Category: Middle Eastern

Categories
Middle Eastern

Tolo Kabab House – Merrylands NSW Restaurant Review

We didn’t go to Merrylands seeking a Western Sydney cultural immersion experience, but we did find ourselves in the middle of one, as we waded unexpectedly through a sea of people attending a night-time street celebration for Ramadan. I’ve generally aimed to be relatively aware of when Ramadan is so that I can time my visits to halal restaurants to avoid the peak, however I think I was incepted in this instance into going here during this busy period as I had recently finished working with a Muslim colleague who spent a period of time each day either telling me about a hadith or showing me a passage from the Quran.

We had the mixed kebab ($21) featuring two skewers of chicken, one skewer of lamb and one skewer of mince, a gigantic piece of bread and some mixed salad consisting of primarily lettuce, cabbage and a large circle of onion.

This represented extremely good value considering the quantity of meat on offer as well as the gigantic size of the bread. The meat was tender, in particular the chicken, however the lamb and mince kebabs were also good.

We really didn’t need to have anything more than this mixed kebab, however we didn’t know exactly how much food would come and therefore we also ordered a lamb biryani sada ($14). The biryani was quite rice forward, which wouldn’t have been a problem were it not for the gigantic bread with the mixed kebab set. It was an absolutely huge plate which could feed at least one large adult to maximal fullness or two small adults again to maximal fullness.

The quantity of rice was unreal although the flavour was less impressive than some other biryanis I’ve had.

My partner also chose to have a yoghurt drink ($4) which even though internet sources tell me is not the same thing as the yoghurt dip, I’ve never been able to really tell a difference in terms of taste. I think we really need to stop ordering this because we never enjoy it.

On our way back to our car we saw this SUV parked on the side of the street absolutely covered in bird droppings. Perhaps a man had upset a bird by taking its young.

Tolo Kabab House – why is it spelled ‘kebab’ on the sign out front but ‘kabab’ literally everywhere else? What is a man meant to do? We are meant to live in a rules based society.
194 Merrylands Rd, Merrylands NSW 2160


Categories
Café Middle Eastern

JUNE – Winston Hills NSW Restaurant Review

A colleague typed in ‘cafe within 10 minutes of work’ into ChatGPT at the end of our run of nights, and through this managed to take us somewhere we’d never been before.

For such a large and busy cafe local to us, it was a surprise that none of us had heard of it before. It was so busy that at 9AM when we arrived on a weekday morning, the warm inside seating was completely full, and we had to sit in the cold outside. There were no patio heaters, as some places have, which was good for the environment but terrible for us.

The large soy flat white ($6.30) did its job, which was to prevent me from experiencing vehicular related trauma on the way home. It tasted extremely homely, which made sense once I saw the bonsoy on the counter as we went to pay. Colleagues commented on the mugs with mismatched handles, which they thought were cute.

The food menu was distinctly Circa-like in nature. I had the spicy shakshuka ($27), though the chilli labneh eggs were also front and centre of my mind. The eggs had appropriately runny yolks, though the white was also a bit runny, which was less ideal. The bowl had a good tomato flavour, though a disappointment in terms of spiciness, which was so difficult to identify that I wouldn’t think it would be worth mentioning it in the name of the dish. The sourdough with zaatar was crusty, kind of hard, and with minimal zataaring. Reading the menu I had envisioned a kind of zaatar manoosh-sourdough hybrid, but this leant very closely to the bread side of things. At least I did not burn myself when I touched the cast iron pan, which is a real risk at Circa, and the chorizo was good, not too salty, as some have been in the past.

THOUGHTS
It’s hard to rate any shakshuka in Western Sydney well when you’ve had Circa’s excellent rendition of it no less than 5 times in the past two years. This combination of baked eggs and a large soy flat white would cost $1.20 more at my favourite Parramatta cafe, but I wouldn’t be flatly opposed to coming back here if the gang calls for it.

JUNE
Shop 3/4/7 Lomond Cres, Winston Hills NSW 2153
(02) 8000 3730

Categories
Market Stall Middle Eastern

Sev’s Turkish Gozleme – Sutherland NSW Restaurant Review

I’ve been relocated to a small health facility west of the Western Sydney location I was previously at, and there is on a semi-regular basis a gozleme stand. I had this mixed gozleme ($16) with chicken, beef, mushroom, spinach and feta – essentially everything they had to offer.

It was really not bad, kind of on the top end of what you’d expect to pay for a gozleme, and could have done with a bit more cheese and spinach, but overall competent and highly edible in comparison to the usual stuff that’s available at a health facility of this stature.

Though I had this in Western Sydney and the company lists itself on its social media in Greystanes, from an online search it appears that their most frequent location appears to be the Shire Farmers Market in Sutherland, and thus this is where I have chosen to drop the pin.

Sev’s Turkish Gozleme
Occasionally in Blacktown, Occasionally at the Shire Farmer’s Market
131 Flora St, Sutherland NSW 2232

Categories
Middle Eastern

Munoushee – Concord NSW Restaurant Review

I treated myself to breakfast at Munoushee which is basically a Western Sydney restaurant in the Inner West following a Western Sydney night shift. I had the chili, meat and cheese wrap ($14), and had quite mixed thoughts about it. I thought the wrap was good, the bread was thin and the the entire unit was flavourful but sadly I really had a lot of difficulty identifying any meat.

Completely uncharacteristically of me (call it a post-nights loss of frontal function) I went and asked the man working the counter if I had been provided the right meal. I really couldn’t find the meat in this chili meat and cheese wrap but he told me that yes this was the right meal, they just can’t put as much meat in the wrap as they do in a pizza and that the meat in a wrap would need to be quite thin otherwise it would be soggy.

Given that the only meat I could macroscopically identify is circled in the above photo, I absolutely would not have minded a soggy wrap.

I guess this is what I get for trying to have Western Sydney food outside of Western Sydney.

Munoushee
39 Majors Bay Rd, Concord NSW 2137

Categories
American Middle Eastern

Albeik Shawarma – Granville NSW Restaurant Review

One of the fellows I work with has never said no to some physically unhealthy but spiritually permitted fast food overnight. Though we mostly order from a few known locals, we do on occasion get to branch out.

The fried chicken pieces (3 for $11) were excellent – some of the best post-midnight fried chicken I’ve had in Western Sydney. It was perfectly crispy on the outside, and extremely juicy on the inside. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to get a photo of the meat inside, and my only complaint is that the spiciness of the spicy version could be a little spicier.

Unfortunately the chicken shawarma wrap ($13), which you would expect to be the restaurant’s specialty, was nowhere near as excellent. The wrap, though size-appropriate and chicken-filled, presented as dry, and could’ve used much more garlic sauce/toum than was provided. I’ve certainly had better in the vague local area, including Armani Restaurant in Parramatta, and Babylon Bakery in Fairfield Heights.

Albeik (Al Beik) Shawarma
48 Railway Parade, Granville NSW 2142
(02) 8626 9839