Rocking the Kazbah… for Breakfast

My friends and I have been dying to try Kazbah at Balmain for breakfast for as long as I can remember. The restaurant is always packed on weekends and we never remember (or think far enough in advance) to book a table.

I don’t actually know anybody who has been to Kazbah for breakfast, it definitely wasn’t a personal recommendation that got us there, it was in fact the intrigue… of having booze for breaky. See, there was a rumour that Kazbah served alcohol alongside your eggs and we could not think of anything worse than recovering from Saturday night with a hot Sunday breakfast with a side of vodka! We must see this for ourselves…

We had a reservation for 9.30am on Sunday morning and surprisingly, the restaurant was only half full. We were seated at the front of the restaurant and immediately opened our menu and scurried to the drinks section of the breakfast menu. There it was in all its glory, a selection of five cocktails for breakfast.

I think the novelty wore off pretty quickly when we realised we couldn’t possible stomach a champers at this time of the morning and needed some eggy goodness to kick start our Sunday.

We perused the menu looking for something Arabian that wasn’t too heavy (so much meat on this menu!) and although I was tempted by the Breakfast Tagine (lamb mince, sucuk, spinach, roast capsicum, roast tomato, caramelised onion, feta, eggs, Turkish toast, Lebanese bread) I settled for the Chackchouka Eggs.

Chackchouka scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and turkish toast ($18.00)

The eggs were beautifully cooked with a capsicum, tomato and onion salsa swirled through, adding a rich smokey flavour to the light, fluffy eggs. Yummo! The smoked salmon was also delicious, again, with an intense smokey flavour above and beyond the usual flavour of smoked salmon.

My friend opted for the feta and poatato cake with smoked salmon. This dish was incredibly heavy and while the salmon and creme fraiche were yummy, the feta and potato was quite bland and lacked flavour from some herbs or seasoning. The cake was also crisp (burnt) and that flavour carried through the dish. The meal wasn’t a total disaster but one third of the potato and feta mix would have been more than enough.

Feta potato cake, smoked salmon, creme fraiche, red wine onion marmelade ($21.00)

There were several tables in the restaurant that were sharing platters, I wonder whether that is the way to go in a restaurant like this? I could only imagine going back for breakfast again if I have skipped dinner the night before and we get a reservation for 11am, so that I was positively starving by the time my breakfast is placed in front of me … or I just take my tradie boyfriend who I know will always finish my meals.

One thing that will definitely bring me back is the decor. I simply love all the Turkish bits and pieces and Kazbah certainly have it all. My favourite was the water jugs with mint leaves infusing the water. Where can I get me one of these?

Kazbah

379 Darling Street

Balmain, 2041

Sydney

Ph: 02 9555 7067

E: Kazbah@kazbah.com.au

W: http://www.kazbah.com.au

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