A Fairfield Food Tour

Come to Fairfield for a food tour showcasing some of the most best food businesses Fairfield has to offer. From the best falafel wrap, to a legendary pickle shop, an Assyrian restaurant run by one man, a viral chicken wrap that deserves the hype and a colourful Middle Eastern dessert shop with a twist, there is so much to make a whole day of your visit! Bring along your bags and an empty stomach.

I've been to Fairfield twice both times for food reasons but this is Laura's first time. But that hasn't stopped her from putting together a list of must have places we have to go to. We are meeting in Fairfield one warm, sunny spring afternoon and our first destination's name is unforgettable: Happiness.

Happiness and Middle Eastern Food Catering

When you know you're going to a place called Happiness you get a spring in your step. This small takeaway shop with just a few tables sells a very popular falafel sandwich that has people lining up outside the shop during lunchtime. When we take a seat a couple of men walk in. "Are you leaving?" one says hopefully. "No we just got here," I answer but we move our bags telling them that they can share our table. The restaurant is full with families and the table next to us is a family of six where everyone has a wrap but a young teen girl is eating sushi rolls. Classic teen.

Laura goes up to the counter to order our falafel sandwich. Apart from the sandwich there's also liver with curry powder, coconut sweets and a couple of other snacks but by and large everyone orders the falafel sandwich which we have fried eggplant added to for an extra dollar. When you eat in, you pay at the end. We bring the sandwich to our table and the two men next to us have set down two plates: one with fried cauliflower, falafel, eggplant and one with dip and fresh vegetables. "Please, try some," the man says. The man next to me lives in Fairfield while his friend opposite lives far away but they catch up at this restaurant. "You are in Iraq now," he says, passing an Iraqi bread to us and gesturing for us to try as much as we like. He explains that the bread is made in a pizza oven on a stone. I have heard many times that Iraqi people are the most hospitable and friendly and I think that is true.

We try our falafel sandwich also on this bread. The Iraqi bread is boat shaped and split on the side and stuffed with salad, crunchy falafel, dip and pickles. The famous mango sauce sits on the table which is laced with plenty of turmeric to give it a lovely spicy flavour. We wrap up the sandwich tightly in the paper and take a bite of this wonderful sandwich. The falafels are some of the best with a crunchy exterior and moist interior and the mango sauce adds so much flavour to it. And the price? $5 for this sandwich with $1 for the eggplant.

Happiness and Middle Eastern Food Catering: 9 Nelson St, Fairfield NSW 2165. Open 11am-9:30pm Monday to Saturday, Sunday 11am-1am.

King of Pickles and Spice

Around the corner we enter King of Pickles and the name checks out. King of Pickles has been featured on Tiktok a lot so you can see that reflected in the mix of patrons. And what customers do is grab a bucket or container and fill it up to their heart's content with pickles. There are so many types from classic cauliflower to stuffed cucumber, Jerusalem artichoke, spicy mixed pickles and turnip. Once you fill your bucket they weigh it, add some brine which will allow the pickles to keep for 1 month, and then use a mallet to shut the lid tightly. The service here is super lovely, friendly and helpful.

On the other side of the pickles is a range of olives that you can also add to your bucket. There are grilled green olives and all sizes of green and black olives and my container was a steal at $6 while my bucket of pickles was $8.

If you have a sweet tooth they also have a range of Turkish delight as well as dried fruit from lots of different rypes of dried apricots to dried peaches. Colourful Turkish delight cubes comes rolled in coconut in various colours and there's also a walnut stuffed fruit leather held together like string. I didn't love the Turkish delight as much as I wanted to and found some of the flavours were quite bland. But I did love the olives and the pickles were fun.

Another item that I really recommend trying is buffalo cream, a fluffy cream similar to goats cheese in texture. They recommend trying this with flatbread and honey for breakfast or with dinner. The buffalo cream spreads and looks just like a goat's cheese log (without the goats cheese aroma) and is absolutely delicious on the flatbread that we bought below and some honey!

Tip from a customer: when setting out your pickles, drain the turmeric brine off because the drips will stain your table or tablecloth otherwise!

King of Pickles and Spice: 114 Ware St, Fairfield NSW 2165. Open 8am-5:30pm Monday to Saturday, Sunday 8am-3pm

New Sydney Bakery

A few doors down from King of Pickles and Spice is New Sydney Bakery where they sell huge sheets of taftoon bread in packs of four. This is a wonderful bread that is so soft and fresh and is fantastic for making wraps. It's $4 for a bag of four huge sheets of bread and as Laura points out, it's the size of a torso!

