Barzaari Chippendale review: a taste of the Levant in inner-Sydney

This is close to being a really special restaurant, but the branch mentality pervades the experience.

Barzaari Chippendale. Picture: Melinda Hird

The urbane (unconfirmed) bachelor arrives fashionably late for a quick bite en route to the airport, bound for Beirut. “What is this place?” he asks about Barzaari Chippendale – which sounds kind of Italian to me, but is more likely some kind of too-clever-by-half synthesis of words like “bar” and “bazaar”. “Is it Turkish? Lebanese? Greek? I’m not sure about the message I’m getting.”

Never underestimate the input of the layman, who can see clearly, without the fog of back-story. Like this being the relatively new offshoot of Barzaari in Marrickville, a creative Middle Eastern mash-up; it occupies the virtually unchanged, dramatic inner-Sydney space that witnessed the rise and fall of London chef Jason Atherton in Australia and shares landlords with the cool Old Clare Hotel, Automata and A1 Canteen. And the chef is ex-Quay. The layman gives not a pickled green olive for this stuff. Fortunately, the layman has a good palate and a broad mind.

The meal is a primer for the flavours that bind the Middle East. Lots of crunchy textures, acidic soft curds, fruity sauces/dressings, nigella and sesame seeds everywhere. It’s creatively interpreted, too, without losing sight of its roots; if you like food from Egypt, Greece, Lebanon and Turkey, you’ll like what they do here.

Things like the tiropitakia, dainty little brik pastry tubes filled with tangy soft feta, a plug of burnt honey and fava leaves sprouting from the top like flamboyant, verdant green pocket silks. There’s a lot of pleasing crunch and sweetness juxtaposed with acid, and it works really well. It’s there again with baby cinnamon-fragrant pastilla – filled with duck – served with a moreish puddle of date and almond dipping sauce.

Barzaari’s baklava dish Picture: Melinda Hird

And when you dip the nigella-crusted, puffy house-made pita into the remnants of a sweet-and-sour fig and preserved lemon composition on a mattress of labneh, burnt molasses and fig oil, you’ll get it again. Gently pickled bite-sized “cups” of red onion, filled with tangy tarama, dusted with creamy bottarga, reinforce the message. It’s the little things that impress the most.

But then, a charry kingfish collar served with a blistered bullhorn pepper and olive oil is too one-dimensional, desperately in need of some acidic foil; the type of balance you’ll find with a side dish of sliced heirloom tomatoes in a sweet/acid dressing with fresh white dairy curd, anise sourdough crumb and squiggly little native sea-salty succulents. It works. As does baby chicken (“spatchcock”) boned, rolled in vine leaves and roasted: it comes with a piquant Palestinian chopped tomato, green chilli and nigella seed salsa as well as a Lebanese garlic sauce (toum). Chilli amps up a side dish of mograbieh and beans, a winning carb/veg double act.

I was less enamoured of Barzaari’s human side. The service is adequate but there’s no magic lighting up the dining room, no soft warm blanket of contentment in which diners can envelope themselves. It’s the joint’s underbelly, to be honest. Better waiters would have pointed out a funky dessert trolley on the menu, a mobile chariot of exotic bites such as chocolate-coated halva and almonds in a grape sugar; it comes along after we’ve shared a delightfully light, escargot-like baklava (pictured) with really fine carob and salted caramel ice cream.

The traveller makes for the airport, excited about his first visit to the Levant; Barzaari will do that for you. This is close to being a really special restaurant, but the branch mentality pervades the experience. Food for thought, perhaps.

Barzaari Chippendale at a glance

Address: 3 Kensington Street, Chippendale, NSW

Contact: [phone]; barzaari-chippendale.com.au

Hours: Lunch, dinner Tues-Sat; lunch Sun

Typical prices: Bites $6, small $23, big $38, sides $16, sweets $18

Like this? Try … Rumi, Melbourne; Propellor, Perth

Summary: A creative Middle Eastern primer

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars