The Abyssinian

 July 25, 2025

   

We've been talking about going to The Abyssinian since we read about it in an early-2000s Melbourne Cheap Eats Guide. Something about the awkward location on Flemington Road meant that we wound up sampling a whole bunch of other Ethiopian places around town before we finally headed over there for an early dinner on a rainy Friday almost two decades later. It's got a nice, cosy atmosphere and the staff were friendly and efficient.

Our Ethiopian restaurant approach is pretty well established these days - get the vego platter for two (here that costs $48) and enjoy a sampler of all the delicious stews on offer dabbed on a giant injera plate. 

 

   

I always love the lentil dishes (ades on the right and tumtummo on the left, above), but I think the berbere pumpkin in the little bowl at the back (dubba) was my favourite on this night. It's such a fun way to eat, digging in with your hands and scooping up rich, warming veggies in the slightly tangy, springy bread. I don't think the food here is markedly better or worse than other options - Ge'ez is a bit more convenient for us probably - but I'm really glad we finally got to The Abyssinian.

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The Abyssinian has been reviewed positively by Whatever Floats Your Bloat, Tomatom, mamma knows west, Sweet and Sour Fork, Decisive Cravings and Oh... and the kitchen sink.

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The Abyssinan

277 Racecourse Road, Kensington

9376 8754

dinner menu, a la carte, dessert, drinks

https://www.theabyssinian.com.au/

Accessibility: There's a flat but narrow entry and a fairly crowded interior. We ordered at the table and paid at a high counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Vola Foods

Edit 12/04/2026: Vola Foods has closed at this site, but they're still popping up here and there - keep an eye on their social media.

May 13, 2023

   

Vola Foods is not the most eye-catching business on Ovens St. Queues for the Ovens Street Bakery stretch along the footpath any time they're open, and ONA Coffee's split-level seating puts all their customers on display. But Michael was observant enough on one of his bakery runs to notice signs saying Vola Foods and A Taste of Africa on what looked like a parking lot. 

The Vola Foods team have been gradually building up a cheery, welcoming outdoor set-up: starting with a shipping-container kitchen and outdoor barbecue, extending to picnic tables, which now have a roof over them and gas heaters on standby, and evidence of future plans for a bar. The menu is Cameroonian, with vegan options clearly marked. We halved two plates for lunch, aiming to try as many dishes as we could.

I started on the beans with puff puff ($15.50, pictured left) and was so enamoured that I asked myself if I even wanted to share. The beans were flavoured with warm and complex spices, while the puff puff were slightly sweet and fried like doughnuts. It's an excellent, contained meal for one and an instant comfort food.

Lots of other great dishes awaited me in my share of the Vegan Box ($23.50). Generous portions of coconut rice with beans and jollof rice were covered with a thick and tangy tomato stew, and surrounded by more fried starches: cassava, akra and plantain. Michael warned me off the chilli sauce, and bought a jar of it to take home for himself.

Vola Foods is distinct from anything else we've eaten before, much less anything we've eaten in Brunswick. We're excited that it's close to home and we'll have many more chances to familiarise ourselves with its flavours.

   

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Vola Foods

30 Ovens St, Brunswick

0478 697 257

menu

https://www.volafoods.com.au/

Accessibility: The premises is based on gravel so while generally flat is a bit uneven. Furniture is densely packed regular height picnic tables and backless benches (see photo above). We ordered and paid at a waist-height counter and received food to our table. We didn't visit the toilets.

Ge'ez Ethiopian Restaurant

Edit 12/04/2026: Ge'ez has now closed.

May 6, 2021

   

We both really enjoy injera-based meals, but they pop up in our lives more as an occasional treat than as a regular meal. Maybe that'll change now that Ge'ez Ethiopean restaurant is established in Brunswick. Here's their version of the veg*n-platter-for-two we tend to rely on ($24 per person). It offers solid coverage across their veg*n options, including house salad, whole lentil stew, ye'misir kike wot (split lentils), ye'duba wot (pumpkin stew), kik alicha wot (yellow split peas), shiro wot (thick chickpea flour stew), and key sir alicha (beetroot and red potatoes).

