Get a taste of home-style Middle Eastern cooking at these three family-run spots, which capture tastes and traditions that Melbourne rarely sees.
Whether it’s because of trouble elsewhere in the world or a desire for homely hangouts when times are tough, Melbourne’s seeing a fresh wave of family-run establishments opening their doors. There’s the homely cafe honouring a grandmother’s legacy with cafe riffs on Palestinian dishes, a trio of co-joined Syrian eateries now bigger and better after a fire, and the friends who have teamed up to share little-seen dishes from their homeland, Egypt.
Beit Siti
Rahaf Al Khatib channels Palestinian recipes from her mother and grandmother at Beit Siti (“grandmother’s home”), her new venue in Coburg. Following on from her Falastini food truck, this cafe and cultural centre exudes home-style warmth with family photos and Al Khatib’s own house plants.
Fresh baked goods with Palestinian twists include musakhan focaccia with confit onion, almonds, sumac and cauliflower; a Danish filled with strawberry, pomegranate and dill jam, and house-made labneh; and a zaatar croissant with pickled chilli and baladiyeh, a firm “village cheese”. There are also grab-and-go sandwiches such as chicken mortadella with smoked pepper spread, spinach and labneh.
Al Khatib plans for the breakfast menu to showcase different regional specialties of Palestine including mub’atra, a dish of scrambled eggs with potato, parsley and green chilli. Constance coffee is brewed with cardamom or served espresso-style.
In sharing her culture, Al Khatib goes beyond the menu, selling Palestinian-made clothing and embroidery and also holding workshops on pickling and labneh-making. “Preservation is part of the traditions that kept our ancestors alive, and I’m passing that on,” she says.
150 Bell Street, Coburg, beitsiti.com
Shamiat
Following a fire in March 2024, Northcote’s beloved Shamiat has reopened with a revamped bakery-cafe, in addition to its restaurant. “Shamiat” means the essence of Syrian culture, and owners Atallah Abo and Helda Almorani have channelled that since 2019 at their trio of venues.
The daytime eatery offers breakfasts like shakshuka with sujuk (spiced sausage), plus lunch wraps and traditional baked goods. Sambousek puff pastries are filled with beef or a gooey feta-halloumi mix, and manoush flatbreads come topped with the likes of cheese or muhammara (a red capsicum-based dip).
The restaurant, all warm tones and geometric design, serves generous platters of falafel and grilled meat as well as ful medames (fava beans, olive oil, lemon and garlic) and hearty shish barak, lamb dumplings in warm garlic-yoghurt sauce with coriander. For dessert, share a syrup-soaked baklava ice-cream sandwich.
64 Victoria Road, Northcote, shamiat.com.au
King Tut
Friends Ahmed Bashandy and Ahmed Moustafa saw a gap for Egyptian cuisine in Melbourne when they moved here with their families, so they opened King Tut. Beginning like so many fledgling eateries as a food truck, it graduated to a small shopfront near A1 Bakery and is now in a no-frills establishment on Sydney Road closer to the city.
The menu focuses on popular street foods, such as Egypt’s distinctive green broad bean falafels and the national dish koshari: a generous mix of fragrant rice, pasta, lentils, chickpeas and fried onion with sauces and meat toppings.
“Many recipes I learned from my mother or chefs at home,” says Bashandy. “We import ingredients like pickles and spices and buy [other ingredients] fresh from local markets.”
Neither Bashandy nor Moustafa has hospitality training, but they apply their professional engineering backgrounds to make the best versions of dishes they love. Signature pillowy pitas are baked to exact specifications for fillings like crushed ful (fava beans), hawawshi (spiced beef mince) and eggplant moussaka.
“People say ours tastes the same – or better [than back home],” says Bashandy.
414 Sydney Road, Brunswick, kingtut.com.au
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