Salam Cafe Ethiopian and Somali Restaurant, Auburn

Kick start your day with a traditional Somali breakfast at Salam Café, tucked away in the back streets of Auburn. That means spiced lamb liver or chopped lamb with capsicum, tomato and onion eaten with malawax sweet pancakes. Prefer to breakfast Sudanese-style? You’ll be served Sudanese foul, tender fava beans cooked with garlic and cumin garnished with jibna, the Sudanese version of fetta cheese.

Somali bariis mansaf $15

The Arab influence on East African food can be spotted throughout the menu. The bariis mansaf is the Somali take on this traditional Arab dish, hunks of tender lamb served alongside basmati rice and salad. The lamb is seriously good, slow roasted so the bones only need a wiggle before they slide out clean. Dunk each piece in chilli sauce – a zingy housemade recipe of green and red chillies with vinegar – and savour between mouthfuls of the fragrant rice, which has been cooked in an aromatic stock and jewelled with raisins. Follow this up with sips of the side soup, clear but hearty, and bulked up with chunks of carrot and potato.


Ethiopian qay wat beef curry and Somali stewed lamb combo $15

If you’re the kind of person who wants to try a bit of everything, get the Ethiopian and Somali cuisine combo. On one side of the plate you’ll score the Somali bariis mansaf lamb with rice; on the other you’ll travel to Ethiopia with doro wat chicken stew or qay wat beef curry strewn across enjera, that spongy and slightly sour crepe made from teff flour.


Misir wat $10

Vegetarians don’t miss out with a choice of two Ethiopian stews: the shiro wat made from ground chickpeas and peas, and the misir wat made from red split lentils. Both are served on enjera with simmered vegetables and salad.

There’s not much in the way of ambience in the large and sparse dining room but that doesn’t seem to bother the all-male crowd of happy, homesick ex-pats dining in on our visit.

And before you scratch your head over the appearance of spaghetti on the menu, know that pasta or baasto, is a huge part of Somali cuisine as a result of Italian colonisers. Here it’s spiced lamb served on either plain or fried spaghetti






Salam Cafe & Restaurant
4/6-10 Harrow Road, Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8964 6609

Open daily 8.30am-9pm


This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.

Amma's Modern Kitchen, Pendle Hill

Imagine a pancake crossed with a crepe, a bowl shape that’s bubbly and soft in the middle with edges that thin out to a golden crunch. You might call this bliss. Sri Lankans just call them hoppers, a street food snack that’s eaten from breakfast through to dinner.

Amma’s Modern Kitchen pumps out hoppers all day, at prices that’ll justify the trek to Toongabbie* Pendle Hill. The takeaway counter out the front does a brisk trade but hook a right into the dowdy but air-conditioned restaurant and you’ll find yourself surrounded by a gaggle of grandmas, couples and kids.


Milk hoppers 3 for $7.90
Egg hoppers 3 for $9.00

Service can be distracted and a little slow but patience will reward you with a trio of hoppers for just $5.90. It’s worth upgrading to the egg hopper ($9 for three), boosted with a gooey yolked egg in the middle. Your egg hoppers will arrive with cracked black pepper across the top and a dish of lunu miri chilli sambol on the side.

Sure you could use the cutlery provided but it’s much more satisfying to make like a local and eat with your hands. Tear off bite-sized pieces and dip them into the runny yolk. The faint tang you can detect is from the batter, which is made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk. Don’t forget the sambol either, a fiery paste made from dried red chillies and flakes of smoked and dried tuna known as Maldive fish.


Milk hoppers with coconut cream and jaggery 

The hoppers here are some of the laciest we’ve tried, cooked super thin so that the edges maintain their crunch long after you’ve taken your mandatory Instagram photo. The sweet version is even better, sprinkled with jaggery dark palm sugar and a puddle of coconut cream. It’s like a coconut caramel dream.


White pittu with sambol, 2 vegetable curries and 2 meat curries $9.90

And while you might be tempted to eat hoppers all day, it’d be a shame to skip the rest of Amma’s menu. Start with a Sri Lankan breakfast of pittu steamed rice flour and coconut cakes with curry, move onto a South Indian trumpet-sized masala dosai crepe stuffed with potato, and finish with a Malaysian beef rendang. Hop to it.

