Review Abesha Ethiopian Restaurant - Footscray

Warm friendly staff, makes you feel at home. Extraordinarily delicious food - we always get the Abesha special. Beautifully soft, fluffy injera, with two different lamb curries and about four or five veg sides. If we're really hungry between two, we'll get an order of Doro Wat and extra injera too 🥰 and just such good value, it feels like a steal!

Every dish had its own distinct and delicious flavour which made tasting each one a fun experience. Service was very friendly and prompt. We left very happy and full. Highly recommend!

Wonderfully different food and atmosphere. The staff were super friendly. Definitely worth a try for an exotic night out.

Really authentic Ethiopian restaurant. You eat with your hands. Want to go back to have their coffee

First experience trying Ethiopian food, unique flavours. Loved the presentation. Very helpful manager, he recommended the food to us. We tried the beef, lamb and chicken. Lamb was our favourite. It was soft and juicy.

Best Ethiopian. Consistently tasty. We can't get beyond the vego combo & darik tibbs (lamb). Itssmoky and full of flavor - doesn't taste like something you can replicate at home. We've tried other places when abesha was closed. We don't want Ethiopian unless it's abesha. And always Lovely lovely service. Plus a calm down to earth setting. Best place ever 👍👍

I came here at 3:30pm and was told to come back at in 30 minutes despite the restaurant supposedly having opened at 11am as stated on the website, I decided to go and back around 4 ordered this Beautiful amazing food which was not only heavenly stunning and mouth watering definitely filled me up and I even took the rest home for later on 😭 very nice and arrived Fresh and cooked to perfection except the Lamb Tibbas were a bit chewy but overall nice and tasteful to my liking anybody looking to try out Ethiopian cuisines this is the place to go 👌 overall they probably need to change their opening hours 😅 it’s not very nice to tell a customer to come back after they just arrived according to ur hours but I was patient and the food was beautiful definitely going back again

Great authentic Ethiopian food. Good flavours and portions, and friendly staff in a cosy environment.

Amazing social eating experience! A+ Try it all!

Love love love the food here! I enjoy the vegetarian options, so full of flavour.

Had it today takeaway very oily tasted very average.<br/>Injera was very citrusy and the meal also made me very gas-sy. Would have been a better experience if oil wasn’t dripping from Uber bag

Nice place for Ethiopiam food...loved the chicken<br/>We also had the vegetarian platter and the Abesha chefs mixed platter which came with 2 Lamb dishes and Veges so ordering a separate chicken dish was a good idea.Absolutely loved the food

Love the different types of food they had on the vegetarian platter. Cheap and cheerful. Was left very full at the end. Injera was nice and fluffy

Ethiopian cuisine is never going to take the world by storm. Having said that, the service here (1chap) was friendly. We ordered the share plate for 3. Large plate with small mounds of meat and vege offerings atop the flat maize bread. Yeah, well. Some spice some flavour but really not much of either.

It’s nothing special, just another Ethiopian restaurant. The only thing I like is that it’s located on the quieter side of Footscray. I ordered my meal to be hot but it was white people “hot” aka bland. Please listen to your customers request 😒😒

Doesn’t look like much from the outside but wow, we enjoyed the food here. We ordered the dish which had various stews on top of injera (sp?) bread. That was an experience. 👍🏼

Went with a group of 7 here earlier in the week. There was only one person working out the front, but he did a fairly good job of managing all the tables. We weren't really sure what to order, as many of us hadn't had Ethiopian before, so asked if we could have a few mixed plates. This must be fairly normal, because he brought us out two identical mixed plates (one for each end of the table) that had an assortment of meat and vegetable dishes. This is the one cuisine that I absolutely love vegetables! There was more than enough food for all of us, and we were pretty happy when the whole night came to $20 each (we also shared an entree and brought our own wine). Will definitely be returning 😄<br/><br/>(my reason for taking off a star is that at other Ethiopian restaurants I've had cabbage dishes, which is one of my favourites. They didn't have that here, which is still OK, but would've been the icing on the cake for me 😉)

Abesha Restaurant Footscray is a great place for Melburnians who are looking for Ethiopian food, whether its a first experience of the cuisine or not. The space is simple, with a few tables and seats, and Ethiopian music playing through the speakers.

Wanted to try Ethiopian cuisine and so a friend who's more acquainted with this type of cuisine took us here. We let him order for all of us but I made sure he got us some famous Gored Gored (raw beef with spices). It is very different from French tartare or the Korean version; It's very broken down and mushy but still tasty. The sautéed meat was also well seasoned. Everything came on 1 sharing platter with the "crepe" underneath and the whole table is expected to just dig in with hands. I didn't really know what to expect but it was a good experience :) I'd admit I won't be having this cuisine often but I'll definitely recommend this venue.

It was ok. Not much in the way of atmosphere and the service was a bit lacking. The meat sambusas were quite nice but were served with tomato sauce out of a bottle. The doro watt pullet was a stingy bit of dried up chicken carcass in some tasty sauce. The spicy beef was really nice and the yellow lentils were tasty. Not bad but not great.

I love everything about this restaurant ... The owner Mr Hafty is a warm person and his staff are very warm ..<br/><br/>I went there a year ago and have gone back atleast twice a month since .. <br/><br/>The gored gored , Kay watt, dore watt, lamb tibbs are the best dishes. <br/><br/>I brought many of my friends over here and everybody loved it .<br/><br/>The taste, the portions, the hospitality and even the set up , is really great .<br/><br/>Well done and I am a big fan of this restaurant

Cannot speak highly enough about Abesha. The food is bursting with flavour and it's incredibly good value for money. They can advise which dishes to get if you don't want lots of chilli. My fiends and I never leave feeling hungry.