   

Beyond our usual trusty order, we also requested the samosas ($7). They're super-crispy and densely stuffed with lentils.

   

The staff were especially hospitable, fetching us extra samosa dipping sauce and injera rolls without us even requesting them. With most vegetarian dishes being vegan, and gluten-free options available with advance notice, it'll be fun to share a meal here with friends as well as sneaking in, just the two of us, when we can't be bothered to cook.

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You can read another positive review of Ge'ez on vegetarian food blog Green Gourmet Giraffe.

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Ge'ez Ethiopian Restaurant

718 Sydney Rd, Brunswick

8354 0124

combination platters, extras & veg*n dishes, appetizers & meat dishes

https://www.geezrestaurant.com.au/

Accessibility: Tables and benches are arranged at medium density, with a reasonably clear and flat corridor through the middle (see photo above). Toilets were unisex, with decent space and handrails intended for accessibility. We ordered at the table and paid at a low counter.

Mesob

August 13, 2019

It's fantastic to see Ethiopean restaurants spreading more broadly across metropolitan Melbourne! Michael noticed that one such spot, Northcote's Mesob, is located along our bike commute. It's a comfortable, low-key place with a naturally inclusive and intentionally well-labeled menu: mains are centred around their wonderfully sour and spongey gluten-free injera, and almost half their main dishes are vegan.

Naturally, we went all-in with the Herbivore Combination Platter ($23 per person). We didn't take a whole lot of interest in the central salad when we could be scooping up shiro (thick, berbere-spiced chickpea flour), miser wot (red lentils),  gomen (collard greens), yatakilt alicha (tender sauteed cabbage, carrot and potato), duba wot (caramelised pumpkin stew), and kik alicha (turmeric-spiced yellow lentils). And scoop scoop scoop we did, until it was almost done - those injera are filling!

Injera platters make for terrific winter comfort food, and they're so much fun to share. I've got a hunch that we'll be parking our bikes out front of Mesob on a regular basis.

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Mesob has already received positive review on veg blogs Green Gourmet Giraffe and Enlightened Decadence.

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Mesob
213 High St, Northcote
9489 6952
menu
https://www.mesob.com.au/

Accessibility: There's a small ramp on entry and moderately spaced tables and chairs throughout the restaurant. We ordered at our table and paid at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Savanna African Restaurant

February 27, 2018

We've had Savanna on our to-eat list since its Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine was recommended on Fitzroyalty more than four years ago, but we only just stopped in recently on the way to a weeknight gig at the Tote. It's been too long since we last sat down to a huge platter of injera!

There's a cursory salad, but the major attraction here is the ten veg*n wots and other vegetable dishes. One person can choose four of them with injera for $17.90, but bring companions you're willing to share with and the entire set is yours for just under $20 per person (e.g. $39.90 for our Ideal Feast for Two). In unfortunate news for some, the injera here include wheat flour, but there's rice on offer as an alternative.

We thoroughly enjoyed every stew - one or two pushed my spice limits and a lentil dish, rather than the more predictable potatoes, emerged as my favourite. The injera were tender and spongy, not as sour as we've eaten elsewhere; we were offered fresh ones whenever it looked like we might run out.

A bubbling little pot of shiro - made from ground chickpeas, spices and a slick of oil - was as dangerous as it was delicious. The staff gave us fair warning that it was high-temperature, and I still managed to burn my mouth terribly with it! Next time I'll remember that this deceptive dish needs time sitting on the injera before I greedily gobble it down.

Service was slow but friendly and informative at this family restaurant; we felt welcome to settle in a while and enjoy the experience.

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In past years, Savanna has received positive reviews on Fitzroyalty and Gracious Expedition.

