Today we are visiting the Sydney suburb of Lakemba. Lakemba is famous for their Ramadan Night Markets but outside of this time you'll find a range of Afghani, Pakistani and Moroccan food, some of which you may not have tried before along with super friendly service! Come and eat with us as we try some of the absolute best food that Lakemba has to offer! There was not one dud meal in this entire day!
This is my first time doing a suburb tour with Monica. Usually I do them with Laura but Monica had wanted to come along on one before she moves back to Italy next year. I've drawn up a list of half a dozen restaurants and what each one specialises in on a spreadsheet. They're all within easy walking distance of each other on Haldon Street. Parking in Lakemba is easy during the day and we find an all day park just near Haldon Street. We arrive in Lakemba around noon hungry and ready to eat! All of this food cost us $105 each and gave us leftovers for dinner for 5 days.
Pizza Land
Our first stop looks just like a pizza shop called Pizza Land. But when you look a bit further at it, there are two menus: one pizza menu and the second one with a range of "Arabian Bites" with dishes like Chicken Kabsah, Jordanian Mansaf and Wara Enab. I grab a retro style soda and take a seat. The front of Pizza Land is a Knafeh restaurant and the back is where you order at Pizza Land.
I'm not sure of the exact prices as the Arabian Bites are sold as a 5 dish package for $125 but the total for 2 dishes and 2 soft drinks was $72. The first dish to arrive is the Palestinian Msakan, a dish of chicken on a layer of round taboon flat bread with fried onions, sumac and allspice. The chicken is cooked to perfection and is fresh and still juicy inside and you are supposed to tear a piece of bread and then use it to get some meat from the chicken. You can also add some yogurt sauce to it. I like it both with and without the sauce.
When they bring out the wara enab we are taken aback at how glorious it looks-in the picture it looks like vine leaves but here they wrap it in bread dough. Inside is bulghur, vine leaves and vegetables slow cooked so that they are creamy textured. This is a tangy dish that has the flavours of preserved lemon and pomegranate molasses and is tasty and best shared between four people.
Royal Bait Al Mandi
Our next stops were supposed to be Mandi King and Yemen King but we found that both were closed although there was no indication online that they would be. But after a quick rejiggle of our map we headed to Royal Bait Al Mandi as we were determined to have mandi.
Mandi is a rice dish that originated in Yemen and is made with spiced rice and meat. The difference between Mandi and Biryani is that the meat is cooked separate to the rice. Mandi is popular in the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, Kerala and South East Asia. Lakemba has many Mandi places but a lot of them seem to be closed today but not Royal Bait Al Mandi.
Monica and I slide into a red booth and look at the menu. One page has kebabs, curries, biryanis and Indo Chinese dishes but we are interested in their Mandi - or actually their Madfoon dishes. They tell us that Mandi is mild in flavour while Madfoon is a spicy version. Each has a choice of mutton, chicken, fish, rib or quail and we go with their recommendation of chicken in a single sized serve.
Even as a single serve the chicken mandi is plentiful and enough for us to share. There's a big layer of fluffy basmati rice and on top of this is Chicken 65. The delicious chicken pieces are served chopped up and are so utterly spicy and moreish. You can either use a spoon or hands to eat the rice and chicken. On the side is a mild tomato based dipping sauce and a yogurt sauce. This is one of those dishes that you cannot stop eating because it is that delicious. Monica and I have to remind each other that we have a lot of other things to eat.
Afghan Sufra
A few doors down is Afghan Sufra. This restaurant is all about Afghan kebabs,curries and rice. I ask what is best to order and the gentleman behind the counter is super friendly and suggests the mixed platter with one each of the chicken, shami chalaw mince and lamb kebab and salad as well as bread. He also recommends the goat curry that is only available on weekends. We also order the Beef Nihari stew.
The food comes out quickly although it is freshly cooked. The kebabs are superb, fresh and juicy. The chicken is full of flavour and spice while the lamb is gorgeously tender. The Shami kebab is lamb mince mixed with chickpeas and the name comes from the word shaam, which means "dinner" and "night" in Persian. They're perfect on their own or wrapped up in the huge rounds of blistered flatbread provided.
We use the bread to scoop up the goat curry which is redolent in spices like cinnamon, all spice and curry powder. The Beef Nihari is more like a stew and flavoured with long pepper and thickened with atta flour. Both have large chunks of tender meat in them.
Shahi Dastarkhwan
By this time it's just after 1:30pm and we head towards Shahi Dastarkhwan, a restaurant we first came across during the Ramandan Night Market. They sell one of the most popular items at the market, a chicken wrap with four types of chicken, so we wanted to come back to try more. Their menu is full of interesting things including a mutton biryani bucket or chicken biryani bucket as well as those four delicious chicken dishes.
We decide on a Shahi Rice Platter for one person and a romali roti. I grab a mango lassi which I really enjoy. It's probably one of the few mango lassis that I finish because I prefer the mango forward flavour compared to the more yogurty ones.
The Shahi rice platter has a bit of everything from zeera rice with cumin seeds, dal tadka, Chicken 65 and Tala Hua Gosht or mutton. The romali roti comes rolled up in a foil package and it unwraps to be a thin, large roti perfect for the rice and chicken or curries.
Sultano Cafe
It's time to cross the railway tracks to the Sultano Cafe for Moroccan food. It's busy with people sitting at outdoor tables but this weekend's hot weather draws us inside in search of air conditioning. Sultano Cafe is gorgeous inside with mosaic tiled walls. The menu is a mix of Moroccan but mostly Italian dishes. Like all of the place we've visited, the service is friendly.
There are two types of lamb tagines available here: traditional made with prunes, eggs and almonds and modern made with vegetables. They recommend the traditional one and I also order a thirst quenching fresh watermelon juice (tip: the small is really quite large!). Unfortunately they are out of their house made Msemmen bread has run out for the day. The lamb tagine is a whole lamb shank with plump prunes, dried apricots and flaked almonds. The soup at the base is sweetened by the fruit and the warm, toasted Turkish bread is fantastic paired with the meltingly soft meat.
Kanafandi
Our last stop is for dessert at Kanafandi, where we all started at Pizza Land. We wanted to try the Knafeh but only once we had finished eating all of the savouries. We take a seat at the front and dither between the choices. There's the original of course topped with chopped pistachios but there are other flavours including Nutella, Pistachio Cream, Biscoff and caramel.
We settle on an original Knafeh which is cooked to order. These knafeh are around 12cm in diamter so a good size for one person. The kataifi is crisp and there's a lot of stretchy cheese inside. There isn't as much syrup as there is in other knafehs but you can always ask for more if you want it to be sweeter.
After that we go to the shops to go shopping for some recipe ingredients and produce and head back to the car with all of our leftovers!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you enjoy visiting other suburbs to try different food?
All of the food in this post was independently paid for
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