Queen Of Sheba

QUEEN OF SHEBA is an INCREDIBLE & unique find in a city inundated with thousands of restaurants. It is an Ethiopian restaurant and i have been here now about 6 times over the past couple years. I have NEVER even seen a glimpse of disappointment. It is absolutely DELICIOUS! The restaurant is family owned and ran and you feel like you are transported from the moment you walk into the front door. It is very well laid out with a large table overlooking the street, then a small bar area with a larger area behind that housing a bunch of tables, both conventional and also traditional (low seats with a center coffee table high area for setting food into… VERY authentic & FUN). The service is GREAT and everything can be well explained to you if you are not familiar with the cuisine or style. Everyone is incredibly friendly & helpful. The food is EXTRAORDINARY on every level… taste, scent, preparation & presentation. It is very similar to a stew appearance on most items and so VERY flavorful in the best way. You do not have utensils (available if requested) but instead you are presented with a multitude of crepes which you use as a utensil by tearing off a piece, using it to pick up food & eating it. It is so much FUN. We have tried a sampler tray several times and it is a highly recommended way of trying out an array of items… the tray can be done as a meat tray or a vegetable tray or combination of both. There is a bar… our consistent favorite is the TEJ WINE, a honey wine that perfectly compliments the Ethiopian flavors. Just Go & Enjoy the UNIQUENESS of Queen of Sheba. They do take reservations and it is well worth the trip to it!

Came here one night to eat Ethiopian food me and my friend ordered the Beef tibs and gored gored it was flavorful and real quality Ethiopian food! Definitely give this place a try if your in West philly!

I used to live right across from Queen of Sheba, it’s a really interesting place. There’s a lot of locals on the bar side. Place feels super divey. I’ve gotten both take-​out and sat in on the restaurant side. Their key wot and doro wot is probably some of the tastiest that I have had compared to Dahlak and Abssynia. I also really like their beef tips over rice. It’s spicy and hits the spot. Injera is about the same as the other two places. I believe they have a $ 10 minimum for card. Service is kinda hit or miss depending on how busy it is. They typically have one server who also happens to bartend.

This place is ok .if your black spending money they will stop waiting on you and wait on white people. although the owner is Ethiopian

This is a great place. Decided to stop in during the Baltimore Ave Dollar Stroll as they had $ 1 PBR’s advertised… and I’m glad the rain made me stick around. Especially in time for Quizzo… which I kind bombed at, but, I guess it’s okay.
Food and service is excellent. I got some kind of spicy lamb dish with peppers and sauce over rice. So bangin! And a portion big enough to serve 2 – 3 for $ 10+tip. Ethiopian food is definitely a favorite from here on out.
Drinks were cheap as well 2 mixed drinks and a beer came to $ 11, one of which was Miller Fortune for $ 3. A nearly 7% ABV beverage, I mind you. You’re lucky if the closest watering hole to you has High Life for that price.
My only complaint is the $ 10 minimum for cards. Combatted that by ordering in bulk, though, that isn’t always feasible.
Will return.

The food is great, except the fish. Don’t order the fish. But the classic curries are fabulous, and if you order meat you get vegetables with it. Incredibly good value and flavors are spot on. Ambiance is a little lacking– but it’s a bar with a restaurant side so for what it is it’s great. We also bring our toddler, there are booths. I recommend to try this one– it’s the best one for Ethiopian food in the area if you aren’t worried about having a huge menu or the fancy ambiance.

They have a quality (ie cheap) city-​wide special and a legit dive bar experience. If you like dives this is one of the many Baltimore Avenue gems.

Went in the late afternoon, about 4.30. The bartender was pleasant but said the chef wouldn’t be in for a while so a meal was not to be had. Too bad.

Holla. City wide specials. Talk to Will. Get some wings. One of the best «dive» bars on Baltimore…
– The Man

I’ve been here twice and both times I got pissed off and disappointed. I had Ethiopian food before at Gojjo and I enjoyed it, thought I should try a different restaurant. Well… That was a mistake. The first time I brought my partner there cuz we had been watching a movie til late and we’re hungry. We waited an hour for our food and it was not good, bland and kinda weird. Overpriced.
The second time, my friends were craving Ethiopian food and suggested we go to this place. BIG mistake! We waited for one hour, again… And the waitress forgot my friend’s order. She appeared to be high or drunk. Food wasn’t good, the beef I ordered was raw and I asked for medium rare.
People smoke outside and it was still during cold weather. They didn’t care and kept the door open letting both the wind and the smoke in.
I don’t recommend this place at all!

They have cheap beer and nice people. I don’t get to West Philly much, but when I’m in the area, I go there.
The food is weird. I like it.

West Philly is likely one of the few places in the states where you can legitimately claim the Ethiopian restaurant market is saturated, thus places need to be on their top game. Queen of Sheba has been around as long as I can remember, but for some reason I always thought is was just a bar. This misunderstanding had me missing out on one of the best vegetarian combos around. Sorry Abyssinia, but I think I’ve found a new place. That said, it’s more of a sit at the bar and order kind of place, the restaurant section was desolate the two times I’ve gone, but the bartenders are friendly, and the beer is pretty reasonable, the food takes a little time, but then any good Ethiopian food I’ve had does.

There’s a pretty good quizzo here Thursday nights at 8:30, which takes over the entire back booth area and can get pretty packed. The beers remain welcomingly inexpensive (like $ 3 Yuenglings).

