Have you ever been to a Lebanese restaurant before? Looking at the menu for the first time can be overwhelming. With many options to choose from, selecting the best of the best can be difficult.
Visiting some of the top Lebanese restaurants in Sydney, we have put together a cheat sheet to assist you with selecting MUST have items off the menu. Although nearly every dish within Lebanese cuisine is delicious, there are some traditional meals that you just HAVE to order.
Top 4 Lebanese restaurants in Sydney all serve these delicious dishes!
Some of the top Lebanese restaurants in Sydney all serve very similar dishes and assure the main traditional meals are on their menu! Let us delve into some of the most popular dishes from the Lebanese cuisine and are served in the top 4 Lebanese restaurants in Sydney.
Fresh Fattoush and Tasty Tabbouli
You cannot visit a top Lebanese restaurant in Sydney without ordering the famous fattoush and tabbouli. If I were you, I would definitely order both because they are two of the most favoured salads from the cuisine.
Tabbouli is a zesty green finely chopped salad comprised of parsley, mint, tomatoes, ground wheat and onions. The combination of these ingredients makes tabbouli so tasty, but the real hero of the salad is the dressing. Sometimes the simpler the better, and this is certainly the case with this dressing. Lemon, salt and olive oil. Simple yet effective, it transforms this salad into the beauty it is.
Fattoush is quite different from tabbouli and contains onions, cucumber, radish, mint, parsley, lettuce and fried pita bread. This tasty salad comes alive when the dressing is poured on top. This zesty dressing is made with olive oil, lemon juice, sumac, and pomegranate molasses. Oh. and that crispy bread on top just makes it a whole lot better. Sweet and sour yet also sensational, fattoush is a must!
Dip away …
If you’re indulging in a traditional Lebanese restaurant in Sydney, it would be incomplete without the dips. A small sharing plate of some of the most famous dips is definitely worthwhile. Hummus is one of the most popular, a chickpea dip drizzled with olive oil, and coming second in line is the baba ghanoush which is an eggplant dip. Labneh is a favorite for many – aged yogurt drizzled with olive oil and dried mint. Tip: Pair any of these dips with some crispy pita bread for perfection.
Grilled to perfection: shish tawook
One of the most popular chicken dishes from the Lebanese cuisine and served in the top restaurants in Sydney is shish tawook. This main meal consists of succulent pieces of chicken marinated in lemon juice, crushed garlic, olive oil and a range of spices. Many chefs add their own twist on to the recipe, but they are usually quite similar. The secret of this dish is the marination. It takes a good three to four hours to marinate the chicken which is then grilled to perfection. If you love your garlic, we recommend pairing this with the famous garlic dip.
Crunchy and crispy fried kibbeh
Kibbeh is a mix of onions, ground meat seasoned with a range of different spices in the shape of a shell. The filling of kibbeh is also flavored with meat, pine nuts, and sauteed onions. Kibbeh is best enjoyed deep-fried, and the top 5 Lebanese restaurants in Sydney certainly know how to serve Kibbeh. We love adding a dollop of labneh on the side of our kibbeh to add an extra element and creamy texture to this dish.
Happy feasting.
