Lebanese food consists of an abundance of fresh vegetables, salads, dips and grilled meats served with lashings of garlic and olive oil. And Sam of Tarboosh Lebanese Restaurant brings the best of Lebanese and Middle Eastern cuisine to the corner of Penshurst Street and Sydney Road in Willoughby.
Tarboosh has a good location hunkered down with a range of other middle-eastern food shops in a little enclave in Willoughby. Friendly staff making choosing your dishes simple and easy. Well, it would have been easy, if I hadn’t wanted to choose so many dishes!
The traditional dips of baba ganouje and humous are served with flat bread, but then their labne takes you by surprise. Labne is a fresh homemade yoghurt served with a sprinkling of herbs and loads of lemon juice and it goes perfectly with their Fattoush which is a salad of cabbage, tomato, cucumber, radish smothered in mint, with a pomegranate and lemon dressing and covered with fried Lebanese bread.
If I were ever to turn vegetarian, I would become a Lebanese vegetarian.
Their Ladies Fingers are made with feta cheese and parsley wrapped up in filo pastry, but it’s their Foul which is real winner. Foul is boiled fava beans and chick peas tossed in lemon juice with garlic and olive oil. When you first see it, it looks like boiled mushy beans, but the flavour is fantastic. Really special.
Grilled Haloumi comes in thick slices and is served grilled and covered with herbs and lemon juice.
My favourite is the deep fried Kebbe. Kebbe are made from cracked wheat, minced lamb and onions and have a taste that is unique. They are best eaten with the creamed garlic that comes with their grilled meats.
Huss and Sam have done a great job of recreating so many Lebanese and Middle Eastern favourites at Tarboosh Restaurant. If you’re looking for a bit of everything, then choose a Tarboosh banquet which runs at $45 per head. There is plenty of food and a great variety of Lebanese favourites.
We had a group of eight when we ate at the restaurant and choose banquets for six and then a mixture of other delights. The food arrived quickly and looked fantastic in its presentation. This is communal food, so get a bunch of friends together, choose a huge range of dishes and get a window seat, so that you can eat and chat and look at the world slide by on Penshurst Street.
Tarboosh Restaurant
1/330 Penshurst Street
Willoughby
Tel: 9882 1231