This is an awesome dive bar slash Ethiopian food joint. I’ve never been there during live music though, too bad.
Good things:
— Amazing, cheap Ethiopian food – my introduction to the stuff.
— Cheap drinks. Rarely any beer better than Yeungling though.
— Good jukebox.
— Interesting crowd – it’s easy to find a friendly, semi-​wasted new best-​friend-​for-​a-​night.
— The space is really cool and relaxed, though sadly I’ve never sat anywhere besides the bar. There are low tables with patterned cushions that are pretty awesome.
Bad things:
— …hmmm. The bathroom is kind of weird?
— Drinks served in plastic cups. Eh.
That settles it! Five stars! Wish I hadn’t moved away from Baltimore Ave!

if you’ve never tried ethiopian go somewhere else — this place is for a specific ethiopian restaurant experience. the 1 star reviews are funny — they should probably never go to africa.
Popped by this place last Saturday afternoon for a late lunch with my dad after the Penn Museum when the place I wanted to take him was closed. shared 2 entrees for 24 bucks. that included a beer actually. Not bad.
sauces were good (not bad but not tasty) and the greens sadly had that «straight out of the can» taste you sometimes get. oh well. their beri-​beri sauce has a nice dusty heat. felt sorry for my dad who drank his water too quickly because the waitress was lazy and unattentive — but in a friendly way.
owners and cook are nice. the owner put some ethiopian dance music on the jukebox for a party who came with two kids wearing ethiopian soccer jerseys. it took me back to my peace corps days.
so, it’s a pretty authentic african bar/​restaurant here in philly that doesn’t appear to over-​use maggi. pretty much like a foodstall with seating you’d find in a large town in africa except they actually have what’s on the menu.
décor is great and unintentionally dive.
classic neon beer signs in the window and that seal of a quality bar in africa — Guinness — but they also have yards in the bottle to represent craft brews. the waitress doesn’t know though — so if you want it you just have to order it.
Kinda wished I lived in West Philly so I could have a beer here from time to time.
ps– don’t bother with that tiny paper bar napkin, just wash your eating hand in the bathroom and open the door with the other one.

I like coming here for the laid-​back atmosphere. This is a place you can just sit and drink and drink and have fun at. Food’s pretty good, though I’m not an expert on Ethiopian cuisine, there may be better Ethiopian at one of the other restaurants in the area. But, I’ve never had any issues with the food, either when eating in, or taking out. Athough most of the menu is meat — based, there are more than a few vegetarian dishes (though not sure about vegan) that vegetarians should be able to find something they like. Their injera is very tasty — it’s pretty sour, but not too sour, and it works well with the spicy food.

To keep my review short and sweet…
Went here for drinks with my friend on a Friday night– everywhere else we tried was packed. Ended up being able to get seating by the bar and then had a BLAST– cheap drinks, an interesting/​eclectic group of people to talk to, and the best part was that my line of sight was douche-​free all night. They had a jukebox– one of my favorite things when inebriated. The stools were a bit uncomfortable, though, although maybe it’s just because I’m getting OLD. We stayed til the bar closed.
Next time I’m in West Philly on a Friday or Saturday night, I’ll be here, rocking out with my friend to «Kiss From a Rose» and ordering PBRs and shots for everyone in sight.

Awful… horrible. a bad idea!!!
horrible food, me and my gf didnt even bother to eat even 25% of our entrees or to get the remaining 75% packed!
Service is horrible too… nobody to check us in or to find us a table. Even after we found the table nobody bothers to get us the menus! we had to look around the place (tiny and very shabby) and finally had to go into the Kitchen to get the menus!!! That is unacceptable!
I have no idea how can this place even average a 3.5 on Unilocal!!!

Queen of Sheba has become my local watering hole. It’s perfect for a group, with generous portions of Ethiopian food and pitchers of beer. Twenty years ago I was a regular at another bar at this location — Off the Wagon — and I can detect the structure of the old bar — the booths and brown décor. I like this incarnation much better because the food is delicious and perfect for sharing.
I stumbled in a Quizzo night there. The questions were fairly easy, but there were sharks among the crowd. A near perfect score is the only way to win the top prizes — and several groups vied for the top spots. I think it was a Wednesday night. The food service was especially slow and that had been the first time I experienced that. i won’t take marks off on the restaurant, but I thought I’d mention it.

13 reviews and no pictures!!! That’s high treason! Don’t worry, I added a few.
This review is for the food only, my last review was for Thursday night karaōke. The service was refreshingly laid back. Order all food at the bar and at 7pm on a Saturday only a few regulars are around.
The bartender, as someone else mentioned, was obviously Xibit. He was a cool guy, he was attentive without being overbearing or lurking.
I got the Lamb Tips on naan and Bill M got the beef Kefto (med-​rare), both were a very reasonable $ 10 even. Bill’s beef was a little too raw for my liking, but that’s how it was ordered. The beef was served in te traditional style. He really liked it and even took leftovers home. My food was more than I could eat and probably a few notches too spicy. I ordered mild, but I was still challenged toward the end. The taste and quality far exceeded my expectations. I expected mediocre bar food based on my assumption that the regulars at the bar were keeping the establishment afloat. That assumption was false. There is no doubt in my mind that Queen of Sheba has regulars that show up for the food as well as the beverages
Don’t be intimidated to visit Queen of Sheba. The metal grate on the door and the smokers outside shouldn’t dissuade you. Although once inside a few people may be loud, everyone is extremely friendly. And after not too long you’ll start to feel the love amongst the wood paneling.
For the record, they do take reservations and they do offer take out. Both pluses in my book. Mixed drinks start around $ 3, beers at $ 2.