Masala dosai $8.90

Banana leaf special with goat $13.90


Banana leaf curry, pittu and dosai 

*Note: This visit was made to Amma's Modern Kitchen when it was based in Toongabbie. Amma's Modern Kitchen has now moved to Pendle Hill.




Amma's Modern Kitchen
18/20 Aurelia Street, Toongabbie, Sydney
Now at
146 Pendle Way, Pendle Hill, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 7806 2335

Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday 7.30am-9.30pm

This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.

Black Bear BBQ, Blacktown

Low and slow. That's the ethos behind Black Bear BBQ, serving up Texan-style woodsmoked barbecue. You'll find them in the back streets of Blacktown, feeding a non-stop queue of hungry tradies and office workers. There's nothing fancy here. Just massive serves of meat served up in takeaway cardboard boxes, and that's exactly the way the locals like it.



You'll know you've arrived when you spot the picnic tables out the front and the giant light bulb letters spelling BBQ.


Black Bear BBQ menu

It's one helluva meat fest on the menu. Vegetarians aren't really catered for here, unless you're happy with slaw, pickles and a handful of crisps.

Order at the counter (yes, they have EFTPOS) and enjoy the spectacle of your meat being carved up before your eyes.


Barbecue pork ribs

Barbecue porks ribs are cut through with ease...


Beef brisket

but it's the huge slab of beef brisket, covered in a deep black bark, that's guaranteed to get your mouth watering.


Lunch for three

The meat boxes range in price from $15 to $25, each bolstered with crisps, pickles and a rainbow slaw of cabbage, carrot, celery and corn. The drinks fridge includes plenty of American favourites like Dr Pepper and Canada Dry.


Half rack pork ribs $35

We feast on all the meats, starting with a half rack of pork ribs. They're impressively tender (only a smidge dry at the thicker end of the rib) with its sweet glaze enhanced by a generous dousing of barbecue sauce.


Hungry Bear Box $25
Links, brisket and pork belly

The Hungry Bear Box yields a triple threat of links, brisket and pork belly. The brisket has a lush layer of fat although it's not quite as smoky as we expect, even with the visible smoke ring. There's a good ribbon of fat running through the pork belly, cooked to a caramelised juiciness.


Sausage link with cheese

The sausage link is a real highlight through, the springy smoky sausage stuffed with cubes of cheese. I'd definitely order this again.


Beef short rib box $25

The beef short rib box usually comes with only one rib but because there are only two small end ribs left in the tray, we score both. Win! It's a fatty reward, just the way we like it, the beef cooked long enough so the fat has rendered throughout. Suze reports that it was heavily smoky in flavour on her last visit. Today there's a subtler imparting of smoke to the meat.

Here's the bad news. They're only open weekdays although they do open most Friday nights - I hear the queues are hectic so be prepared to wait. Otherwise you can do as we did and take a day off work for a trip out west. They're open from 6am for breakfast (brisket and egg roll, anyone?) with lunch (and the meat boxes) starting at 11am.






Black Bear BBQ
11/27 Forge Street, Blacktown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8605 3953

Opening hours
Monday to Thursday 6am-2pm
Friday 6am-2pm, most nights 6.30pm until sold out 


Related Grab Your Fork posts
American barbecue - Bovine and Swine, Enmore
American barbecue - Oxford Tavern, Petersham
American barbecue - Surly's, Surry Hills
American barbecue - Vic's Meats at Sydney Fish Market, Pyrmont
Smoke - Firedoor, Surry Hills
Smoke - LP's Quality Meats, Chippendale

Kansas City barbecue: Gates, Oklahoma Joe's and Arthur Bryant's
Texas barbecue - Franklin, Ruby's, Green Mesquite, Salt Lick and La Barbecue

All-you-can-eat Korean BBQ (for cheap!) at Charcoal Mine Barbecue House, Parramatta

There are two golden rules for any all-you-can-eat: wear loose clothing, and arrive hungry. You’ll face instant regret if you don’t do both when you rock up to Charcoal Mine, said to be Australia’s first all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue restaurant.


Overhead barbecue smoke ventilators

The fact they opened over 20 years ago goes some way in explaining the dated but perfectly functional décor. The room full of Korean families, students and couples don’t care though. Let’s face it. Everybody’s focus is on the self-serve buffet. Hit it hard.


Buffet island


Time to gather all the meats


Marinated pork and chicken

You'll be in protein central with meats that run from marinated scotch fillet to spicy bacon strips, chicken wings and pork sausages. Seafood choices include mussels, octopus and squid. The more adventurous will venture towards kidney, intestine, giblet and liver territory. Leave your vegetarian mates at home unless they’re happy to binge on kimchi and lettuce leaves.


