TETA'S LEBANESE - ROSEVILLE CHASE, SYDNEY

Teta's Lebanese
25 Babbage Road
Roseville Chase, Sydney

Teta's have been open approximately two and a half years. When you arrive here what first strikes you is that it is quite an oasis. It also has wonderful stone walls inside bathed in greenery.
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We attended the event "Teta's Table" and were indulged with a traditional and sumptuous meal which also included wonderfully flavoured cocktails on arrival.

The food is authentic Lebanese-Armenian cuisine and Teta's means grandma's in Arabic.

It is a family run business and the passion certainly shows through.

The menu is created using the freshest seasonal products and it all looks and tastes tantalising.

Haven't cocktails come a long way! Our cocktails were delicious and both had a vibrancy to them.
The Beirut Cooler was  described as a refreshing, summer drink of fresh watermelon, vanilla & regular vodka & ginger beer. The Arabian Nights was made up of Bacardi, raspberries, blueberries and Alize. This was a beautifully coloured cocktail. These were both great tasting cocktails and we could have easily consumed them all night - they were so good.





















The mixed dips platters - both being huge fans of dips - we both enjoyed. The dips were Hummus (chickpea), baba ghanouj  (smokey eggplant), labne (thick yoghurt) & fried bread. They were presented on plates that enhanced their colour and texture. These dips were so good. It was just so easy to just keep eating and keep eating them!

The Kibbeh Nayye is lamb tartare (raw lamb) finely blended with crushed wheat, onion & house spices.

Being so finely minced this was a very smooth dish and it had a great flavour.

It was nice on it's own and was also equally nice combined with the fresh salad.


The Kataifi prawns were prawns wrapped in crispy kataifi pastry, sitting on top a bed of harissa infused mayonnaise. These were plump prawns wrapped in the shredded crispy pastry and they tasted good. They were informatively presented - a work of art.





















The Fried potatoes were mixed with fresh coriander, lemon juice and olive oil. These were quite more-ish and had a lovely tangy taste.

Next we had the Traditional Fattoush which was impressively presented.

It was garden salad with crispy fried bread, cucumber & tomato dressed with sumac, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses & extra virgin olive oil.

This dish had very fresh flavours and textures.

Tabouli is popular and this very yummy salad was made up of chopped parsley with bulgar wheat, tomato & onion dressed in lemon juice & extra virgin olive oil. Tabouli is great by itself as well as a great accompaniment.

The home-made Toum (creamy garlic dip) was almost whipped egg white in texture. It was fluffy and had a delicate garlic flavour - not overpowering. To accompany these wonderful Mezza Entrees we had Fresh Lebanese bread - which as we all know goes so well and incredibly well with dips! Mlady used the Lebanese bread as a wrap to encase the dips with salad - lovely!

The finale to our starters - yes we were yet to get to mains - was the fried kibbeh. This traditional dish was fried ground lamb mixed with crushed wheat shells and all filled with a great combo of more minced meat, pine nuts, onion and traditional spices. It had it all - crunch, texture and flavour. 

This main was -WOW.

Our spectacular 1m skewers arrived with various combinations of meat with capsicum and onion were chicken, lamb and kafta.

These really were so impressive.

They have these amazing wrought iron poles that are connected to the tables right next to you (but not in your way at all). The big 1m meat skewers are then attached.

It is so visually impressive and a great conversation piece.

You use tongs to slide the meat down the skewer and off onto the plate below - then onto your own plates. The meat is tender and juicy so it does come off easily too.

The meat was cooked perfectly and we thoroughly enjoyed it all!

The next very tasty main was lemon garlic chicken which was charcoal cooked chicken breast fillets tossed in Teta's famous lemon garlic sauce, served with rice.

The chicken was very tender and tasty and was in chunks. The sauce went so well with the chicken and rice. Another great tasting dish.

For dessert we had the totally AMAZING Nutella Aish Al Sarayah.

Described in the menu as - Traditional Lebanese bread pudding with a modern twist, topped with clotted cream, fresh pistachios & Nutella.

OMG!!!

One of the best desserts!!!


Mlady could taste the wonderful sauce that was lightly drizzled over it. After much pondering she deduced that it reminded her of another great "sweet" - Turkish Delight - the one with rosewater. Sir agreed. When asking a waitress we were told that it was in fact - yes - rosewater! Yum Yum and Yum! A good coffee afterwards went down well too!

We were also indulged with two lovely ladies "belly dancing" - the ancient dance of celebration.

They were very entertaining and wore beautiful costumes and the crowd really loved them.

