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.
The first time I ate at Fatima’s was on the 20th of December 2015. Having grown up in Western Sydney and then transplanted across to the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne for university meant that I was not familiar with all or any of the popular inner city haunts that my same-age-and-stage Sydney counterparts were familiar with. I remember being intimidated by my first visit to Fatima’s – there was a belly dancer in the main restaurant – and hurriedly ordering my shawarma to go.
It was not until December 2020, nearly five years later, that I would return to Fatima’s. My second visit was around 1:30AM following an evening shift in the emergency department. The restaurant is much less intimidating at this time of night, and much more dinky. It did not look all that clean or appealing, but given it was past 1AM and I had already made the drive to Surry Hills I thought I’d better follow through.
I ordered a kafta roll and a lamb shish kebab roll ($9.50 each with hommus, taboli, salad, garlic sauce, and chilli sauce). As I waited for my food to be cooked the older of the two Bengali guys working that night engaged me in a length conversation about the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and the foreign policy of the United States. While not desired, I will remark that this was a slightly less uncomfortable conversation than the coronavirus related conversation I had at Concrete Jungle Suburbia earlier in the year. The man offered me a free falafel from a metal bowl for my troubles.
Unfortunately as he was finishing up my lamb shish kebab roll he coughed (unmaskedly, might I add) right onto my food. This made me quite uncomfortable – even though the rates of COVID-19 in the community are low I’m also not out fishing for a random other URTI. I didn’t say anything at the time but I should have.
The kafta roll was quite good. Fatima’s has really perfected the mix of tabouli, garlic, and chilli sauce. It was, as I remembered from my visit five years ago, somewhat of a slimmer roll than what I’m used to from kebab shops, but no less delicious.
When I was a urology intern in Western Sydney my colleague and good friend told me that we had to go to Jasmin1. He said that it was the best Lebanese restaurant in Sydney and he was not wrong. We never made it there together during our two years at the foot of the Blue Mountains, and it was six months after we had parted ways that I managed to make it there with my partner.
The food at Jasmin1 was excellent. The servings were plentiful and the price was very cheap. I really enjoyed the mixed platter so much that I’ve had it every time I’ve been. The meat was perfectly tender and juicy, the servings large, and the dips infinite. It is just consistent quality.
A wide array of fresh and pickled vegetables.
The sambousek was great – delicious pastries with mince and onion filling.
I did not so much enjoy the fattoush (left) or the potato and pomegranate salad (right), as I thought they were too sour. The fact that we had loaded on the previous two dishes didn’t help but couldn’t be helped – they were just so yum.
I don’t know why on our second visit we got fries. Probably my partner’s doing.
DISCUSSION/VERDICT
The only thing I might add is that the service was too attentive and made me feel watched. I also thought the bathroom wasn’t the cleanest, but that was all.
Overall excellent and both better and cheaper than Al Aseel in Alexandria. Just a bit too far West to easily get to for us these days.
Nineteen43 is a Lebanese cafe in Rockdale, only a few minutes drive from my work. I visited for a quick breakfast after a night shift, and a takeaway meal to bring home to my partner.
Hummus & Lamb
The Hummus & Lamb ($18), with 12 hour slow cooked lamb shawarma shoulder served w/ Smokey paprika, burnt butter & pickled chillies with a side of fresh baked flat bread looked and sounded like it would be good.
The beautiful plating of lamb floating on a bed of red-sprinkled hummus was really quite appealing – it’s just unfortunate that the taste did not live up to what the eyes predicted. I found the meat to be way too overmarinated and oversalted. It was just too tasty. I had hoped that the hummus would provide some sort of reprieve from the oral salt bath that was the meat, however it itself was also quite tasty. The flat bread was fresh and actually quite delicious, but given the amount of salt in the meal the quantity of bread was just plainly inadequate.
Portuguese Tart
The Portuguese Tart was OK if you’re a fan of the big floppy ones. The filling was quite floppy inside, however I thought that the pastry was actually quite good.
Breakfast Pan
This is the takeaway version of the Breakfast Pan ($23), with two poached eggs, grilled haloumi, sujoq, garlic mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, crumbled feta, avocado and toasted sourdough.
I wonder if the dining-in version really is served in a pan, or merely a plate. I also wonder if the name indicates that all the ingredients were cooked in the same pan, but find that unlikely given that the eggs are poached. My partner quite enjoyed this. She liked basically all of the key components of the meal, barring the feta which she thought was a bit too baa for her. I also indulged in a few choice bites, and can safely say that this dish does not suffer from the sodium load issues of the hummus and lamb. I can recommend this one – a bit like a big breakfast.
Smoked Wagyu Kaak
I didn’t think I would go back to Nineteen43 after the eat-in dishes above, but given the buzz around their toasties/kaaks I thought I would give it a try. I’m glad I did. The Smoked Wagyu Kaak ($19, chips included) is actual wow. The thin slice of Jack’s Creek smoked wagyu was all that was needed to give the kaak a strong and delicious umami flavour. The pickles, slaw, and harissa mayonnaise added a great tanginess to the smoked wagyu kaak, one that I can still imagine on my tongue now. The chips that came with the smoked wagyu kaak were fresh shoestring fries, however I wonder if it can be ordered without them as the kaak stands well on its own without any need for additional carbs. I can definitely recommend this.
The Sujoq & Egg Kaak ($11, $14 pictured) with cream cheese, Sujoq (Middle Eastern Chorizo), Fetta shallots, & two fried eggs and the addition of halloumi ($3) was good but didn’t quite live up to the standard set by the Smoked Wagyu Kaak. I liked the taste of their sujoq, which I often don’t, and I thought that the addition of two eggs in this toastie was quite generous. The flavours were salty and eggy, just as a bacon and egg or chorizo and egg roll should be, however I found myself missing the zesty taste of the Wagyu Kaak’s pickles and slaw. I’d still recommend this – just not quite what I was looking for at the time.
Four Cheese Kaak with Pastrami and Tomato
The Four Cheese Kaak with Pastrami and Tomato ($14.50) was pretty good, but again not as good as the smoked wagyu kaak. I’ve never been a fan of cheese by itself, and I think that the tomato and pastrami were essential addons to the base four cheese. I would rate this above the egg and sujuk kaak just thanks to the freshness afforded by the addition of tomato. I wish I could add some smoked wagyu onto this so that I could have their smoked wagyu kaak for breakfast.
Lebanese chicken Foldover
The Lebanese chicken Foldover ($17) with Marinated free range chicken, slaw, Lebanese pickles, harissa mayonnaise dressing served w/ a side of French fries is a weaker offering than Nineteen43’s kaaks. While the kaaks offered a crispiness in the dough, this was not achieved by the bread wrapped around this foldover. The flavours erred towards the slightly-too-tasty side of things and reminded me of the first bad meal I had at Nineteen43, however thankfully this was tempered by the freshness of the Lebanese pickles. The chips in this dish were seasoned with a bit of spicy seasoning, as opposed to coming plain salted as they did with the wagyu kaak. Ultimately not a bad dish but not as good as the others on offer.
VERDICT
Would I come to Nineteen43 again? Yes- it is close enough to my work with enough unlimited parking in the council railway carkpark around the clock (there’s all day parking which was still available around 11:30AM, and also 15 minute parking suitable for takeaway). I would definitely warn any friends and colleagues away from the lamb and hummus (unless you’re on oral salt replacement – in which case eat away), but recommend the kaaks wholeheartedly.
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?
