Tag: grilled kebabs

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.

Categories
Middle Eastern

Kabab Al Hojat – Merrylands NSW Restaurant Review

The mixed kebab ($20) from Merrylands’ Kabab Al Hojat is pretty well known both within and outside of the Western Sydney Afghan community. Essentially what your $20 gets you is a skewer of chicken, a skewer of lamb tikka, and a skewer of shami (mince) with a grilled green pepper, half a tomato, some fresh salads, and an unreasonably large quantity of bread. The meats were juicy, well flavoured, and tender, but I thought that the fresh salads didn’t really complement the meats in the way that I ate it. I assume that one of the intended ways to eat this would be to wrap everything up in bread and eat it as a roll, in which case it would’ve made more sense.

Pretty good/10. Well known locally. Some guy in scrubs came to pick up his order whilst I was there, and given it’s around a half hour round trip during the day from the nearest tertiary referral hospital I thought that was a bit brave.

Kabab Al Hojat
2/254 Pitt St, Merrylands NSW 2160
(02) 8677 9423

Categories
Middle Eastern

Mum’s Kitchen – Eastlakes NSW Restaurant Review

Mum’s Kitchen (not my mum – someone else’s mum) should be commended for their early opening hours. It is a rare Lebanese restaurant that opens at 6 in the morning, and while its food isn’t great, it’s one of the few interesting options for breakfast after a night shift in the area.

The Half Cheese Half Lahem Pizza ($10) was some of the worst half cheese half meat Lebanese pizza I’ve ever had. Somehow both the cheese and the meat halves were dry. If you’re looking for something like this that actually tastes good I suggest you try Mina Bakery, the closest of which is in Carlton. Nonetheless, despite it being very bad, it was still good, as meat, cheese and carbohydrates tends to be.

The mixed plate ($21.50) was equally disappointing. The meat was dry, and the hummus was very watery. The garlic sauce was too creamy and didn’t have enough garlic flavour. Nevertheless a dry man finds a cactus in the desert.

The Chicken Wrap ($11.50) was actually quite good. There was a good ratio of filling to bread, and the pickles and chicken and sauces inside were synergistic. This is a good pick of a bad bunch.

Overall, Mum’s Kitchen is quite bad. But where else are you going to go if the craving hits before noon?

3/5

Mum’s Kitchen
96 Maloney Street, Eastlakes NSW 2018
0426 462 036

Mum's Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato