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| - I have to start by saying that on the night I ate here I had a reservation at Nota Bene for a long-anticipated date night with the husband, which was derailed by a last minute "you must sign paperwork TONIGHT" fiasco with our lawyer and mortgage broker. So instead of dinner at Nota Bene, we signed 10 documents in triplicate at Bloor and Ossington, then wandered, starving, into the first place we saw that looked interesting.
It's definitely not fair to compare Queen of Sheba to Nota Bene, but in comparing it to other Ethiopian places I've eaten, in Toronto and elsewhere, it's really not in the same ballpark.
Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Read bottom to top if you're a good news first kind of person.
The decor and cleanliness were really, really sketchy. My husband and I (who were in a surprisingly good mood given the turn of events) commented that had it not been for fairly significant dining experiences in various developing countries, we would have high-tailed it out of there. Just inside the front door we were greeted with the stale smell of cigarettes and just damp dirtiness; fortunately as we passed the kitchen and entered the dining room the smell greatly improved. The carpeted(!) dining room was sorely in need of a shampoo. The bathrooms were freezing cold and let's just say not spotless. The paint in the dining room looked half-finished, with roller marks on the ceiling and some unfortunate color choices, and patches just not finished, like the painter quit half way through the job. One upshot was the lighting, which was mostly from wall sconces pointing upward (not bad when ceiling mounted neon lights would have fit right in with the rest of the decor choices).
The service. Oh God the service. She was pleasant but either really ditsy or really high. My husband asked what the premium beers mentioned on the menu were and she just shrugged and said she didn't know. In a nice way, though. When we told her we don't eat red meat and asked if we could do a platter that was a mix of chicken and veg she seemed sort of confused. She suggested we do the mixed platter, but minus the beef and lamb, about which I sought to confirm that that might mean more chicken and veg given the absence of the other items. To which she responded, nicely, no. Being hungry and in no mood to be difficult, we just ordered the mixed platter of chicken, beef, lamb and vegetables, and I proceeded to eat red meat for the first time in 18 months.
The food was ok. The beef was actually a highlight. It was stewed in a dark sauce with a hint of sweetness. The chicken was two drum sticks in a spicy sauce and the meat was tender and flavorful. The lamb was nice as well, though the tender meat was done a disservice by a not very flavorful sauce. The three vegetable dishes, a split pea, a lentil and a cabbage dish, were disappointingly bland (they made me glad we hadn't gone for the vegetarian platter). And finally, the side plate of injera was right out of the refrigerator. That sucked, actually.
The best thing I can say is that the price was right. For a huge platter of food for two plus three beers it was $40 plus tip. That's a pretty good savings versus what we would have spent at Nota Bene...
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