Sydney Eat Street: Best halal foods to break Ramadan fast
For the 30 days of Ramadan, Muslims the world over will break their dawn-to-dusk fast with friends and family gathered together at home or out and about.
Eat Street
Don't miss out on the headlines from Eat Street. Followed categories will be added to My News.
When the sun goes down, the food comes out. For the 30 days of Ramadan, Muslims the world over will break their dawn to dusk fast, often with family and friends for a communal meal, or in many of Sydney’s multicultural suburbs, a street festival or favourite restaurant.
Take a tour of Sydney’s best eateries with The Sunday Telegraph’s Eat Street. Are you hungry for more inspiration? Follow us on Instagram or Twitter. #SydneyEatStreet
Jamal’s Takeaway
A true master of his craft, Khodr Jamal has been making picture perfect falafels at his rather inconspicuous shop, Jamal’s Takeaway in Auburn for the past 27 years.
Served piping hot, his falafels are crunchy and golden-brown on the outside, yet soft and moist on the inside.
Try as they may, no one has been able to figure out the secret behind Khodr’s concoction.
“It’s a secret 60 years in the making,” says Khodr’s eldest son Imad.
“He’s got a mixture with a secret ingredient that he perfected when he was 15 years old back in Lebanon.”
Waving his hand at the glass cabinet filled with ruby red tomatoes, crisp lettuce, and house made pickles, Imad adds: “What he puts in the mix is a secret, but the making of that formula is what you see right here”.
“My brother and I can make the falafels, and even though we’re using the same ingredients, there’s something about his hands that is different. It’s something natural. It shows love. We get customers who come in and, tell me and my brother, that they know we’re good and we’re using the same mix but that they want our father to make their roll.
“He just has that magic touch. Some people make something special out of nothing.”
And don’t even think about ordering off the menu, as Khodr makes them one way: his way. Customers agree that his way is about as perfect as it gets as his falafels come straight from the fryer and if they’re not hot enough, you’ll just have to wait the three-to five minutes it takes to make a fresh batch.
“He won’t allow for anything less to leave his shop,” Imad says.
Khodr hadn’t intended to make falafels when he first moved to Australia in 1988. He started with an office job, but his family persuaded him to open a falafel shop.
“We said to him that he has a reputation for his falafels. After that conversation, within a week we got this shop and started renovating.”
Growing up in Lebanon, his father worked as a butcher but later they opened a cafe underneath their house — that’s where he began making falafels, quickly developing a loyal following which endures to this day.
Imad says to get the perfect falafel, “it goes back to the spice”.
“You can get the inexpensive version $7/kilo or pay more and get it ground fresh. My dad always says that the cheaper one has no taste, it’s lost its smell, but when he buys fresh spices and brings them home, for six months, the house will smell like peppers. That’s how good the quality is.”
Starting out, falafel rolls sold for $2. The day they opened, Khodr told himself that he’d be happy if he made $100 that day — but he ended up making $600.
“He’s not stingy on what he puts in it and the amount he puts in it,” Imad says.
“Like the tomatoes, about nine months of the year, tomatoes are a reasonable price but for three months, the price can go up to five times that amount and still, but he doesn’t hold back. He’s not stingy with them. His roll is always his roll — it doesn’t matter if the tomatoes triple in price.”
Every second day they’ll make 130kg of the falafel mix. People will buy it to make at home. (About 1kg can make seven sandwiches). About 50-60kg is purchased by other takeaway shops and they’ll use 70-80kg.
Imad’s younger brother Baha runs the takeaway now but it’s still a family affair with everyone helping out, particularly when their father goes back to Lebanon for a few months every year.
During Ramadan, in addition to the falafel mix, pickles, and hot sauce, Khodr also makes his famous sweet pancakes served with cream, syrup and nuts.
“After a day of fasting, all you want is something sweet. Lots of sweets.”
The pancakes though are only during Ramadan, and after that, it’s back to business as usual.
— 88 Auburn Rd, Auburn
GupShup Pakistani Street Food
“We love food,” Ambereen Kasbati says.
“We’re a foodie family. We understand food. We understand how cuisines in any country are different from one region to the next.”
She, along with her husband, Haroon, own the Pakistani street food restaurant, GupShup, a colloquial word for “chit chat”.
Their venue is an ode to joy, filled with vibrant colours that start with the bubblegum pink and lemon-yellow shopfront to the murals and jewel-toned accents inside.
“It’s very colourful,” she adds.