Meat on charcoal. Oh yeah.

Load up, head back to your table and resist the urge to throw everything on the charcoal barbecue. Yep, you’ll have to cook your own meat but trust us, it’s a cinch. Plus there are few things more satisfying than transferring succulent meat straight off the barbie and into your mouth. Plus, the charcoal really makes a difference, adding a smokier flavour to your sizzle meats. Most other Korean barbecue joints use cheaper – and less flavoursome – gas.


Cooked in a flash

The buffet selection isn’t huge but neither is the price tag. You’ll pay $35-$37 for dinner, depending on which night you dine, or binge at lunch for maximum value when the price drops to $28. Bargain!


Lettuce wraps and fresh watermelon and oranges

Don’t forget to create your own dipping sauces using gochujang chilli paste, ssamjang barbecue paste, sesame oil and soy. Help yourself to a bowl of steamed rice and make like a local, wrapping up your freshly barbecued meats in crisp iceberg lettuce leaves with a little bit of rice and a smear of ssamjang.

Fresh watermelon and orange wedges make for a sweet and refreshing dessert – or mid-meal palate cleanser. They have an alcohol license too, so you can barbie on up with a beer by your side. Maaate.

Fellow diners showing us how it's done with the lettuce wraps


Dining tables with inset barbecue grills






Charcoal Mine Barbecue House
454 Church Street, North Parramatta, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9630 3299 or +61 (02) 9630 4401

Opening hours
Monday 12pm-3pm, 5pm-11pm
Tuesday 5pm-11pm
Wednesday to Sunday 12pm-3pm, 5pm-11pm

This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.

Boodle fight at Sizzling Fillo, Lidcombe

No cutlery. No plates. Just one long table piled with food. This, my friends, is a boodle fight. It’s how the Filipino military used to eat in an army mess hall, soldiers standing shoulder-to-shoulder battling to eat their fill before the food ran out. Eating together wasn’t just about efficiency – it also represented equality and camaraderie for all troops.

Today’s boodle fights have evolved into more of a communal feast for family and friends, while still acknowledging its traditional origins. So hand-to-mouth combat sounds like your kinda thing? Sizzling Fillo has ten different banquets to choose from, including special lovers’ feasts for two. Sexy times. For a less intimate meal, it’s worth rounding up at least three of your mates who won’t freak out about eating with their fingers. And yes, they have a vegan feast too. Nobody misses out here.


Serving the garlic rice on banana leaves

Pre-book at least three days in advance and when you rock up, you’ll find your table covered in banana leaves. The dining room is a happy hubbub of Filipino families and friends, with most ordering from the a la carte menu.

On your signal, staff will start bringing out your food, piling it up on or around fragrant garlic rice planted straight onto your banana leaf-lined table.


Sizzling steak

You’ll get everything from steamed crabs to sizzling steak to fried baby milkfish depending on the banquet you’ve ordered. Veggies are always included.


Fried milkfish with salted egg


Sizzling sisig

Sizzling sisig is a Filo specialty worth trying, a hot plate of shredded meat from the pigs head and liver mixed through with egg yolk.


Stirring the egg yolk into the sizzling sisig pigs head with liver



Plating the crispy pata deep fried pig trotters

But the undoubted star of the show is the crispy pata, deep fried pork trotters that you tear apart and dip into vinegar and soy. If there’s going to be a fight, it’ll be over the hunks of crunchy crackling.


You know you want it

Relapse to childhood and get down and dirty with your fingers. It might feel weird at first but you’ll be ripping apart that milkfish like a seasoned Survivor contestant in no time.


The best kind of finger food

Finish up with deep fried banana fritters, leche flan crème caramel or halo halo, mixed fruits topped with ice cream. The sago’t gulaman doubles as dessert too, a brown sugar drink served icy cold with tapioca pearls and cubes of agar agar jelly.


Sago't gulaman


Boodle fight


Fried milkfish with salted egg and garlic rice


Crispy pata deep fried pork trotter






Sizzling Fillo
36 Railway Street, Lidcombe, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9649 7939

Opening hours
Tuesday to Friday 5.30pm-9pm
Saturday to Sunday 11.30am-3.30pm and 4.30pm-9pm

This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.