queues at Taste of Ethiopia
Hours at Taste of Ethiopia belong to the phone. The house location page withholds a clock and tells you to call (03) 9387 5780, including public holidays. That is the number on the house site, WhatsApp and schema. Res-Discover still prints (03) 9687 9620. Treat 9687 as leftover directory. WhatsApp 0421 986 998 is how the reservations form finishes: you draft a request, then believe the table only when they reply. Walk-in for two is how Nicholson usually works. A Saturday sitting for eight is not a vibe.
Directories that still print a timetable: closed Monday, Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday 1pm to 9pm, Friday and Saturday 1pm to 11pm. A 1pm kitchen is not lunch at 12:15. Stormrage SEO scrape prints Monday 11am to 1am. That is garbage. Queen of Sheba at 224 is closed Wednesday. If you were stacking two Nicholson injera nights, read both shutters. Cards showed up on the old amenity scrape. Cash still works on this strip.
Uber Eats and DoorDash are linked from the house order page. Delivery prices are not the dining room. Monday is the wasted trip. Public holidays shuffle African rooms. Call, then glance at the glass.
How do you get to Taste of Ethiopia in Footscray?
You get to Taste of Ethiopia by walking Nicholson from Footscray station to 121, plaza side, not Irving and not 224. Stay on the mall terrace over the railway until the numbers hit 121. Slice Shop is 101A, pizza after 4:30pm, also closed Monday. The library is the civic neighbour if someone in the group wanted a hold shelf, not a stew.
Albert Street parking if you drove plaza-side. After dark leave via Barkly or Hopkins. Nicholson Mall is not the night cut. Mesnoy at 77 Irving packs injera to take home. This door cooks dinner. Do not ask them to sell you a week of teff.
If a friend said meet at the Ethiopian place on Nicholson, ask which number. 121 is this kitfo room. 224 is Queen of Sheba.
What do people mix up about Taste of Ethiopia?
They walk 224 for Queen of Sheba, or they hunt Irving for Lalibela, and they treat kitfo like a mild stew.
- 121 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011. House phone (03) 9387 5780. WhatsApp 0421 986 998.
- House site withholds hours. Directories list closed Monday, from 1pm other days.
- Not Queen of Sheba at 224 Nicholson, closed Wednesday, Ethiopian and Sudanese.
- Not Cafe Lalibela at 91 Irving.
- Kitfo and gored gored: say raw or cooked. Kitfo Special is the one with gomen and ayib.
Questions people ask next
- Is kitfo at Taste of Ethiopia served raw?
- It can be. The house kitfo page and Kitfo Special page both say raw or cooked to your preference. Res-Discover writes rare, medium or well done. Tell them before they season it. Gored gored is the same doneness conversation with larger cubes.
- How do I book a table at Taste of Ethiopia?
- Use the house reservations page, then continue on WhatsApp 0421 986 998. The table is confirmed only when they reply. Walk-in for two is normal. Call (03) 9387 5780 for a group.
- What are Taste of Ethiopia hours?
- The house site withholds hours and tells you to call (03) 9387 5780. Directories still list closed Monday, Tuesday to Sunday from 1pm, Friday and Saturday later. Last checked 2026-09-20.
- Is Taste of Ethiopia the same as Queen of Sheba or Cafe Lalibela?
- No. Taste of Ethiopia is 121 Nicholson. Queen of Sheba is 224 Nicholson, Ethiopian and Sudanese, closed Wednesday. Cafe Lalibela is 91 Irving, the heritage sitting. Three doors. Three clocks.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Queen of Sheba
Molokhia and injera. Closed Wednesday.
224 Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Slice Shop
Fold the slice. The cabinet is the menu.
101A Nicholson Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Footscray Library
Paisley council stack with late weeknights. Quiet room, local studies, not AMES and not the river arts foyer.
56 Paisley Street, Footscray VIC 3011