Any other good Ethiopian restaurants in Tampa Bay? (Miami, Orlando: lease, house)

[CravingMountains]

So my partner and I ate out at our local Ethiopian restaurant, The Queen of Sheeba tonight. We have been going there for years, as it is close by to our house and the food is quite tasty but we have had enough problems with the service that we are now looking for a new restaurant to satisfy our hunger when we are in the mood for ethiopian cuisine.

My partners biggest complaint is that the primary eating utensil at Queen of Sheeba is your.......hands, and injera of course. He does not like eating with his hands and would prefer to eat with standard American utensils. Also, the injera is extremely filling, and when eating with it constantly you can't ever finish the main course because you have consumed so much injera. Each time we go to eat, we request forks, and we ALWAYS get sneered at, or laughed at, or "tisk tisk"ed at. As though eating with your hands is a commodity that should be indulged in. Well that has happened for the last time as we won't be going there anymore.

My complaints are mostly customer service related. I won't devulge them here, as those are not specific to Ethiopian restaurants.

So does anyone on CD have recomendations on Ethiopian restaurants? Preferably one that at least will provide eating utensils without rude remarks when requested?

[tilli]

Queen of Sheba is the only Ethiopian restaurant in the Tampa bay area as far as I know.

[wiltznucs]

I do Queen of Sheba from time to time and you're right, the service can leave a lot to be desired.

Eating with your hands is part of the experience in Ethiopian cuisine, it is what it is...

[ferret111]

Queen of Sheba's the only one that I know of. Did not like the food at all. I only went once.

[Wwanderer]

I'm not a big fan of Ethiopian, mainly because of the Injera. but eating with your hands is the way they do it. I do wonder why they wouldn't smilingly provide you forks, the way Chinese restaurants do for non-Chinese patrons.

[CravingMountains]

Originally Posted by Wwanderer

I'm not a big fan of Ethiopian, mainly because of the Injera. but eating with your hands is the way they do it. I do wonder why they wouldn't smilingly provide you forks, the way Chinese restaurants do for non-Chinese patrons.

That's exactly what we think! We both eat at Chinese restaurants all the time! He is Chinese in fact. And we are both 100% fluent in chopsticks. Despite our ability to use chopsticks, sometimes we might request a fork or knife at a Chinese restaurant and they never hesitate to provide one. A lot of the time the restaurant will even have both forms of utensils at the table.

Hmm. I guess since Queen of Sheeba is the only ethiopian restaurant in Tampa we will have to go to a different one the next time we go out of town. I'm sure QoS is not setting a standard. lol.

[JProg305]

There is also an Ethiopian food stand at the Saturday Morning Market in downtown St. Pete. I think it's called Abol Bunna or something like that. They used to have an actual restaurant in Tampa but they didn't renew their lease. I like them a little better than QOS, although I think QOS is pretty good.

[stpeteguy]

All my mental images of Ethiopea are of starving little babies sitting around in the dirt with distended bellies and flies buzzing all over them.

The idea of eating their "cuisine" with my hands is not very appealing.

[JProg305]

Correction, the Ethiopian food stand at the Saturday morning market is called "Taste of Ethiopia." It's quite good, in my opinion. Just got done eating there an hour or so ago. Ethiopian cuisine is an ancient cuisine just like Chinese or Indian cuisine. Remember Ethiopia was the home of ancient Kush and Abyssinia. Also, the church of Lalibela is one of the oldest churches in the world, carved into the living rock. Kinda cool. Not exactly historical lightweights.

[Pragmaticus]

Originally Posted by JProg305

Correction, the Ethiopian food stand at the Saturday morning market is called "Taste of Ethiopia." It's quite good, in my opinion. Just got done eating there an hour or so ago. Ethiopian cuisine is an ancient cuisine just like Chinese or Indian cuisine. Remember Ethiopia was the home of ancient Kush and Abyssinia. Also, the church of Lalibela is one of the oldest churches in the world, carved into the living rock. Kinda cool. Not exactly historical lightweights.

Thanks for that info. I will check that out too.

But for OP, that's the only place as far as I know. There are a couple of nice places in Orlando and Miami too but that's a long drive, of course.