al aseel

al aseel lebanese restaurant is consistently mentioned in any “top 10 middle eastern restaurants in sydney” lists… and we are going to put it to the test!. we tried kibbe naye (raw lamb!), vine leaves, lamb shank andmixedskewers on that day.

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

time from order to time chips reaching the table: 15 minutes
time from order to time food reaching 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 our food at 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).

wanting to experience more middle eastern cuisine, my boyfriend and i thought that al aseel would be a good place to start. to our pleasant surprise, we found the restaurant to have a modern and vibrant interior.

between the two of us, we ordered themixedplate, fattoush salad and a bowl of hot chips, totalling $55. whilst the staff responded to our requests efficiently we felt that they weren’t the friendliest and we found it rather inconvenient when our sides arrived much earlier than our main.

our favourite was the salad as it was well-combined and enhanced by the texture of the fried pita and acidity of the pomegranate molasses. the complimentary bread had a great smoky flavour and was used to mop up the hummus, baba ganoush and garlic sauce. whilst we found the first two to have distinct flavours, the latter was sour in comparison to its famous counterpart offered at ej. the olives and pickles were also complimentary but we found them to be bitter and unpalatable.

the skewers itself were underwhelming. the lamb and chicken skewers were on the dry side and although the kofta was juicy, the seasoning was rather salty. the hot chips were crunchy as they should be, but at $9 a bowl it was expensive. overall, we enjoyed the experience and would return to try other items such as the chicken lemon garlic which was recommended by a neighbouring diner.

lots of options on the menu. went for themixedplatter. they had a special okra that night. comes with dips and garlic sauce. garlic sauce is one of the better ones however compared to el jannah, i prefer el jannah.

went here as a group for lunch. the interior design is nice, and has a nice ‘classy’ feel. the dishes are great for sharing, and we loved the al aseelmixedplate with its three included dips (this would feed 2), and the chicken chilli lemon garlic. the only thing was, the latter was not spicy at all! the complimentary pita bread went great with the dips. the complimentary olives and pickles were a nice touch, but the former was very salty, and the latter very sour - but not to the point where it was inedible. service was also friendly, which is a plus.

really nice food middle eastern food. the al aseelmixedplate 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.

we ordered the baba ganoush, hommus w/ pine nuts, falafel, fattoush salad, mince rice andmixedskewers for 6 people. this was plenty of food and 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 of food is 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 lebanese food at a reasonable price. perfect for a nice group dinner out to celebrate an occasion.

i would definitely rate the food and service here!! highly recommend themixedplatter and fried bread. the kafta was probably my favourite meat. this place comes with complimentary bread and pickles so that's already a bonus for me. i'd be keen to try more dishes on their menu. it's best to come with a large group to order a variety of dishes

first lebanese experience. atmosphere was loud and restaurant was packed on a saturday night.mixedplate was delicious with very generous servings especially with the bbq prawns and chips plate. favourite dish was the fattoush salad. amazing. service was okay.

al aseel has been recommended to us by several people so we decided to give it a shot.

we ordered the fried eggplant, dip platter,mixedgrill platter, hot chips , fattoush salad and the chicken & lambmixedshwarma. the food all all delicious with the hommous, babaganoush, fattoush, eggplant andmixedgrill platter all disappearing so quickly i hardly had a change to take photos. we washed it down with hot cinnamon lebanese tea and orange juice. our meals were served with pickled chill, cucumber, radish & olives as well as lebanese bread. service was good and swift with enough staff on the floor that it never too long to get someone's attention. a stand out was hani(?) who showed us the al aseel olive oil and had a chat with us about their food.

we left full and satisfied and with little containers of turkish delight placed ready to buy at the register. we wanted to have dessert but we're just so stuffed we couldn't manage it.

the cost for 5 adults and 2 children with drinks and ample food was about $125

there was ample seating for large tables, they take bookings, have high chairs and were very prepared.

will definitely be returning.

al aseel always provides me with a fine tasting lebanese feast. the ambiance is great, attributed to the modern, middle eastern decor.
the food is what brings me here time and time again. my favourite combinations are the chicken lemon garlic or chicken chilli lemon garlic with fattoush salad, and you can also incorporate themixeddips to add to the flavour explosion!
the complimentary baklavas don't hurt one bit either 👌🏼

conflicted on this one. the food was delicious but the service is honestly shocking. they forgot our drink order, were rude when we reminded them, then forgot one of the drinks when the order finally came out. they served us a dish and told us it was our fish but it was actually chicken. half the mains came out and then the other half came out 20 mins later. pretty shocking.

if you can get past that then the food is very good. we got themixeddips with labne, garlic sauce, hummus and baba ghanosuh which was excellent to dip basically everything in, and there's stacks of leb bread to go with.

we got the haloumi which was delish, and the fatoush salad which my friend basically devoured the whole bowl. we also got these crispy fried chunks of potato that you could dunk in the sauce.

then we had delicious chicken covered in a creamy garlic sauce, and my friend had barramundi but she wasn't a huge fan of the yoghurt sauce it came with.

tasty food but the service would put me off a return visit unfortunately!

we often come here to get our middle eastern food fix!

the staff are always on the ball and the food always on point!mixedmeat plate is always our go to with the meat cooked so perfectly. the delicious green mint and lime drink is to die for - so sour!

i'm not sure if it's authentic or not, but it's soooo good! i normally get themixedplate and a side of fattoush.

the kafta is a bit salty, but my mrs absolutely loves it.

the chicken cubes are incredible. i don't know where to begin with this dish. i normally hate chicken breast because it's dry and stringy, but al aseel cooks it in such a way, it's super moist and full of flavour.

lamb shish is probably my favourite from themixedplate. i always order lamb when i go out and this place always makes it so tasty.

very yummy lebanese food. the al aseelmixedplate was very enjoyable. tasty meats and good dips. some of the chicken was a bit dry though. enjoyed the salads, perhaps some of the best lebanese salads i've had. they are currently running the restaurant out of the function room while they renovate next door. the service is quite bad at the moment, since perhaps the renovations are making things more difficult for them. many orders are taking a very long time to come out. probably would be better to go after all the work is completed.