Cynthia

Restaurant website
Location: Northeast Portland (past convention center)
Cost to fill up two people for dinner: About $35-$40

If a restaurant could take an award for best people-watching, Queen of Sheba might top the list. Fortunately, the food (Ethiopian) is good, too.
Robyn and I took a seat by the window and watched a wondrous procession of dancers, bikers, [...]

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Nicholas website
Area: OMSI/Industrial area
Price to fill up two people minus booze: $40

Until tonight I don’t think I’d had a really good middle eastern meal in glassland. But Nicholas, on SE Grand, put an end to that. Excellent, well-flavored hummus served correctly, wheaty, chewy flatbreads, they know how to do yogurt drinks right and the tabbouleh [...]

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Blue Nile website

Location: Hollywood

Price to fill up two people: About $30

Parking is not great, not on a Friday night, anyway, at this little Ethiopian restaurant in the NE Hollywood district, but the rest was a lot of fun.
It’s not the very best Ethiopian food I’ve ever had (a DC Adams-Morgan restaurant owns that distinction) but [...]

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Marrakesh Authentic Moroccan website

Location: NW 23rd (restaurant row)

Price to fill up two people: About $40

This was unfortunately a miss. I went in early (5:30 or so) on a Friday night a couple of years ago, and the staff almost overwhelmed me with fervent attention–I was the only one there. Settled into the cushions, did the [...]

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