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Savanna African Restaurant
7 Johnston St, Collingwood
9416 1462
menu
http://melbourne123.wixsite.com/savannaafrican

Accessibility: There are a couple of steps on entry, and a couple more splitting two levels of seating inside. There's a reasonable corridor through the middle but the tables are quite crowded. We ordered at the table and paid at a high counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Cafe Lalibela II

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

January 11, 2016

Cindy's family wanted to meet us for dinner in Footscray and, with our enthusiasm for our new Cheap Eats 2006 project still high, we decided it was a good opportunity to revisit Cafe Lalibela. It's been more than seven years since we last visited, and not much seems to have changed. The staff are friendly, the service casual, the menu has a good range of vego options and there's a steady stream of people coming through the door.

We made the same move as last time and ordered the beyainetu (the platter below serves 3), a combination of different veggie dishes on an injera platter ($14 per head - up from $12 seven years ago, which is pretty good going).

The dishes are heavy on the protein: lentils and beans cooked in various sauces, along with a potato and carrot dish. The injera is the star of the show - the fermentation adds a citruss-y kick to the chewy, spongy bread, which soaks up the relatively mild flavours of all the stews. It's fun and messy to tear at the injera and scoop up the stews - it's a rare treat to eat with your hands. Added bonus: the delicious Ethiopian beers are a ridiculously affordable $5 a pop.

Cafe Lalibela feels timeless - almost nothing has changed since we visited nearly eight years ago - great, cheap food in a cheerful, casual setting. We really need to go back before 2023 rolls around.

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Since our visit in 2008, Lalibela has been positively written up by vegos In the Mood for Noodles and omni-bloggers Footscray Food Blog, Howie's Melbourne Food Blog, Gosstronomy, Apples Under My Bed, Eurasian Sensation and Eat and Be Merry for Tomorrow We Die(t).

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Cafe Lalibela

91 Irving Street, Footscray 
9687 0300
vegetarian menu

Accessibility: The entry is flat and there's a reasonably clear path up the middle of the restaurant, although the tables themselves are all wedged in pretty close together. We paid at a high counter and didn't visit the toilets. 

November 10, 2010: Konjo Ethiopian Restaurant

Update 15/06/2023: Konjo is now closed in Collingwood.

Cindy and I got the opening hours of Las Vegan wrong and found ourselves in need of a feed at the quiet end of Smith Street. Our last few meals had been Mexican-inspired so Trippytaco was, for once, off the menu. Lucky for us, Konjo was sitting quietly next to Las Vegan with tables to spare and plenty of veg menu items. Ethiopian vegetarian food seems pretty similar between restaurants: split pea and lentil stews with various spices, served on top of injera. We've had fun with it before, but you're never likely to be surprised. Konjo made things easier for us by offering a Beyeinatu combination: 3 lentil dishes and a turmeric-y dish of cabbage, carrot, potato and onion served on a big injera plate ($14.50 each).

This did the job of feeding us relatively cheaply on a Wednesday night - Cindy liked the potato dish, while I was most into the Kai Misir Wot (red lentils, tomatoes, garlic and onions, simmered in berbere).

Kono is a cute little place, though it lacks the atmosphere of The Horn or the cheapness of Cafe Lalibela. The service is friendly and the menu provides decent vegetarian options, but Konjo shares Smith Street with some of the best vego places in Melbourne so I'm not sure we'll return too quickly.

Brian at Fitzroyalty and Foodie Dreams are the only other bloggers who have made the trip to Konjo so far.

Konjo Ethiopian Restaurant
20 Smith St, Collingwood
9419 5713
Vegie mains: $15, combo: $14.50
Unlicensed (no BYO)
http://konjo.com.au

March 28, 2009: Le Kilimanjaro

Update, 31/12/2014: Le Kilimanjaro has closed down.

Saturday night saw us exploring King Street in Newtown. We couldn't convince our gaggle of omni friends that Green Gourmet or Basil Pizza were worth visiting, but once someone muttered something about African food we quickly reached consensus. Our Sydney-based hosts pointed us in the direction of Le Kilimanjaro with a few reservations, but their slight ambivalence wasn't enough to dissuade the rest of us and we settled quickly in.

