Kazbar

we stumbled into this place when we were checking out the newly renovated Cuppage terrace and we were lured by the bellydancers here (and eventually by the boss' enticing of free drinks) and since our original plan was to check out middle eastern food at bali lane anyway (but didnt go there cos stupid halloween costumes shop at bugis closes at 5pm on sat) we decided to venture into this place instead of Kazu at Cuppage...

everything here is imported from the middle east....from the furninshings to the chef to the portraits to the plates...not sure about the belly dancer (who knocked off early so i couldnt grab a picture of the hottest stuff in the restaurant)

Mixed Mezze Platter $18

Combination of hummus, moutabel, babaganoush, cheese borek & falafel

sounds as greek as can be for the ininitiated, this platter is a mixture of cold dips (to be eaten with the pita bread) and hot starters. For the cold starters, i liked the moutabel most (its a smoked eggplant dip with tahini and lemon juice). i havent tasted babaghanaoush before (which is grilled eggplant, tomato and capsicum salad) but it had a rather tangy taste - and it was the last to finish (ie we werent fans of it) . humus is the usual normal chickpea puree like in other middle eastern restaurants.

the 2 hot starters are the cheese borek (the 4 spring rolls sticking out - they are herbs and feta cheese pastry) and falafel (the 4 balls of chickpeas and beans tossed in spices beneath the spring rolls)

Mixed Grill Platter. $35

lamb chops, shish taouk, shish kebab and kofta kebabs served with 3 sauces

sounds greek to a layman again. okay, shish taouk is char grilled marinated chicken, whilst shish kebab is char grilled lamb cubes. i liked the shish kebab best!! i like lamb alot, but i thought the lamb chop was a little anorexic.

Royal Cous cous $25

cous cous with tender lamb shank, shish taouk and lamb merguez served with vegetable stew( picture below) and harissa sauce

i liked this main the best, simply because the lamb shank was really tender. the lamb merguez is a lamb sausage. the cous cous itself was well fried yet not oily, and very flavourful.

the vegetable stew looked like a curry but nope, its that colour because of the spices and there isnt actually any curry powder inside. the cabbages and capsicum soaked up the spicy stew and was went really well with the cous cous.

Baklawa (complimentary)

Filo pastry with assorted nuts and honey syrup

this is like middle eastern bread and pudding, except that there were pistachio nuts swimming about the layers of milk and cream!! i love the pastry bits as well.

Strawberry fondue (complimentary)

Strawberries and cream to wrap up the evening. It's really sweet of the boss to buy as drinks and desserts (and even an invite to shisha but we turned him down =p) but can see why because cuppage terrace was rather empty for a saturday evening, compared to the nearby emerald hill, perpetually infested by expats. it was only day 10 of opening day for kazbar, so they're still trying to iron things out (like the belly dancer knocks off too early on a saturday night!!!!!) but overall the food and service (the boss was really friendly, chatting with us throughout dinner telling tales of how he started off at Postbar at Fullerton to how he has the best job in the world of dining and wining his guests) is commendable and worth a visit.

I must go and check out Alaturka Turkish restaurant (as recommended by kums) and El Sheikh soon !

Kazbar (Cuppage Terrace)

33 Cuppage Road Cuppage Terrace