New Sydney Bakery: 1b/104/110 Ware St, Fairfield NSW 2165. Open 7:30am-6pm Monday to Saturday, Sunday 8am-5pm.

Tenda Wrap and Charcoal Chicken

You don't want to get to Tenda Wrap too late in the day before they close because they have been known to sell out of their signature Tenda wrap. This Dubai chicken wrap is filled with charcoal rotisserie chicken that you can see rotating and roasting, as well as a special mayonnaise style sauce all wrapped up in Lebanese bread and toasted. This is $13.99 by itself or in a meal with small chips and a drink it's $19.99. These prices aren't quite at the same level as Happiness but the wrap is delicious.

The wrap is slender but the focus here is on the delicious charcoal chicken and that smokey flavour. The sauce is delicious and toasting the wrap gives each bite a crisp texture. The fries (as requested) are piping hot and sprinkled with chicken salt.

Tip: there's plenty of seating with a few tables outside as well as a whole room with tables.

Tenda Wrap and Charcoal Chicken: 104 Ware St, Fairfield NSW 2165. Open Saturday to Thursday 10 am–8 pm, Friday 9 am–8 pm.

Freshness For Less

If you're looking for fresh fruit and vegetables, Freshness for Less's prices are amazing and the produce is very fresh. New season slender asparagus stalks were $3 a kilo while cucumbers (which are $2.39 each at Woolworths currently) end up costing me $2 for 4 here. Beautiful firm eggplants are $1.25 each (compared to Woolworths at $3.17 each) so I buy up big on both.

Freshness For Less: 82 Ware St, Fairfield NSW 2165. Open Monday to Friday 6:30am-7pm, Saturday 6:30am-6pm, Sunday 7:30am-5pm

Mata Middle Eastern Cuisine

A short walk away to Fairfield station is Mata, meaning Enjoyment in Arabic. This is a restaurant owned and run by 1 man with a huge menu of around 100 items. I can imagine with his location next to the station people come in and ask him if he can make something and that's how items like chicken schnitzel and fish fingers end up on his primarily Assyrian and Syrian menu. The avuncular owner is friendly and tells us "This is my top 100 but I have 200 more!" and if someone wants a specific Assyrian or Syrian dish he can make it for them.

We want to try some traditional Assyrian food and he helps us choose two dishes which he makes from scratch so you do need to wait a bit. The first item he warns us "smells bad" but it's basically a yogurt soup made with chicken and lamb. It doesn't smell bad at all, it just has a slightly sour aroma not unlike cheese. It's served warm and the creamy soup is nourishing and wholesome and the chicken and lamb pieces melt in the mouth.

The chicken biryani is slightly different from Indian biryanis as there are less spices but it's no less delicious with plenty of peas and some chunks of chicken.

Tip: be prepared to wait as everything is cooked fresh to order.

Mata Middle Eastern Cuisine: 52-68 The Crescent, Fairfield NSW 2165. Open 9am-2am 7 days a week.

Luxe Patisserie Fairfield Heights

Less than 5 minutes' drive away is Luxe Patisserie in Fairfield Heights which gives a whole different vibe as there are lots of people dressed up for a night out at one of the nearby function centres. At Luxe you'll find a range of on trend cakes from the buttercream Marie Antoinette cakes to ones with mini jars of Nutella. There's also a range of traditional Middle Eastern baklava and pastries.

One of them is the pistachio boat which is made of layers of crunchy filo and filled generously with pistachios and drizzled with syrup.

Another must have are the sugarcane drinks. I absolutely love sugarcane juice with passion fruit, it's my obsession but they have lots of different versions here. Laura goes for the pomegranate lemon sugarcane juice which is very nice but I absolutely adore my pic called the "exotic" with passion fruit, mango and strawberry on sugarcane juice.

Tip: there is no seating but the service is very friendly and they let us try our food while standing at the coffee counter.

Luxe Patisserie Fairfield Heights: 253 The Boulevarde, Fairfield Heights NSW 2165. Open 7am-11pm 7 days a week.

So tell me Dear Reader, which eatery stood out to you? Do you ever go on DIY food tours?

All of these meals were independently paid for.