Merrylands doesn’t often find itself at the epicentre of Sydney’s feverish restaurant opening action. But the western suburb is now home to Iftar, a slick new eatery delivering hot takes on Middle Eastern food.

“We’ve reimagined the shawarma and turned it into a taco,” says Iftar owner Jeremy Agha. The budding young restaurateur grew up in his family’s Lebanese bakery in nearby Guildford but ditched the traditional flatbread for wrapping his shawarma. “We use house-made tortillas instead,” says the 25-year-old.

Merrylands, just south of Parramatta, already has an excellent line-up of restaurants, bakeries, food stores and sweet shops. The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide lists Kabul House and Al Shami in the suburb, and other popular dining destinations include Toranj Persian Restaurant, Mansour’s BBQ, and a branch of Yemeni rice specialist Mataam al Mandi.

“When Kabul House opened in 2010, it was one of the few Afghan restaurants in Sydney,” reports the Good Food Guide. “Now there are several on the same street, but even in Merrylands’ Afghan district, Kabul House is the busiest.”

Meanwhile, Al Shami “is a bright and welcoming place”, with traditional Syrian cooking and an “impressive marble fountain that wouldn’t be out of place in an Arabian embassy”.

Iftar officially launches in the heart of Merrylands on January 18, but Agha has been quietly putting his investment through its paces in recent weeks and fine-tuning the left-field menu.

The restaurant has long been his dream. Growing up in the area, Agha felt local clientele deserved the level of restaurant dining room they often had to travel to enjoy, so he sought out acclaimed interior designer Matt Woods.

“In terms of the combination of flavour, experience and feel, I honestly don’t think there’s anything like it in Sydney,” says Agha.

With soft down-lighting, earthy tones and custom cabinetry, Iftar has the design accoutrements of a high-end, hatted Sydney CBD venue. “I can honestly say we haven’t changed a single tile from [Woods’] first draft.”

As for the menu, Agha explains it’s a co-creation with his mum, Rita. With a bakery background and an inquisitive palate, he says he dreams up the flavour combinations in his head, then gives his mother the tough assignment of turning them into dishes the Iftar kitchen can reproduce.

“Every recipe is hers,” he says. “Iftar means ‘breakfast’ in Arabic, and the hidden meaning is that Iftar can’t be spelt without the letters of her name. There’s no Iftar without Mum. It’s as much her story as it is mine.”

One of those left-field dishes is a dumpling filled with wagyu kofta, which has reportedly impressed both Middle Eastern and Asian diners. The tight menu also lists “cheese cigars” with halloumi, feta, mozzarella and zaatar; “macaroni bi laban” with lamb mince, burnt butter and pine nuts; and fattoush with pomegranate molasses.

The breakfast line-up includes lamb confit with “runny egg”. “It’s a modern take on [Middle Eastern] classics,” says Agha.

There’s a drinks list of wine and beer but it’s all non-alcoholic stuff: Iftar is booze-free. And its owner plans to cater for a greater slice of local clientele from late next month, expanding opening hours to dinner to coincide with Ramadan.

Breakfast and lunch daily,
Main Lane, Merrylands; instagram.com/iftarmerrylands