Review: Why Maha East in Chapel St, Windsor is packing them in
Shane Delia’s new casual Maha spin-off puts a twist on his signature Middle Eastern fare, with a $13 bonkers but brilliant transcontinental mash-up dish that’s worth going back for.
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It’s a frigid Tuesday evening. I’ve been disgorged onto Chapel St by the 5.42 from Flinders St with countless scarf-swaddled, puffy-jacketed commuters all with the same furrowed face that Melburnians who haven’t decamped to Bali/Amalfi/Santorini stoically adopt until September, one and all in a rush to get out of the cold and into flannel.
It is, in other words, the type of horror show that causes restaurateurs to wake in the night from fright.
And yet, looking across the street, I see a bar full of chatter and cheer and people having a jolly old time.
It’s packed, not a free seat. Filled with gold-buttoned blazers and grey bobs, Shane Delia’s new Windsor offshoot of his Middle Eastern diner Maha is already a hit with Chapel St’s forgotten people — Prahran’s wine-collecting, cookbook-buying, SBS Food-watching owner-occupiers who avoid the cool Asian eateries and shun sugary cocktails and couldn’t give a fig about Instagram, a crowd for whom an influencer means Michael Kroger.
Granted, it appears most are here for BYO night — where that plundered cellar comes with $20 corkage on Mondays and Tuesdays — and the rest are hoping for a glimpse of the beaming beefcake they know from the telly but mainly they’re here because they’ve had, over the years, a great meal at Maha and now they don’t have to go into town.
Maha East is billed as the casual neighbourhood answer to the city’s fine diner in the space that used to be Delia’s kebab shop, Biggie Smalls. But tonight it seems he’s forgotten to change the takeaway shop’s playlist for there’s an odd mix of rap and Led Zep rock turned up to 11.
It’s a surprisingly amateur misstep of equating loud to buzz, and even though the music moved into more pleasant territory later on, it was still at conversation-stifling levels.
Delia says East has rekindled his love of cooking and he’s in the kitchen this night turning out Middle Eastern-ish meze that uses such ingredients as XO, kombu and taramasalata among the expected harissa, sumac and za’atar on a menu that includes gnocchi and French fries alongside the Maha signature slow-roasted lamb.
And while these early-week diners aren’t interested in photographing dinner the fried bun is the one that’s getting a whole lotta likes from those who do, a doughnut piped with that tarama and topped with salmon caviar.
It’s a two-bite bomb of explosive fishy salt in a sweet bun that’s certainly tasty ($12.50 each) but trumped by the more simple pleasure of the pastry-wrapped lamb borek, though I could take or leave the sweet raisin jam squiggled atop ($8 each).
But for the best transcontinental mash up you’ll likely see all year look no further than the hummus with XO, a bonkers/brilliant duo of creamy chickpeas and funky black beans, with warm dukkah-sprinkled flatbread on dunking duties ($13).
Add a schooner of crisp Brick Lane lager ($10) and you have a terrific opening act and reason alone to go back.
Lovely little beef-filled Turkish dumplings known as manti come tossed through spinach and served with yoghurt that tempers a good hit of heat, while textural octopus comes with charred chard stalks and chickpeas in a harissa-spiked sauce. Terrifically tasty stuff.
But hold on a sec. It’s $26 for a handful of those manti; $25 for a few pieces of octopus, and $28 for bits of swordfish sujuk that needs to go back to the drawing board, a mealy concoction created to emulate the famous Middle Eastern beef sausage but instead falls into the category of, if it ain’t broke …
A small plate of charred corn with smoked almonds is $19; a bit of braised spinach and silverbeet with muhammara (a capsicum and walnut dip) is $16. If you plump for Maha’s famous Turkish delight doughnuts or the peanut butter baklava to finish you’ll pay $18.50.
It’s expensive, portions are small. After time flavours tend to meld into one and there’s so much brown and orange across dishes it’s a bit like eating at yiayia’s Coburg kitchen.
While such touches as good cutlery and linen napkins nod to the price premium, without trying too hard you’ll get to $100 a head — a lot to drop for a casual drink and a bite, so the $65 four-course set menu might be a better way to go.
Certainly BYO is, for the wine list, though undeniably filled with interest, comes with such huge mark-ups you’ll be thankful for Dry July.
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It adds to a sense of restaurant-by-spreadsheet to an experience that doesn’t add up to the big-hearted Middle Eastern hospitality you’d expect from that smile you see in your lounge room.
But maybe that’s just me. For pulling a crowd on a cold Tuesday is no easy feat.
MAHA EAST
36 Chapel St, Windsor
Phone: 8419 8924
Open: nightly from 5pm; Sat-Sun from 11.30am
Go-to dish: Hummus with XO
Score: 13.5/20
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