The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
We had a hard night of moving hard rubbish between our new place and the hard rubbish pickup at our old apartment complex, which took multiple, completely unnecessary trips because it turned out to be extremely easy to book hard rubbish pickup in the Inner West Council area. By the time we had finished moving all our stuff, all planned locations for a late night meal were closed, and we ended up at Brothers Kebabs in Annandale for a late night feed.
This halal snack pack with lamb and chicken was good, but expensive. I’m not sure of the price any more, but I want to say that it was in the neighbourhood of $22, which is quite pricey but I guess reflects the rising cost of everything these days. The meat was good, the chips fresh and crispy, and the saucing generous, though we were given the chilli sauce out of the squeeze bottle, not the luxurious looking spooned-from-the-tub chilli sauce that they were putting on the kebabs. I will have to ask for that next time.
I hadn’t had a pide for a good long time, and this chicken type pide hit the spot. Again, post midnight, I did not manage to remember to get prices or even the name of the menu item down. I wish it had come with more lemon, but I’m sure I could’ve asked for more.
A pretty good meal, good hours, and a rare finding of lamb.
Pazar Food Collective identifies as an Inner-West restaurant, which as someone who lives two minutes down the road I think it’s a bit laughable. As I told our dining companions on the night, the only people who consider where we live to be the Inner-West seem to be real estate agents. Regardless of which highly-priced clique of Sydney we were or weren’t in, we had a pretty good meal. Prices noted below are inclusive of a 10% weekend surcharge, which, given they’re only open Thursday-Saturday, I think bears mentioning.
We started with this wood baked sesame nigella bread with salted wild oregano butter ($17.05 – $13.20 without the butter). Both the bread and the butter tasted good and fragrant, with a density that might just be in keeping with its own style. Though I enjoyed the bread, I do wish that there could have been a cheaper or even no-cost option (like a flatbread or something, especially because we ended up getting multiple servings, given that such a large number of their entrees are so sauce focused.
People liked the muhamarra ($18.70), but I didn’t. It is a dip that that the menu describes as consisting of roasted almonds and walnuts blended with blistered red peppers, pomegranate molasses, and chilli. It’s hard to pinpoint why I didn’t like it – I think it was a bit loose and watery textured, though clearly no one else around the table had any problems with it. Bread was essential, and again a bit of pita would’ve gone a long way.
I am a lover of meet, and yes the sujuk with hummus and blistered tomatoes ($25.30) was enjoyable. The sujuk was helpfully presented as a mince rather than as slices of sausage, which made a lot of sense for a dish that ultimately surmounted to a multi-textured dip. I tend to eat quite a bit of sujuk during my Western Sydney culinary adventures, often without enjoying it, but I must say that this time I was thoroughly impressed by both the flavour and texture of the mince. Similar to the last dip, the reds were again blistered to this time produce cherry tomatoes that brought with them discrete pops of juice and flavour. The hummus didn’t really register for me. It was merely a creamy carrier for the other tasty ingredients rather than the focus of the dish.
Wow, another sauce, and need for another bread. The braised Japanese eggplant ($23.10) with roasted red pepper tomato sauce, garlic labneh, and chilli crisp did nothing for me. Apart from the slices of eggplant itself (which did not feel extremely Japanese to me) this tomato and capsicum dish felt more or less the same as a combination of the other two dips. Quite missable in my opinion.
We chose to have both the mains to share between us. This is the wood smoked roast lamb ($51.70 – 2 person serving size), atop a bed of bulgur pilav and garnished with pickled chillis, sumac herb and red onion salad. Though I wasn’t wowed by the meat, I did enjoy the bright pickled chillis, herbs, and lemon, which helped to keep mouthfuls of lamb moist and flavourful. This was my first time having bulgur pilav, which from what I can gather by my mouth and by Google is a wholegrain dish very similar to but distinct from wholewheat couscous and quinoa. It had rice energy.
Tied favourite with the sujuk mince was this terribly photographed harissa roasted chicken ($40.7). This half chicken, roasted on charcoal, was super tender and flavourful, marinated in a tahini lemon sauce, and served with chilli garlic and green chilli toum. Each bite of the chicken was really superb, and though it didn’t need the salad to help keep it fresh and moist, its presence was appreciated because it gave me something to eat whilst I respectfully let my co-diners have their fair share of the chicken. Strong recommend on this one.
Comments This restaurant really has a lot of saucey and dippy entrees for a place that only offers $13.20 servings of bread. It would really make a lot more sense to just have bottomless pita, but it would probably cut into their bottom line and $13 bread sales. The sujuk and the chicken were particular standouts. We also had some pretty good sangria, which I promise I only had a couple of sips of.
Pazar Food Collective 325 Canterbury Rd, Canterbury NSW 2193, Australia +61 411 727 874
We celebrated my partner’s birthday like four times over the course of a fortnight. One of those times was at Kabul House in Merrylands. I showed up about 90 minutes into the thing after a day shift at work, but I feel confident in my assessment given that we ordered a huge new batch of food for me to have by myself, whilst everyone else watched.
This is the half platter ($65), a huge dish of 2 shami kebab (minced lamb), 2 chicken kebab, and 2 tikka kebab (lamb cubes), as well as bread (pictured below). My partner, who ordered for me as I drove from work, wanted to give me the option of trying as many things as possible, but didn’t realise that it was possible to order half this amount of meat for half the price. This is definitely too much meat for one human, and this was after finishing work at 9PM and not having eaten anything that entire day apart from two soy coffees and a protein shake in the morning.
