Tag: charcoal kebabs

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
Indian

Fuadijan – Auburn NSW Restaurant Review

I drove past Fuadijan on the way home maybe 500 times before I went to eat there with my friend ES.

The chicken seekh kebab plate ($13.50) with naan was juicy and flavourful, and a good amount of the price.

The lamb tikka plate ($16.50) I enjoyed less, finding the meat a bit tougher than I would have liked, a problem not at all helped by the flimsy single use cutlery providing no means to cut it.

But I had a fun time, and the woman working there was really nice. She even let us try some extra rice when we couldn’t decide between rice and naan.

I don’t know that I’d go back to be honest, I’m surprised that such a meat forward place did so little for me food wise. But I’m glad we went.

Comment below if you strongly feel that Pakistani food should have its own category on this site.

Fuadijan
129 Parramatta Rd, Auburn NSW 2144

Categories
Middle Eastern

Jbeil Cuisine – Enfield NSW Restaurant Review

What do you do with these? What is the completion rate on these, and what happens to the remaining pickles that are left over?

We really enjoyed the tangy batata bi kizbara ($16) – “deep fried potato tossed in coriander, garlic, mild chilli & lemon juice”. It’s hard to go wrong with deep fried potatoes in general, but the citrusy and garlicky sauce was just an excellent accompaniament. People with a pathological aversion to coriander do have a pathological aversion.

I didn’t love the sambousek meat ($16). Though the filling of mince and onion was dense and falvourful, the pastry was dense and dry and unexciting. This could’ve been better with an oilier or less dense pastry.

The samkeh harrah ($19) “oven baked barramundi topped w coriander, roasted nuts, tahini & chilli sauce had potential but was far too salty to the point of inedible for me, even eaten with Lebanese bread.

The skewers platter to share ($44) was seriously excellent. It featured 2 skewers each of  kafta, laham mishwi & shish tawook, all of which was extremely juicy, fresh and tasty – the Platonic ideal of what Lebanese meat skewers should be. This, together with the garlic and chilli sauces, was perfection, and should be an unmissable item for any first time visitors.

Overall: In our experience, an equal number of hits and misses. Use this insider info to avoid at least 2 misses from their menu and maximise the hits.

Jbeil Cuisine Enfield
Shop 1 2/12 Coronation Parade, Enfield NSW 2136
(02) 9067 3107

Categories
Middle Eastern

Beirut Bites – Beverly Hills NSW Restaurant Review

The 6 falafel ($15) were really good. Nice and warm and moist on the inside, and crispy on the outside, accompanied perfectly by the pickles and side dish of tahini. They were, unfortunately, so good that we kind of filled up on them before our main arrived. It would be even better if they could come in a serving of 4.

The mixed plate ($34) was alright, but definitely had better and weaker components. My personal opinion was that the chicken skewer was the best of the three, with good flavour, tenderness and juiciness, as well as good synergy with the toum. Second would be the kafta, again quite moist, followed by the lamb meat. The toum, the hummus, and the baba ghanouj were all good though with both the pictured bread and the entire bag of Lebanese bread (unpictured) that came with the meal.

Overall I thought the food was good, but not neccessarily the best I have had. They were certainly open very late, which was a plus as it meant that I could catch up with my friend after finishing work at 9PM and then driving an hour.

Beirut Bites
457 King Georges Rd, Beverly Hills NSW 2209

Categories
Middle Eastern

Kabul House – Merrylands NSW Restaurant Review

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.