There was also audience participation which, combined with our wonderful food, made for a very good night!

The food at Teta's is really good, wonderfully fresh, great flavours and textures and the servings are generous.

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Teta's. A big thank you to George for taking time out to chat with us. Special thanks to the lovely ladies from Lick Your Phone PR for this invitation and for a great night.

MECCA BAH - BROADBEACH, GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND

Mecca Bah
3 Oracle Bvd
Broadbeach, Gold Coast, Queensland

Mecca Bah is such an exotic venue - in fact it's what you would probably be expecting from the name.

It's a very spacious place with a variety of different areas - with seating inside, outside along the pretty boulevard or in their large covered inside/outside area at the rear of the restaurant.

We chose the inside/outside area as it was a beautiful sunny day and it just looked so nice there.

Mecca Bah is of course Middle Eastern food and their brand and group has grown to now have venues across a number of cities in Australia.

It's obviously providing food and venues that people like.

It was just so pleasant sitting there watching the world go by and eating delicious food.

It's open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner and stays open late so there are plenty of available times to visit.

Make sure you take a look around too - there are so many artifacts and ornaments there adding to the feel and experience - it's lovely.

It was midday and that meant it was time for a drink - actually it was opening time at 11:30am but near enough!

Sir had a tasty Casablanca martini which he thoroughly enjoyed and Mlady had the slightly sweeter Turkish delight martini which hit the spot for her!

We then started to eat - and boy was there a lot of food to try - we only got to a small portion of the extensive menu.

First up was the Moroccan potato cakes filled with goats cheese and pine nuts. These little beauties were a favourite of Mlady's - crunchy on the outside and soft and full of flavour inside.

Pastry and meat are made for each other aren't they? The lamb sfiha was a winner with Sir - but he loves meat and he loves pastry. It was not a heavy starter - made from open pastry with spiced lamb, tomato and mint and lemon. Delicious!

Next was some tangy and tasty hummus topped with spiced lamb, pine nuts and herbs served with Lebanese Za'atar bread. It was a bit more complex than your usual hummus - and the extras certainly went well.

We both like haloumi but we loved this variation - baked haloumi with pomegranate, mint salad and lemon.

Of course lemon is a must with haloumi but this version had even more tang with the pomegranate and mint - the addition of the pomegranate and mint was great.

Next up was Mlady's highlight of the meal (she's the healthier one of us obviously).

It was a pretty and colourful salad of mixed quinoa, roasted pumpkin, snow pea tendrils, asparagus, fetta cheese with a spicy apple balsamic dressing.

Of course Middle Eastern food means meat on a skewer. This was not like any other presentation we'd had previously either.

The Baharat spiced lamb shish came with bell peppers and onions and was served with Lebanese flat bread, tomato, cucumber, fresh herbs and fragrant pilaf rice.The meat was on a skewer  hanging over a dish of hot coals with a mesh grill on top. You then simply slid the meat, onions and peppers onto the grill and slightly "toasted" them a bit more. There was also some fragrant wood chips and sawdust to sprinkle onto the coals - adding even more flavour and creating a lovely "show".

Dessert for some people is the best part of any meal. For us it is certainly important - almost essential in fact!

We had a lovely platter with interspersed sections of cheesecake and ice cream. It was orange blossom cheesecake with pomegranate, raspberry and honey syrup served separated by scoops of vanilla ice cream.

We then finished everything off with some rich and thick Turkish coffee.

The showmanship of the serving process makes it all even more interesting - and lets not forget the sweet Turkish Delight that came with it!

We slowly sipped on a couple of "dessert martinis" to complete the feast! Mlady's slightly sweeter tooth was quenched with a marshmallowtini - garnished with petite marshmallows. Sir had the quaintly named baked apple pie - and yes it did taste exactly like this!!

Mecca Bah is an exotic escape right on the Gold Coast. The decor is of course Middle Eastern - and nicely done. Service is fast and friendly and the food and drinks are a treat. The biggest challenge is what to choose - the menu certainly has heaps of variety!

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Mecca Bah and Platinum Restaurant Group. Special thanks to Mecca Bah Gold Coast Manager Stan for spending time with us. Thanks also to Caitlin, Cathy and Domenica for looking after us so well. A big thanks to Fallon Gomesz of the Platinum Restaurant Group for inviting us.

SUNDWEESH - SYDNEY

Sundweesh
Popping up across Sydney

Ever had a Sundweesh? We hadn't until the other day and didn't know what we'd been missing! It's basically a fresh tasty Middle Eastern bread-wrapped packet of goodness. Started by the lovely and lively Manar, we popped in to try them for the first time at their stall at the Smooth FM Chocolate Festival recently. They were delicious and we're so glad we got to sample them!





















