Barzaari
Enjoy a modern Mediterranean feast at this Addison Road eatery.
Overview
Until recently, unless you were after a grade A cup of joe from Coffee Alchemy or had a hankering for Sunday market corn fritters, Addison Road was not a destination for a hot injection of food. But since Bazaari opened its ornate doors a few months ago, that lowly road in Marrickville is finally worth the hike. Tucked away between industrial laundries and seafood wholesalers, the new Cypriot-Australian eatery is the joint venture of ex-Quay chef Darryl Martin and host Andrew Jordanou. The two have curated an intimate dining experience serving up a particularly adventurous menu of modernised Greek, Cyrpiot, Turkish and Lebanese cuisines.
The modern fit-out is welcoming with exposed brick, low lighting and a wood fire in the centre of the open plan kitchen. It's here at the oven where meats are roasted for hours and chewy pita breads studded with nigella seeds are made to order. Like all eateries opened in the last few years, the chefs at Barzaari serve up dishes designed to share, but thankfully the portions are on the generous side, so it's safe to take even your hungriest of friends.
If you're keen to start your meal sipping on something a little fancy, the Marrickville Sunrise is a sweet liquid nod to the neighbourhood, and nicely complements the powerful flavours that characterise the entree dishes. The tiropitakia ($14) — impossibly crisp little cylinders stuffed with feta and spinach — arrive drizzled with honey, while the lamb breast is slow-cooked until tender and wrapped in the thinnest pastry, like some sort of delicious novelty meat cigar. The real highlight, however, is the piles of slow-roasted pork neck ($33) and lamb shoulder ($38). Although the wood-fired dishes are a little on the pricey side, the servings resemble meat mountains, served juicy with a decent slab of piping hot pita and a wedge of lemon. These dishes are so simple yet totally moreish — perfect for those who like to use copious amounts of bread to craft their own little makeshift meat sandwiches.
As for sides, the tender mograbieh (a giant type of couscous) served with half a wood-fired butternut pumpkin ($15) is particularly hearty and would suit vegetarians in lieu of the aforementioned piles of meat. But our highlight was the classic kipfler potatoes ($11), cooked until crispy and golden and dusted with salt and rosemary — because at the end of the day, there's really no going past a giant bowl of roasted potatoes to accompany a heap of wood-fired meats. If you manage to save room for dessert, it's hard to pass up the impossibly smooth buttermilk custard ($14) cloaked with an anise syrup and a fresh scoop of apple tea sorbet.
Barzaari is the perfect location for a Mediterranean feast with a group of pals or a romantic dinner for two providing you're both wearing elasticised eating pants. Fingers crossed the restaurant sets a trend for new little eateries emerging from the Addison Road culinary black hole.
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