The restaurant is comfy and atmospheric, with various African-themed wall decorations and the staff wandering around in traditional African ensembles. I'd been expecting something similar to our Ethiopian dining experiences, but Le Kilimanjaro serves up food from East Africa including Ghana, Senegal and Kenya. The menu is posted up on a big board with helpful descriptions of the many dishes available (including a dish with a name that literally translates as 'homosexual tuna'). We weren't overwhelmed by vego options, but there were a decent number of side dishes available and at least a couple of mains.

Cindy stuck entirely to the side dish menu, opting for Accara (black-eyed beans soaked overnight and then ground with mild African spices, fried in round balls and served with aromatic sauce, $6) and Batansey (fried eggplant in a mildly spiced sauce with onions, $6) dished up with a serve of African flat bread ($2).

The flatbread is a bit different to the Ethiopian injeera - based on cous-cous grain blended with onion and spices. It's a bit denser than injeera and didn't quite measure up for Cindy.

The bean-based balls were also a tad on the diappointing side - the sauce was a lightly-spiced tomatoey sensation, but the balls themselves were a bit heavy and dry. They took a bit more chewing than we expected.

The best of Cindy's bunch was the eggplant dish - a saucy stew filled with chunks of deliciously fried eggplant and heavy on the onions. I only snuck a little taste, but it hit the spot quite nicely.

I decided to brave both a main dish and a side - Ndambe (mid-African spices, lentils, tomato, kidney beans and vegetables, $9.80) and Mboum (cruncy African spinach with a romantically spiced sauce, $6), with a small serve of cous-cous ($1.50). Unfortunately things came out in a fairly shambolic way, with the spinach arriving ten minutes before anything to accompany it and the cous-cous only turning up after I was well into my stewy main.

Despite the slightly ramshackle service, my food was outstanding - the Ndambe was based on a richly spiced tomato sauce and was overflowing with beans, lentils, chunks of vegies and a sprinkling of fresh herbs. Once I had some cous-cous to soak up the sauce, I was a happy man.

I was even happier once I chomped into my spinach side - it's a very simple idea, take some crisp greens and coat them in a mildly spicy sauce. Simple and very effective - the spinach was everyone's favourite dish, and the fresh greens complemented the heavy stews that made up most of the evening's meals.

Le Kilimanjaro is a BYO place, with just a couple of options on the drinks menu. Cindy's 'ginger drink' (freshly squeezed ginger with vanilla sugar) was incredibly gingery and strong, but as refreshing as the menu promised.

My mysterious 'African flower drink' unfortunately never arrived, so it remains an unknown quantity. Maybe they were out of flowers.

Despite some fairly 'relaxed' service, the food (and the prices) meant that nobody walked away too disappointed with Le Kilimanjaro, but if we're ever seeking African food in Newtown again, we'll probably walk the other way along King Street to African Feeling.

Address: 280 King Street, Sydney
Ph: 02 9557 4565
BYO only
Price: Vegie mains: $9.80, sides: $1.50-$6

November 26, 2008: Queen Victoria Night Markets III

Yep, the night market is back! The stalls don't seem to change much from year to year (though there's been a slight expansion) and you should be able to find every dish we've previously eaten there.

This time I took a tip from Kristy and bought a carrot and cashew pakoda wrap from Vegie Curry Man. Wrapped fresh in roti-style bread with greens and chutney, this is stall food at its absolute best.

Michael lined up a few stalls down for some Ethiopean food. The lentil sambussa ($2) is a deep-fried thin pastry stuffed with lentils, green chilli, onion and herbs. This was just a diversion from his two-dish combination with enjera ($10), featuring kik alicha (slightly pureed yellow split peas simmered in a sauce of onion, green chilli, herbs and spices) and misir (pureed lentils simmered in a spicy berbere sauce). Michael loved the misir but sadly the enjera is difficult to make the most of when it's tightly bundled up like this.

The night markets' meals have always held more appeal for me than the inedible wares, but this year keep an eye out for More To Love Vegan's Buttons - she's got her own stand packed with all your pin-backed needs!

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You can read about our previous visits to the Queen Victoria Night Markets here and here.

