El Jannah

Overview

El Jannah has earned cult status for its Lebanese-style charcoal chicken and finger lickin'-good garlic sauce, but for inner-city folk, it's never been all that easy to get to. Sure, the much-loved chicken joint has an impressive 15 outlets under its belt, but — if you've lived east, north or south — you had to trek out west to get to any of them. Until a few years ago, that is.

El Jannah opened its first inner west store — El Jannah Express — in 2019 in the heart of Newtown, just across the road from cocktail bar Corridor and The Marlborough Hotel. This means that inner city folks finally have easy access to that chook goodness (and that Sydney's 'chicken curtain' needs some urgent adjustments).

While you'll find all of the cult favourites on the menu — including the EJ Meals with chicken, chips, pickles, pita and that garlic sauce — El Jannah Express also has an exclusive, very Newtown addition: fried chicken. Yep, even El Jannah can't stay away from it. It's doing drumsticks and tenders, in three-, five- and ten-piece packs.

Of course, you can still drop by and pick up a whole rotisserie chicken, and bowls of hummus and baba ghanoush. The Express store also sells the chain's burgers, which are often looked over in favour of the main event. There are a few seats for dining in — but this'll be a prime takeaway spot as it's open until 11pm on weekends. Just look for the neon green sign.

El Jannah has won plenty of fans for its offering of charcoal chicken matched with that famed garlic sauce, along with hot meat-stuffed rolls, grab-and-go meal packs, burgers, salads and Middle Eastern skewers. Following stores in Blacktown, Campbelltown, Punchbowl, Granville, Kogarah and Penrith, this Newtown outpost is group's first 'express' offering.

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