Betty’s Ethiopian Restaurant & Cafe, 819 Ballarat Road, Deer Park. Phone: 9363 0857

Consider The Sauce is not used to seeing fish on the menu’s of Ethiopian eateries.

And certainly, spying salmon kitfo ($17) on the menu at betty’s in Deer Park is a first.

It’s a beguiling dish.

The flavour of the chopped salmon is subtle but very present.

The fish dances atop of bed of near-creamed spinach and a base of ricotta and yogurt.

And there’s quite a high level heat provided by, according to the menu (see below), green chilli.

It’s beaut and, naturally, one of the more unusual dishes on the Betty menu.

 

 

On a visit earlier than my mid-week fishy lunch, Bennie and I tried the beyaynetu vegetarian combo ($15 per person).

It’s very good.

It has lentils three ways, the familiar mix of spud and beetroot, and cabbage/carrotconcoctions that display a bit more crunch and texture than is often the cooked-down case in the other Ethiopian places.

The beyaynetu is accompanied by a typically high-quality simple salad full of zing and crunch.

Betty’s is unusual in that it one of the very few Melbourne Ethiopian restaurants that makes its own injera – in this case with a mix of barley flour and Australian-grown teff.

 

 

Before opening their new cafe/eatery, Betty Diemsse and her husband, Beruk, ran a grocery store at the same premises alongside a small business importing Ethiopian spices and the like.

The Derrimut couple tell me that since opening recently they’ve welcomed into their restaurant all sorts of locals – Sudanese, Somalian, Eritrean; Aussies of many kinds, in truth.

Betty’s joins good Turkish and Vietnamese places, and the popular Chef Lagenda, on the the Deer Park commercial/eats strip.

With the looming arrival of Latin Food & Wines, which is moving from its long-time base at Berkshire Road in Sunshine, it could be said things are looking up food-wise in Deer Park.

Latin Food & Wines will be taking over the big premises that formerly housed Blue Cow Deli.

Their sensational sandwiches and empanadas will be joined by a range of more substantial South American dishes, an expanded line of groceries and a bottle shop.

Excitement!