October 25, 2008: Cafe Lalibela

Jo-Lyn had mustered up a gang of us to check out The Go Show in Footscray - a strange combination of bus tour and community arts extravaganza that was on as part of the Melbourne Arts Festival. We've not spent enough time exploring the astonishing array of food options in Footscray, so this was a good opportunity to sample something new. Between the Melbourne Veg Food Guide and the Cheap Eats Guide, it became clear that Cafe Lalibela was the place to be, so Cindy booked us a table for an early dinner.

There aren't too many surprises at Ethiopian restaurants, particularly for vegos - it's lentil stews, split pea curries, maybe a few vegies and a few little piles of salad. Cafe Lalibela offer up yetsom beyaynetu - a mix of all their vego dishes plonked on a glorious platter of injeera. We were early enough (or the others were late enough) to be granted full ordering responsibility, so it was vego mix all round. This equated to two gigantic platters, with enough food to feed 8 people comfortably.

The sour, fermented injeera is always delicious and the whole process of ripping, dipping and mopping up is great fun, guaranteeing a good time regardless. Luckily, the food here matches the fun, with each of the stews providing a slightly different flavour - from the spicy lentils to the milder and slightly tangy vegie curry, it all hit the spot. Everything is soft and paste-like - perfect for scooping up in little parcels of bread - remarkably I only ended up with one stew-coloured stain down my front! Note of caution: don't turn to the salad as something to cool your mouth down - it's basically equal parts lettuce and green chilli. Throw in some crisp Ethiopian beer and lively conversation and you've got an excellent Saturday evening in the west.

Address: 91 Irving Street, Footscray
Ph: 9687 0300
Price: Vego meals - $12
Licensed

September 20, 2007: The Horn Restaurant

The Horn in Collingwood is a stange hybrid of African cafe and jazz bar. It's cosy, with a couple of linked rooms and is atmospherically decorated with a combination of African and jazz-related paraphernalia. Cindy discovered it via 1001 Dinners, 1001 Nights and decided it was worth a visit. I wandered in around 7 to meet Cindy and a group of friends for dinner and the friendly and relaxed staff set me up at the back corner table with one of the organic Ethiopian beers that they offer. I could have quite happily sat there and relaxed all evening, but eventually everybody else arrived and we could get down to the business of eating.

The menu contains a fairly extensive range of Ethiopian snacks and meals, with a reasonable number of vego options. It was hard to go past the vegie and dahl combination, which Cindy and I shared, - a chance to try five of the dishes on offer without eating until bursting point. Our waitress explained the traditional Ethiopian style of eating where stews are placed on top of giant pancakes (injera) and eaten without implements - the injera providing something with which to pick up the liquidy meals. The pancakes arrived on large pizza trays, complete with a salad garnish and a couple of rolled up injera for extra grabbing power. To accompany this great expanse of breadiness, we got a selection of three vegie stews and a couple of dahls. Four of the dishes came out in a stylish little serving device, while the fifth languished rather sadly in a plain bowl. The food was tasty without being particularly mindblowing - most of the fun came from digging around with the injera and generally making a ridiculous mess.

With a few more organic beers (including a very nice stout) under our belts and the last of the sauce-soaked injera devoured, we were just settling back in our seats when the tiny spare space next to our table was transformed into a makeshift stage and out came the band (one of whom doubles as the proprietor of the venue). We shuffled ourselves across to a table a little bit further away to give them some room and then sat back as they played a fantastic 40 minute set of rhythmic jazz. It killed off our conversation, but nobody really minded - the music had us all transfixed.

We snuck out in their break between sets (some of us to head off to bed and other, less responsible types to push on to more live music and beer further into Collingwood), happy with a good meal, some fine company and an unexpected burst of enjoyable jazz. The only (slight) downside of the whole evening was the unexpected cover charge we had to pay for the band. It wasn't really a problem, but it's probably a good idea to let people know that there's going to be an extra charge for staying in the restaurant after a certain time. But that was a minor quibble - The Horn has all the ingredients for a very satisfying night out.

Address: 20 Johnston Street, Collingwood
Ph: 9417 4670
Licensed
Price: $30 for a vegie platter for two ($16 for one)
Website: http://www.thehorn.com.au/