There were four varieties of Sundweesh available on the day we went - and we were lucky enough to try them all.Baroness A was with us and she grabbed the special of the day - prawn with slaw and peri mayo. She eagerly devoured it and was suitably impressed with the flavours and quantity! These suckers are filling! Mlady and I shared the three others - kafta with tabouli and hummus, grilled chicken with peri peri slaw and finally falafel with tabouli and hummus. Each had their own distinct flavour combination and they were all excellent. My favourite though, was the juicy kafta version whilst Mlady found it hard to share the grilled chicken Sundweesh.

Sundweesh are appearing much more regularly at festivals and events, but they also cater for corporate functions as well. They're easy to eat (everything wraps up inside the bread), very tasty (with plenty of filling varieties and sauce options) and affordable.

Sir and Mlady (and Baroness A) tried Sundweesh as guests of Sundweesh. Many thanks to Manar for inviting us to try her tasty creations!

 

EMBERS - DARLINGHURST, SYDNEY

Embers
52 Oxford St
Darlinghurst, Sydney

What an ornate place with so much charm and atmosphere. You feel like you're stepping into another world when you walk in the door of Embers! The heritage of this building is that it used to be a bank - many years ago. It has lovely arcitecture and the interior has made it even more spectacular.


Owners Henri and Elie Azzi have created a beautiful restaurant.

The food of Charles Fisher adds even more taste and style.

The theme here is Middle Eastern food with a modern twist - and presentation is certainly just as important as well!





We started with a tasting plate put together for us to try a variety of their goodies. It had two plump juicy fresh oysters in the shell beautifully garnished. They were lovely. Then there were two spoons with a sampler of one of Embers signature dishes - scorched ocean trout with spiced tahini and fennel. This was simply delicious and had a great combination of flavours and textures. Finally there was a serving of marinated olives.

All three of these dishes were very tasty - but the scorched ocean trout was so nice we greedily grabbed a full sized serving of this as well!

We then moved on to a lovely serving of fried halloumi with honey zaater.

This dish was amazing! The flavours were incredible - such a great combination that worked so well together.

Mlady is not normally a fan of honey dishes - or halloumi to be honest - but she thoroughly enjoyed this and said it was so much nicer than she could ever have imagined.

It's difficult to go to any Middle Eastern restaurant and not have a serving of hommus. The offering here is hommus with Afghani and sesame bread. It comes on a mini breadboard with a generous dollop of hommus and a good pile of lovely fresh bread.

Next up was the cauliflower, chickpea and pomegranate salad.

It came with a dressing of red wine vinegar and pomegranate molasses.

It was certainly a colourful dish and so fresh and tasty as well.

Even though I'm not a huge salad eater this one was easy to enjoy - it was very light, fresh and tasty.

We then had a lovely serving of scallop nayeh.

This is basically raw scallop or scallop ceviche.

We are both fans of ceviche and have ordered it from many of the restaurants we have visited.

This version came with chilli and eggplant mixed in with the pieces of scallop.

It tasted delicious and we finished every last bit of it.

This one certainly didn't disappoint us - it really did live up to our expectations - which were high!

I love duck and I will have it almost everywhere I go. Mlady says I "zero in on it" when I see it on a menu. Well this one wasn't even on the menu for Embers - yet. It was going on soon though and we had the chance to get in early to try it!

This was carob glazed duck breast on wilted spinach with Dutch carrots and potato dauphinoise. It tasted great and the carob went surprisingly well. This was also a lovely mix of flavours.

If hommus is a must do for Middle Eastern food then lamb is even more of a must eat food!

Embers has a lovely confit lamb shawarma with tahini sauce and pickled radish that melts in your mouth.

The lamb was delicious and the combination was fantastic. Mlady isn't a lamb eater but I devoured it - scooping it up into the bead that came with it. Just perfect!

Our next course was beef.

It was the carob glazed beef cheek with freekah grapes and sheeps milk labne.

A carob glaze may not leap off the page for some people as their first choice but it actually went really well.

The beef cheek was also slow cooked and dissolved - it was so tender.

Of course a lovely meal needs dessert to finish it off!

We decided to share two of the choices - the tahini and date brulee with figs and the rose jelly sahleb cream and sumac strawberries.

They were both delicious - the brulee having quite a distinct but extremely good taste and the second dessert providing a light and refreshing combination of flavours and textures.

Then just when we thought our meal was done a night cap was suggested.

