Tag: charcoal chicken

Categories
Middle Eastern

Pazar Food Collective – Canterbury NSW Restaurant Review

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

Categories
Portuguese

Frangos Charcoal Chicken – Petersham NSW Restaurant Review

Takeaway service at Frango’s is instantaneous. Stacks upon stacks of charcoaled chicken are on display in the window, ready to be cut into quarters, lathered with chilli sauce, and popped into foil-lined paper bags.

This review needs to be read in consideration of the following two facts:

  • Chicken was eaten after a huge meal at Fich at Petersham
  • Chicken travelled for around 40 minutes in the boot of my car as we then went to Hakiki’s before home.

With these caveats in mind, I still found the chicken at Frango’s disappointing. I have heard a lot of good things about Frango’s over the past few years, however never had an opportunity to try until now. My reference point for charcoal chicken in Sydney is El Jannah, compared to which Frango’s chicken is decidedly dry. Frango’s chicken has a light mushroomy taste, and what seemed to be a generous basting of chilli sauce turned out to be utterly inadequate – any sense of chilli flavour was difficult to find. I will admit to adding some Nando’s peri peri sauce at home, while my partner ate her chicken with some Pilpel garlic sauce.

Oddly enough Frango’s greek salad had red capsicum and celery inside. It was fine, nothing to write home about.

Frango’s is listed in a wide array of top-lists for charcoal chicken in Sydney, however I didn’t think Frango’s lived up to the hype. If I may be so bold, I would even say that when it comes to Portuguese chicken I have enjoyed chain restaurants Oporto, Nando’s, and Ogalo more. A bit of a let down.

2.5/5

Frango’s Charcoal Chicken
98 New Canterbury Rd, Petersham NSW 2049
(02) 9560 2369

Categories
Middle Eastern

Camy’s Chargrill Chicken – Mascot, NSW Restaurant Review

This is a takeaway review of Camy’s Chargrill Chicken in Mascot. It could also be a takeaway review of Camy’s Charcoal Chicken in Mascot. At this point I’m not sure what they’re called.

The Lebanese Wrap with chicken, tabouli, garlic sauce and lettuce and tomato was really good. Freshly cooked chicken, fresh salads and a generous amount of garlic. Quality was not dissimilar to any Western Sydney charcoal chicken restaurant. A slight shame that tomato was $1 extra but for $12 all up it makes for a reasonably healthy and yummy lunch.

The Hail Caesar Burger was also not bad. I misread the menu and thought that it would be beef but it came with chicken instead. I guess it makes a lot more sense for it to have come with chicken. I’ve never seen a Caesar salad with beef before. The egg in the burger was quite good. Not fully cooked, with a runny yolk. The lettuce, egg, cheese, chicken schnitzel and Caesar dressing came together well, like a salty meaty greasy salad. Yum.

The Charcoal Chicken, however, is where Camy gets into trouble. I have no pictures to show you, but basically we found Camy’s charcoal chicken to be very middle of the road. It was not as moist or as flavourful as the charcoal chicken I’ve come to expect after living in Western Sydney, but certainly not the worst I’ve had either. The fact that Camy offers toum (garlic sauce) as an addon but doesn’t bundle the chicken with any at all is very disappointing.

The 3 Empanadas and Salsa Verde ($14.90) I thought was a bit disappointing and overpriced. It’s really not a lot of food for $15. The salsa verde was yummy.

Overall I can recommend the wrap and burger, but can’t recommend the stock standard charcoal chicken. If charcoal chicken is what you’re after, you’d be better off going to El Jannah.

Camy’s Chargrill Chicken
Shop 16/11 Etherden Walk, Mascot NSW 2020
02) 8319 4021