The western Sydney restaurant that caught the eye of no less than The New York Times is back. Well, sort of.

Pazar Food Collective, which closed last year due to staff shortages, has risen with a new name and menu. “I called it Pidzaria because it’s a combination of Pazar and pizzeria,” owner Attila Yilmaz explains.

The new star of the show is the “pidza”, a Middle Eastern-inspired flatbread that comes with a range of toppings – everything from harissa prawns with red peppers to four cheeses and egg, and a classic beef and lamb spiced mince. Yilmaz was going to going to call it pide but quips he tired of people mispronouncing the word.

While the menu was restructured to make it less labour-intensive,
there are still plenty of interesting twists and turns. Other dishes include
maple-smoked labne with apricot jam, sesame and “pepita chili chiltepil”
salsa that sits alongside a Middle Eastern slaw with pickled spice plums,
pomegranate molasses and hazelnuts. Blackened sweet potato with
whipped feta labne, pumpkin seed salsa verde and burnt chilli butter
doesn’t particularly sound less labour-intensive.

Yilmaz is as busy as ever, jumping between the kitchen coalface and
hosting. The dining room has been smartened up with new seating and banquettes, there’s a tight but clever wine list, and the restaurant has an early
surprise – Yilmaz says he’ll revert to a “John Farnham-style return of Pazar feasts for Fridays and Saturdays in May.”

“The kids today don’t even know who Farnsey is,” he jokes. But many
Sydneysiders do remember Pazar’s food offering, including dishes The New York
Times described as tasting as “big and bold and global and delicious” as
the city itself.

Open Wed-Sat from 6pm

325 Canterbury Road, Canterbury, pidzaria.com