My kids are picky eaters. One loves carrot, one hates carrot, two love pasta, one doesn’t, one likes chicken, one like fish (and I could keep listing, but I think you get the point). When we decide to step out of the comfort of our kitchen for a meal as a family, we need a venue that will accommodate our very diverse tastes and luckily for us, Kazbah was able to deliver.
Kazbah has three locations in Sydney; Balmain, Top Ryde and where we decided to spend my 33rd birthday dinner, Darling Harbour. The restaurant is located in the Harbourside complex which is attached to an enormous parking facility which thankfully makes finding somewhere to stash the wheels rather painless. It’s a short walk through the complex to the restaurant. We were seated inside but with views out to Darling Harbour. There was a couple outside smoking a shisha pipe which was an interesting conversation with the kids for about 5 minutes, but once their curiosity was satisfied it was down to checking out the menu.
Kazbah offers a kid’s menu for $15 which includes a hummus plate with carrots, celery and flatbread, a choice of kid friendly main, a drink and icecream sandwich dessert. We considered it, but thought that we’d opt for choosing a few different plates to share instead and I think it was a good choice.
The meal started off with hummus dip, crudite and flatbread for the kids plus a trio of dips (hummus, tzatziki and carrot) for the grown ups. The dips are a must-do item at Kazbah, particularly the carrot dip which was sweet, deep and nutty. If I was at home, I would have been licking that plate clean.
Trio of dips
We moved onto a mezze platter with lots of lovely little snacky things to try. My favourite were the lamb baklava (second from the left).
Mezze plate
The menu is generous with choice and I think if you were coming with friends for drinks, you could easily order lots of bits and pieces to try. Most are easily eaten with your fingers which helps when you’ve had a few glasses of wine!
For mains we ordered a goat tagine which was probably a little adventurous for us in flavour. There were some other great tagine choices which sounded lovely (such as chicken and lamb.) We also tried a beautiful slow cooked duck with sweet potato which was our pick of the dishes for the night. It was melt-in-the-mouth tender, sticky and comforting. Lastly we ordered a chicken shishkebab which is impressively large and very tasty. It’s probably not what we were expecting, but we were pleasantly surprised with this dish.
We were too full for dessert, but the kitchen kindly threw in a rosewater bombe alaska, complete with birthday candles as they heard it was my birthday. It was a lovely end to the meal.
Service was friendly and efficient. The room is large and ornate with a dark and moody vibe. You can sit inside or out overlooking Darling Harbour.
Overall it was a great place to come with the family. I thought the night was a touch on the expensive side, but we did order way too much food. We didn’t realise just how generous the portion sizes would be. I would say order one dish less than you think you might eat and see how you go. You can always order more if you’re hungry (though I doubt you will be.)