How could we say no - especially when we chose an Embers Majharita (Tequila blu, coriander, cinamon, lime and orange) and a Beirut Kiss (Vodka O, lychee, raspberry and rosewater).

It was a lovely way to end a lovely evening.

Chef Charles Fisher

Embers Mezze Bar is a lovely place with so much charm and atmosphere from its decor, food and service.

Tables are not crowding each other and the whole place has an open feel to it.

It's one big room with everyone enjoying themselves.

Their food comes in generous servings and has lovely flavours and presentation. It's a restaurant well worth visiting!

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Embers Mezze Bar. Thanks to Henri Azzi for arranging our visit, the whole team at Embers for looking after us so well and to Charles Fisher for his delicious and appealing dishes.

The Embers crew with Henri Azzi far right

ARABELLA - NEWTOWN, SYDNEY

Arabella Restaurant and Bar
489 - 491 King St
Newtown, Sydney

Arabella is a large and very popular Lebanese restaurant. The name is a blending to reflect its Arabic heritage and bella meaning beauty - and the restaurant does both these areas justice. I was dining with the Princess who loves Lebanese food.

The service is unobtrusively attentive and very friendly - Mohamad and his team make you feel right at home.

The decor is nice here too - not overstated. They have outside seating and a variety of areas inside ranging from cosy nooks and tables and right through to function areas for larger groups - and the added extra of belly dancers on Fridays and Saturdays!



We were having the banquet and started with the trio of dips - hoummous, babaganouj and garlic labneh. These three are all traditional  favourites and they were all great. I loved the hoummous - it was so full of flavour, but the Princess favoured the garlic labneh - eating almost all of it on her own even though it had quite a good hit of garlic to it. The fresh soft Lebanese bread that came with it topped it off perfectly.

The salads are sooooo fresh here. We commenced with a beautiful tabbouleh made of parsley, shallots, mint, tomato, crushed whet and lemon. It was crisp and tangy and we just wanted to eat more once we started it.

Our next salad was the fattoush made from tomato, cucumber, shallots, radish, capsicum, green vegetables and fried crispy bread. The blend of textures and flavours were set off perfectly with the pomegranate, lemon and olive oil dressing.

More fresh salads arrived - this time the bean salad - which had a real punch to it with chilli's throughout it. Its a great way to get your greens and enjoy them for those that are reluctant.

One of my favourites of the night was the Arabella coriander potatoes - a lovely mix with a strong hit of lemon that was amazing. I couldn't stop eating this - even though it was a substantial serving.

Our next treat was a mixed plate with fried kebbi, ladies fingers and falafel. All of them were extremely good.

Fried kebbi is a crisp pastry half moon filled with lamb mince, onions and pine nuts. The combination goes well with the subtle nut flavours merging with the tender lamb textures and taste.

Ladies fingers are crispy rolls filled with feta cheese, herbs and parsley. The cheese oozes out when you bite into them. Its a great taste.

Falafel is of course a traditional dish which is also a vegetarian favourite consisting of chickpeas, broadbeans herbs and pickles that are deep fried. The outer crunch was well complemented with the softer texture inside.

If you haven't tried Lebanese pizza before - or arraais - you need to!

This stuff is good - and seriously good here at Arabella.

This version was basically two layers of bread sandwiching a combination of minced lamb, herbs and spices and then of course cooked.

The crisp outer and soft fragrant filling was really delicious.

A quick squeeze of fresh lemon juice on top adds further to the experience.

Our final main meal component was a very substantial and totally delicious mixed shish kebab plate.

On the plate was juicy tender lamb, gently spicy kafta and some of the best marinated tender chicken I've ever tasted.

The Princess raved about the lamb and devoured it whilst I was equally excited about the chicken which had amazing flavour and melted in the mouth.

The dip that came with this plate was also amazing - crushed ice, fresh garlic and lemon juice all blended smoothly together.

I couldn't stop eating it - even though I knew it would linger later!

We finally finished with some sweet nibbles. I'm a Turkish delight addict and loved having this as a finale. The halva was also great - a sweet mixture of semolina and sugar in a cake square.

We also had some lovely wines to add to the whole dining experience - including a surprisingly good Turkish red (I hadn't tried Turkish wine before).

Arabella is a great experience. The food is top quality - fresh, fragrant and hard to stop eating once you start. I find it very hard to understand why this place doesn't rate better on some sites - if you've eaten here recently you'd experience what we did! The food was great in quality and quantity and the service attentive. All we can say is try it yourself - we did and would glady go back.

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Arabella.