As far as the meat quality goes, I enjoyed the chicken the most, as it was juiciest and most tender, followed by the shami kebab, for similar reasons. The tikka lamb kebab was a tiny bit tougher and drier, and definitely decreased in palatability as it cooled down a bit, whilst the other two remained good throughout the course of the meal. I consider myself pretty good at cooking chicken, but I wish I could cook chicken like this.
This is bread, which came with the half platter. It is not the best Afghan bread I’ve had, but not the worst. The best Afghan bread I’ve had to date was from Gulistan Take-Away in Box Hill VIC on the 16th of September 2017.
We also had some chopan kebab ($16 for one 4-piece skewer), which were barbequed lamb chops, which everyone else raved about the tenderness of but I didn’t love.
The aashak(aushak) ($25), described on the menu as “10 fresh chives stuffed dumplings topped with yogurt and lentils” was really good. I think it’s vegetarian, but I didn’t even notice. I’d not had this before, but really loved the creaminess of the sauce, the slight bit of texture of the lentils, as well as the moistness and chive flavour of the dumplings and the overall package. I think unless you have a specific aversion to one of the ingredients in this dish, this is something you have to try if you eat here. I devoured the leftovers the following night.
Overall thoughts I really enjoyed the aashak dumplings, and think they were the standout of my meal. The meat was not bad, but I actually think that the lamb tikka at nearby Kabab Al Hojat was better.
I suspect that these guys are completely separate to Brothers Kebab in Banksia, which is a place I was a fan of when I was a uni student but no longer so fond of. We came for a late night feed that was actually very good, and may just propel Brothers Belmore above CK Canterbury in terms of our favourite local kebab joints.
We had a lamb kebab with tabouli ($17 including $1 for tabouli) with garlic, chilli, and humus – a spin on our classic order of a mixed kebab but taking advantage of the rare appearance of ‘lamb’ on a Sydney kebab shop menu – something that has consistently dwindled in availability over the past two decades. The ‘lamb’ meat was actually very meaty and much more believable as a meat that came from a living animal’s good muscular bits than your average doner kebab mystery meat. It was tender and juicy, without a hint of floury extender making an overall very good kebab, if priced at the very top end of town.
Small chips ($7) were solid. Freshly fried to order, with a little tub of chilli sauce just because we asked for it, at no additional cost.
VERDICT At a whole five dollars more than nearby competitor CK’s Kebab Canterbury, Brothers Belmore is clearly on the top side of the scale. Whether or not the allure of less-mysterious mystery meat is worth that to you I will let you decide. These guys earned a spot in the rotation for us.
3 Tomatoes is an unusually bustling cafe on an otherwise quiet suburban Ashbury street, a provider of a wide an interesting range of food options on their all-day menu as well as a selection of artisan groceries at their counter up front.
The Syrian falafel bowl ($17) with additional poached egg ($3.50) was a green and fresh bowl of sliced cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, sliced radish, unsliced salad leaves, unsliced pickled chilli, and four or five freshly cooked falafels, all drizzled in tahini and parsley. This bowl was an enjoyable and fresh treat, promoting a healthful feeling with each bite of its salad-like ingredients. The falafels were warm and fresh, with a good crunchy external layer and warm, moist, textured interior. The first bite of any fried food is always the best, and while my enjoyment of the falafels waned as they radiated heat into the surrounding environment they remained reasonably good by the end, especially when paired with the mildly sour and mildly spicy pickled chillis. While I was initially concerned by the number of falafel served, they proved to be in the perfect ratio to the salad, and we did not find ourselves wanting for more at the end of the meal. The poached egg, an addition onto the base bowl, was well done with mastery shown in timing. Overall quite good. Very sesame flavoured.
It’s a shame that I don’t have a proper photo of the beef brisket ($18) without it being covered in part by the gigantic extra handmade 3T hash brown ($7). I would have liked to be able to comment on them individually, but the layering of the hash brown within the beef brisket dish made this impossible. The beef brisket dish with date molasses, capsicum, tahini, cooked greens and a fried egg was warm and tasty, if less fresh and wholesome compared to the aforementioned salad. The meat was a particular highlight, given that we have had some relatively disappointing red meats in brunch meals of late (at other establishments). The fried egg, similar to the poached egg, was cooked to a high degree of runny perfection.
The handmade 3T hash brown ($7) was my partner’s compromise after I told her she shouldn’t order the shoestring fries. It was quite large, though I guess if it had been any smaller we would’ve been upset at the $7 asking price. It had an crispy exterior with a moist interior, and was strongly herbed for additional flavour.
The pastel de nata ($4.50) from Tuga Pastries will be reviewed individually in a separate post if I ever make it to one of Tuga’s stores, but suffice it to say it was good, and I didn’t even have to wait thirty minutes in line to eat it.
Sticky Chai ($5.50), Soy Latte ($4.50). Coffee by Will & Co. Good foam on the latte.
THOUGHTS It’s a very nice, doggy cafe in a very nice and doggy neighbourhood. I’d like to come back. I will admit that I looked online at real estate in the area after I got home. I am in the right age and stage chronologically but not financially. Pegfeeds is why.
A human, in double denim, petting a dog, not in denim.