“It’s very young. There’s music playing. We’ve got food and we’ve got the ambience and the vibe. It’s a place you’d like to hang out. It’s a place my daughter would hang out.”
GupShup has been opened for just a year which Ambereen reveals came to fruition after she and her husband lost their jobs in the wake of Covid. She says, they asked themselves “what are we going to do?”
“We were really like looking for something, then just said let’s do a restaurant. I really wanted to do a restaurant that covers all the provinces of Pakistan, not just one part so we made it like a truck pit stop,” she says.
“In Pakistan they sell street food at these stops. The big trucks are all decorated in colourful art, there’s music playing, and they order all the paratha (flatbread).
“Our aim is to represent the culture as well as the food.
“Nothing is pre-cooked. It’s made fresh, so anything that is fresh, you’ve got to wait for it. we do everything from scratch. If I do butter chicken, I don’t do butter chicken with a paste. When I do it, I cut the onions, I cut the tomatoes, mix my own spices, for the biryani as well.
“It’s very authentic. It’s not restaurant-style food. It’s home cooked. It tastes like home. We often have students from Pakistan come here when they miss their mum’s cooking.”
A GupShup’s speciality is their barbecue, especially the Bihari chicken which Ambereen says is “like Tandoori chicken, but it’s softer”.
“The Malai boti which is the same chicken but marinated instead in a white sauce. These are the two that go into our paratha (layered flatbread) rolls. Each roll also has different chutney, has the different sauces — yoghurt sauce, green chutney, red chutney sauce, and a creamy sauce.”
Wrapped up, they’re easy to grab and go, and along with a plate of chaat, they make for great snacks while out and about meeting up with friends and family. For those wanting to stay put, they offer a daily all-you-can-eat 20-dish buffet from 3pm for $25pp.
— 58 Auburn Rd, Auburn; facebook.com/gupshupsyd/
Quick Shawarma
Freshly marinated meats threaded over an upright, metre-long skewer is attached to a vertical rotisserie, which slowly rotates in front of enclosed flames, gently roasting the edges of the meat which are sliced off from top to bottom on every turn.
This is the beauty of shawarma — where the 80kg slabs of meat are slowly cooked to make kebabs or delicious meat plates.
Quick Shawarma has become a staple for locals, so much so, they are already moving into a bigger place — more rotisseries, more grills and, unlike the initial shop that barely had room for a queue, plenty of seating.
Third generation shawarma, Bilal Kamal El Din came to Guildford from Lebanon via Dubai and in four short months has made Quick Shawarma the destination for excellent quality, generous servings, and most importantly the more-ish flavours that will have you making repeat visits during Ramadan and beyond.
— Cnr of Cross and Guildford roads, Guildford; facebook.com/quickshawarma.official/
Ramadan Nights Lakemba
It’s back! After two painful Covid-19 years, the famous Ramadan Nights food festival has returned to Lakemba, taking over Haldon St with a vast array of stalls offering an even wider array of food.
Many of Lakemba’s popular restaurants will have quick takeaway stalls out front, though dine-in options are also available. Enjoy a Lebanese feast at Jasmins with plates and bowls loaded with spiced meats, falafels, breads, pickles, dips, dips, and more dips. Or find Khushboo Sweets and Restaurant for traditional Bangladeshi dishes.
Island Dreams features multicultural foods from Christmas Island; Al Fayhaa Bakery has manoosh (Lebanese pizza); King of Sweets is a Lebanese bakery famous for its baklawa; and Afghan Sufra offers Arabic bread.
Local, interstate, and international visitors come for this event, and after being separated not just from family, but from one another, this community celebration is more relevant than ever.
It runs from April 2 to May 1, nightly from dusk till late.
— Haldon St, Lakemba; cbcity.nsw.gov.au
Chatkazz Indian Street Food and Farsan
Navigating the crowded footpaths while balancing a drink in one hand and food in another is half the fun of Ramadan food festivals, but that’s not the only way to indulge in Indian street food’s deliciousness.
At Chatkazz in Harris Park, this vibrant 125-seat restaurant offers polished versions of fast-food favourites such as the Masala Pav, a tomato and onion based gravy that is traditionally served inside a bread roll, but here, it’s presented on a plate with the gravy ladled on top of the bread. Plus, that means no dripping sauces running down your arm and into your sleeves.
— Shop 4/14-20 Station Street East; Harris Park
Delhi Palace
For foodies, the mere mention of Iftar (a big family feast at the end of the day when Muslims break their fast) conjures images of lavish spreads around the large tables.