Possibly the best Ethiopian in Footscray. Staff are incredibly warm and friendly and the food is fresh and tasty. If you're looking for an Ethiopian restaurant in Footscray, look no further. My 5th time at Abesha and I'll definitely be going back for more!5/5 from me!

We left it up to the good folks at Abesha to bring us their choice of dishes. I tried to get all the names but we were all having too much of a nice time to stress too much, so here is a small selection, the names of which I am confident. Above are a mixed plate of sambusa wh

Although it's not far from home, we hadn't ever visited Abesha until deciding to try it recently on a Saturday. The colour scheme is certainly true to the country of origin. Inside the decor is fairly basic, but there are quite a few African touches, and the clientele was mixed. Behind our table there was a coffee set. There were a couple of imported Ethiopian beers options on the menu, and we and enjoyed refreshing our memory of both. The menu (which I couldn't find online so have included below) features a range of Ethiopian dishes, some of which were familiar, some less so. We shared the vegetable sambusa's as an entree, which was served with a sour cream dip. The crisp pastry enclosed a satisfying lentil heavy filling. The Abesha special features a range of dishes served on injera. The kay watt, of chopped lamb in a berber sauce, red onion, garlic and ginger and the alicha wat worked well with the range of veggie and lentil based dishes. I had t

Was Good. Great food,Ethiopian beer and service. Place very quiet for a Saturday night which was surprising considing the food. Only negative is the area is pretty dodgy at night!!

Valentine treat. Took my GF here for your not so typical Valentine's day dinner and we both loved it!<br/>The dorowatt was amazing, so tasty and rich! The Ethopian beer was great and the two ladies working there were fantastic!<br/>So cheap too! Definitely coming back again but with more people so we can try more things.

Veggie platter to turn any carnivore!<br/>VEGGIE PLATTER! Delicious Injera bread and loveliest lady who recommended it. Cheap too!

My FAVE Ethiopean restaraunt. Abesha's is the best Ethiopean restaurant in Footscray. Really lovely tasty food, consistently well cooked and presented. My favourite dish is the 'Special' taster platter (Veggie) - three types of lentil stews, one split pea stew, fried potatos, beetroot, tasty spinach stew, green salad with a delightful lemon (and something else?) dressing. I've also found the meat dishes to have been cooked very well too - the lamb and rosemary dish omg to die for!!!<br/>Generous (VERY) servings and really delightful friendly staff and service. Always a pleasure going to Abesha :))

Love Abesha's!. Friendly service, great atmosphere, absolutely delicious food - so cheap too! I love the Abesha special - a huge injera topped with 2 types of meat curries (the lamb saag is mouth-watering) & an assortment of Dahl's & vegetable dishes - perfect for two people. The beef sambusas are a must to start with & try the Ethiopian beer. You'll leave totally satisfied. This is my go-to restaurant :-)

First timer. Friend took me here for the very first time. loved it. cant wait to go again. food was awesome

You may hesitate going into Abeshas when you see it on the outside, but in a great example of never judging a book by its cover, head indoors and experience some great Ethiopian cuisine. <br/>Very basic interior. But I knew I was going to be in for a good food experience when I realised I was the only non-African in the restaurant (about 15 other people were dining)<br/>I went on my own and ordered the Abeshas special which is a mix of several dishes from the menu. What a great taste sensation! And in true Ethiopian style, you eat with your hands. <br/>Service was warm and friendly. <br/>Will definitely return.

Lamb Tibs was great.. I'm no expert on Ethiopian cuisine, but I really enjoyed dining at Abesha. The customer service was great, and the Chef was more than happy to walk us through her menu. The food came out quick and it was a real experience to eat with only our hands and Injera bread.

This is my favourite Ethiopian restaurant in Melbourne. It's not as polished as, say, the Abyssinian, but that's part of its charm. The food is consistently delicious, cheap, and generous. Service is attentive and friendly. I can't recommend this restaurant more.

Best Restaurant in Melbourne?. Damn close! Very friendly staff, great food, and cheaper than cooking at home! Look it's not exactly fancy decour but who cares, right?<br/>On some Saturday nights they do a buffet with dancing.. lots and lots of fun!

This was an interesting place. We went because of the great reviews. But felt the whole place needed a bit of an update. Entertainingly grumpy staff that were more interested in smoking sheesh out the back than serving. Had run out of half the entrees even though hardly anyone in the restaurant! We were looking forward to the cheap prices but got charged $15 per main even though the menu said $12. Chicken dish was pretty much just bones and no meat! Still got a great laugh out of it all but would not recommend.

Incredible.. This is my favourite restaurant, too bad I live in Sydney really. My advice is to go with a bunch of people, each order one dish ($10 a pop) and it comes with as much of the crumpet-like injera as you need. Try everything. It's fantastic, the injera is so spongy and delicious. The Ethiopian beer is great too. Highly recommended.

Good food, better injera than a few places I've been in Footscray. They do an awesome curry that you can get either raw or very rare beef in. Go raw. Friendliest staff. Really homely feeling inside, comfortable. It's a rarity because it doesn't have that same problem most other African restaurants have in Footscray where you walk in and about half of Eastern Africa turn to stare at you in unison like you just stepped into the OK Corral.

Amazing. Even though I wouldn't say I've eaten at many Ethiopian places in Melbourne (so not much comparison), I have to say I absolutely loved this place! It's nothing fancy, just good home cooking, really friendly staff, and incredible flavours... <br/><br/>I will be back for sure, with more people.

You know the food's going to be good when the outside of the building is painted like a rasta zebra