Kazbah on Darling

What could be a better way to spend a long weekend than to meet up with friends for a long brunch? So when a friend suggested a catch-up we all said yes in a heartbeat. Before you knew it, we had nine people on the list which pushed us over the the magical number of eight required to have the Breakfast Banquet at Kazbah. At just $20 per person for this, it’s definitely worth the logistical agony of getting together such a large group.

Bookings are essential and even then, be prepared to wait on the footpath. Even with a reservation for 11:30am, it was 12pm by the time we got seated and 12:30pm before any food arrived at our table. One thing I must say though, I’ve never seen a restaurant with such a lengthy cancellation policy! (check it out here)

The interior is very quaint with a crisp cafe feel combined with North African decorative pieces. I must say I loved the beautiful Moroccan dinner plates. Crayons and fresh butcher’s paper on the tables brought out the kids in all of us as we doodled while waiting for our food.

Kazbah on Darling

Date and Banana Porridge with Stewed Rhubarb

A warm start to the meal. Perfect with some brown sugar and a bit of stewed rhubarb.

Warm Rice Pudding, Saffron Poached Pear, Cinnamon and Hazelnuts

This dish kicked a huge cinnamon punch – which is great if you love cinnamon as it was liberally dusted over the entire dish. Not quite my thing, but the poached pear was lovely.

Sweet Couscous with Nuts, Dried Fruits, Stewed Rhubard and Cardamom Milk

I’ve only ever had couscous as part of a savoury dish, so this was a very nice change. Definitely something I will want to try making myself one day.

Starting Sides

These were brought out along with the porride, rice pudding and couscous for us to add to our bowls as we wished. Clockwise from the left: warm cardamom milk, stewed rhubarb (yum!), cold cardamom milk and fine brown sugar.

Eggs and Sides

How could you have breakfast without the quintessential bacon and eggs? The eggs were cooked every which way that you may want – poached, fried, scrambled and as an omelette served on turkish toast. I had the poached egg and it was cooked perfectly. The fried platter was composed of Merguez sausages, bacon, roasted tomato, hash browns and haloumi. Accompanied with wilted spinach, mushrooms and baked beans, this was a meal in itself.

Breakfast Tagines

Named after the heavy clay pot in which it is cooked and served, the tagine we were served was a half-half with lamb and pumpkin. The lamb tagine is made up of lamb mince,  sucuk, feta, spinach, roast capsicum, caramelised onion, roast tomato and eggs. While on the flip side, for the pumpkin tagine, the lamb and sucuk was replaced with the pumpkin to provide a hearty vegetarian alternative. Both portions were heavily spiced as can be expected of North African cooking and provided a tastebud explosion with every bite. I prefered the pumpkin tagine over the lamb, but both are highly recommended topped on a piece of toasted turkish! Definitely a must-order item at Kazbah.

Pancakes

The two pancakes on offer were a banana and strawberry pancake with maple syrup and double cream, and a chocolate and raspberry pancake with butterscotch sauce and chocolate fudge ice cream. Unfortunately, by the time these came around, the whole table was so full after stuffing ourselves silly on the tagine that we couldn’t really enjoy them. Because of the thickness of the pancakes, the inside was a little doughy which made the pancakes a little too heavy for my liking. A nice sweet finish, but personally I would have preferred a lighter final course to round up the meal.

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