If cooking’s not your thing, your kitchen table is too small, or you just want to indulge in a banquet featuring Indian Cuisine, Delhi Palace is a must.
For $40pp, you get entrees, any curry of your choice with unlimited rice, naan, condiments and soft drinks. Whether you’re hosting a group of 30 or just after dinner with friends, the scrumptious seekh kebabs, garlic prawns, and butter chicken, along with soft cheesy naan, are sure to please
— 217 Concord Rd, North Strathfield; delhipalace.com.au
Jasmins Restaurant
A family favourite (and family-owned restaurant) for over 20 years, Jamsins gets extra communal come Ramadan.
Tables get pushed together, chairs brought in, and plates galore loaded with skewers (kafta), small pieces of spiced meat (shawarma), fried balls of minced meat, crushed wheat and pine nuts (Kebe), and countless ramekins of the requisite dips, bread, pickled veggies and mint are constantly emerging from the kitchen.
During Ramadan, get your fill with an all-you-can-eat buffet ($35pp) from 5pm-7pm.
— 30B Haldon St, Lakemba
Khushboo Restaurant
Using recipes passed down through generations and specific spices sourced from premium suppliers, Khushboo serves authentic Bangladeshi savoury meals and sweet treats.
“Our process is grandma’s process,” says Shamim Abid, the restaurant’s co-owner and head chef.
Start with Bangladesh’s most famous dish, Kacchi Biryani. layers of rice, marinated meat and spices, then finish up with some stellar Bengali desserts
— 38 Railway Pde, Lakemba
Island Dreams Cafe
A blend of Malaysian, Indonesian and Chinese cuisines, the dishes and delights of Christmas Island and Coco Island are affectionately known as “Island Food”, the namesake of Alimah Bild’s cafe, Island Dreams.
The menu is a collection of dishes she learned as a child, spending time in the kitchen, including her signature dish such as Ayam panggang, a lemon chilli chicken with turmeric rice.
Also, don’t miss out on the rainbow-coloured fish crackers, a piece of the delicious pandan cake.
— 47-49 Haldon St, Lakemba
Al Fayhaa Bakery
Start your timers, and you too will be gobsmacked that it takes a mere 12 seconds for the manoosh to leave the oven and land in your hands.
Starting the process, one person transfers the dinner-plate-sized pizza out of the wood-fired oven, slides it onto a long wooden resting board, while the other swoops in, grabs it, and folds it like an envelope or places it in a pizza box.
While they open at 4am every day, to suit the (very) early risers, this is particularly appreciated for those after breakfast before starting their dawn to dusk Ramadan fast. They usually sell out and close just after noon, but during Ramadan, they re-open at dusk for another round of trade
— 137A Haldon St, Lakemba
Lazeez
While you delve into the vast array of Lebanese dishes that land on your table, don’t forget to try one of their refreshing ice-blended drinks, including lemon juice and mint, or for something a bit more complex, a version with dates, nuts, and almonds.
— Lazeez Lebanese Cuisine; 135 Haldon St, Lakemba
Chatkazz Sweets
The glass cabinets are filled with rows of various coloured, shaped and sized desserts. Try their famous Barfi, a traditional sweet made of condensed milk and sugar. Chatkazz Sweets has one of the best selections around with chocolate, carrot, pistachio, mango, fig and more plus plenty of other sweet and savoury treats.
— 2/2 Station Street East, Harris Park
WHAT’S FRESH
The Castlereagh
He worked his magic in Paddington, transforming Four in Hand’s benign restaurant into a two-hatted dining destination so fingers cross renowned chef, author and TV personality Colin Fassnidge can do it again at The Castlereagh — the recently renovated bistro at City Tatts Group’s historic The Castlereagh Club.
Colin’s kitchen and menu revamp will feature elevated takes on pub classics such as his famous ‘suckling pig sausage roll’ served with a rich apple butter and the ‘buttermilk chicken schnitzel’.
It officially opened on Friday, April 1, but unofficially, The Castlereagh is sure to be a CBD hit.
— Level 1, 199 Castlereagh St, Sydney; thecastlereaghclub.com.au
Winter warmers to celebrate the season
Everyone is happy to see the sun peeking through the clouds, but winter’s not all bad. Bid farewell to the colder days with one last hurrah of warming fare.
Sniffing out Sydney’s best truffle desserts
Save the best for last. As truffle season comes to a close, be sure to indulge in some sweet treats featuring the annual earthy gem.