al aseel

sooooo good!. this restaurant has the right combination of fantastic fresh food, great waitstaff, and an upbeat environment. i love that you see every kind of person in this place, it is a place to see the truly beautiful multicultural face of australia. we are so lucky to have places forfoodlike this in sydney!


-----07 mar, 2010-----

great food! friend took me there last year & i loved it, go back regularly. it's noisy so don't go to talk, go to eat.

best middle easternfoodexperience in the whole of sydney. the service could be done better, but thefoodis absolutely delicious. would definitely come back to this place 😊

i have been coming here for years and it is still the best lebanesefoodin sydney. however, i have to say that the quality of thefoodhas dropped a little lately with the meat skewers sometimes coming out tough and chewy. the biggest difference i have noticed though is the service - disappointingly this has dropped significantly with little attention to diners- who often have to wait for a while for a server to come around- once seated. this seems to be a big issue on very busy saturday nights and could easily be improved with a few more servers. otherwise a great and affordable meal.

fabulous!. i don't know what everyone is complaining about. thefoodis incredible and the service is great. this is one of the best places i have ever dined and i will return many times.

my go to place if i'm craving middle eastern food!
quiet pricey but thefoodtaste amazing! the mix plate was delicious + ordered 2x extra chicken skewers, which was enough for 3 people!
i love the mint and lime drink! super refreshing.

scene: saturday night 6pm, first week of september
group size: 8 adults + 1 child (3yo)
orders: 5x mixed plate, 1x sausages, 1x chicken skewers, 1x mixed skewers, 2x chips, 5 drinks

time from order to time chips reaching the table: 15 minutes
time from order to timefoodreaching the table: 65 minutes

as far as reviews go, we had come here for dinner to catch up with friends. the reviews of this place generally have been strong, and even zomato ratings say 4.3, so reasonably high for the number of reviews (220 at the time of writing this), so expectation was quite high.

besides the fact that service was quite slow for the actual food, the other reasons why my score was quite middle of the road 3, was:

- skewers were cooked inconsistently; my lamb was overdone significantly hard, my chicken and kafta was great. all of my wife's skewers were great. one of the others had chicken which was overdone.
- the garlic dip was extremely sour to me, so it was a bit of a turn off, while the hommus was apparently extremely bland for my wife, however, the babaganoush was very nice indeed.
- a table that was seated after us by about 20 minutes were served their orders significantly faster than us.
- due to them wanting to bring out ourfoodat the same time, it was all cold.

on the positive
- the falafal was excellent, crispy outside, moist inside. 
- the drinks they made were also really great too.
- the wait staff were very good in explaining what was in each dish and options we had.
- easy to flag down to get additional drink ordered and bread for the table.

in wrapping up, price wise for all of our orders came to $42/pp (adults only counted), which, i personally felt was a bit on the high side for the volume of what you get ($31/mixed plate pictured).
if they were able to get their service speed faster (it was busy, but you have to expect it for the size of the venue and their reputation), then perhaps it would have been a better experience.

would i go again? maybe to hang with friends, but probably not likely for eating there with family alone. 

would i order delivery (which apparently is now an option), maybe if delivery was included (like over a certain order value).

the staff were very not very attentive. it took us a while to claim our table despite booking. upon sitting down, it was hard to get a waiter’s attention even though there was a handful of staff. when the waiter took our order - he was completely ignorant and rude. we wanted to order extrafoodand it also took a while to ask for a menu & to gain their attention. 30 mins later thefoodarrived. the chicken and kafta were key call outs as they were super nice and tender. the foutoush was also good! overall thefoodwas good but service is just as important & i can safely say - tonight’s service has turned me away from returning to the somewhat quality food.

i travel with work a lot and eat at a lot of restaurants. tonight i tried al asèel. i have now been sitting here for over 15 minutes since handed a menu. the menu has been closed and next to me for the past 10 minutes. it would appear they are not interested in serving me and there a plenty of staff on duty and not a lot of customers. too busy being busy to care i guess. if i do not get approached in 5 minutes i'm walking. just! after 20 plus minutes and this is having watched people who arrived after me be attended to first. let's see what thefoodis like? i have now waited a further 20 plus minutes and still nothing. 30 minutes and it arrived. now for the taste test. lamb was very dry and no real flavour to the rice. poor poor poor. ah well tomorrow is a new day and a new restaurant.

efficient service. the staff were friendly, honest and very helpful.foodwas delicious, generous servings and quality ingredients. be sure that you will not leave here hungry!

dined here a couple of times. it is the flagship al aseel restaurant. every experience has either been a complete hit or complete miss. unfortunately the quality of theirfoodisn't consistent. it is a perfect place for large groups to gather as it is spacious and many different banquet options are offered leaving enough for everyone. its worth a visit however it is quite pricey. definitely one of the best lebanese/ middle-eastern restaurants.

came here with a friend last week. i ordered the vegetarian plate and had some of her chicken also which was delicious! i couldn’t stop eating! i loved everything on my plate, some of the best lebanesefoodi’ve tried. the service was good, good vibe. seating is a little close together and it’s a bit too bright but other than that i enjoyed it and am looking forward to eating there again.

really nicefoodmiddle eastern food. the al aseel mixed plate is big enough for 2 and delicious. definitely worth trying. their fattoush is the best i've had in sydney.

limited parking in the car park, but on street parking is also an option

caution: the pickles are exceedingly salty.

this wasn't my first time eating lebanesefoodand by far it is the worstfoodi have eaten. the plating of thefoodis super sloppy, i don't want to even say what it reminds me of. tastes like frozen food. i would be better of going to woolies and buying something out of the dip section.

we ordered the baba ganoush, hommus w/ pine nuts, falafel, fattoush salad, mince rice and mixed skewers for 6 people. this was plenty offoodand we actually managed to finish it all :)

quality: the dips were excellent and the baba ganoush had a characteristic smokiness which was superb. the fattoush salad was possibly a bit overdressed but still quite crisp. falafels were crispy. skewers were chicken, lamb and lamb kafta, all very nice. also, 80% of our order was gluten free surprisingly which pleased one member of our group.

service: very good service for a busy thursday lunch. thankfully we had a booking as there were many patrons despite being mid week. waiters were all very polite.

value: very good quality but the price is still relative expensive. $36 for 6 skewers seemed a bit steep. dips were well priced though given the bread is free and bottomless. make sure you don't fall into the trap of the $40 pp banquet. the volume offoodis impossible to consume and you ultimately overspend. our total order as listed about came out at about $28 pp which was much more reasonable.

overall: delicious authentic lebanesefoodat a reasonable price. perfect for a nice group dinner out to celebrate an occasion.

my friends and i went here to eat because nothing else was open at that moment. we ordered our meals and while waiting i was eating the bread to pass the time. unfortunately after eating 2 pieces, i found mould on one of the bread touching the one i had previously consumed. during the whole meal i was running to the toilet vomiting all thefoodi had consumed. not only is thefoodoverpriced but both my friend and i fell ill (they both had diarrhea).