Seriously impressed by Syra

ALONG with an explosion in the number of restaurants in Hobart, there’s been an even more impressive lift in food quality, diversity and the level of service, writes Graeme Phillips

TAS WEEKEND: Dining Guide Syra, Salamanca: Sumac Calamari, Tabbouleh, lemon and chilli

WITH so many positive reviews lately, regular readers may be thinking I’ve mellowed or lost my critical faculties. But no, the fact is, along with an explosion in the number of restaurants in Hobart over the past year, there’s been an even more impressive lift in food quality, diversity and the level of service.

As they say in the classics, we’ve never had it so good. And you can now add the excellent Syra to the list.

Opened by Ibraham and Ali Assi about a month ago, Syra is the first full-on Lebanese/Middle Eastern restaurant in Hobart I can remember since the long-ago days of Ali Akbar.

Both Ibraham and Ali were born in Australia after their parents migrated from Tripoli, in Lebanon, in 1970. Both were in their early teens before they knew what a chicken parmi was or ate a steak.

Instead, they grew up eating traditional Lebanese food cooked by their mother and so learnt to appreciate just how exciting the spices, flavours and colours of the food could be. But the inspiration for opening Syra came after eating Shane Delia’s Middle Eastern food at Maha in Melbourne and seeing Australian diners were ready for the tastebud adventure of Lebanese food.

The interior of Syra restaurant. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

And a tastebud adventure is precisely what they deliver at Syra, in dishes variously spiced, marinated or partnered with such exotica as pomegranate, saffron, sumac, cardamom, labne, harissa, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, zaatar, freekah, fattoush, haloumi, toasted almonds and chermoula.

Dishes in the Middle East are almost always designed to be shared and so it is at Syra. The four of us at dinner opted for the six-course $65 menu, as well as ordering a few more dishes to accompany a second bottle of the delightful Chateau Mussar Rose from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Dinner started with crisply fried chickpeas a fabulous dish of fried cauliflower with tahini and pistachio crumbs, followed by four nicely flavoured kibbeh with harissa and almonds.

Syra 8 Salamanca Square, Hobart Open Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to late Licensed. 6287 6286

Then came three of the night’s highlights – two wonderfully flavoursome pizza-like manoush, beautifully grilled eggplant with chilli, mint and labne, and a special dish of sumac baby calamari with Lebanese zucchini, diced Turkish sujuk sausage, chilli and fennel.

A dish of saffron and coconut mussels, maghrabriya and fennel led to two of the night’s specials to finish – beautifully cooked and presented blue eye with eggplant relish and a green olive, pistachio and sumac salsa; and braised lamb shoulder with black pearly barley, mint, apple, pomegranate and minted labne.

We forewent the typical overly sweet Middle Eastern desserts, contenting ourselves instead with the thought it’s not every meal where you can have 10 dishes and not have even one disappoint.

But that was our experience on the night chef Rebecca Sullivan – ex Smolt, Ginger Brown and Gordon Ramsay’s Aubergine in London – delivered a delicious and different tastebud adventure.

Manoush $5; chickpeas $7; kibbeh $15.50; sumac calamari $18; mussels $29.50; lamb $35.90; desserts $14.