As mentioned last week, the world of the Beaufort Street Bloggers was turned upside down when the Sponge told us he would be away for our traditional Thursday night get together. The bloggers spent several days putting their heads together to work out a plan to make sure we would still spend the minimum of 2 dinner-time hours per week together while also keeping the blog running. The resulting plan was a master stroke of pure genius – to eat on Tuesday.
Last night the Sponge, the Deliberator and the Brains took a trip to Medya King Kebab, just next door to the Baker’s Delight in Inglewood. BITO stayed at home preparing the silverware, crystal and linen napkins for the arrival of the chosen food. We have now discovered that eating a kebab off china is even better than eating one on the footpath out the front of the Bog at 5.30am with a bunch of new best friends discovered just that evening.
Medya King Kebab is a bright, clean establishment with pleasant staff and suitably varied menu – the bloggers were particularly happy that in addition to the usual doner kebab, shish kebabs were an option. There were also pide, pizza, salad and dip options to suit everyone’s kebab-shop fare requirements. We chose a lamb shish kebab, a chicken doner, a meat and salad (half chicken, half that crazy beef/lamb doner mix that’s best not to think about), a vegetable pide, 2 large chips and a Turkish bread and hommus. A ridiculous amount of food by anyone’s standards, but we do what we can to make our reviews accurate.
The bread used for the kebabs was thicker than usual and heated before being used. A big tick. The lamb was freshly cooked and tender. The pide was also freshly made. The 2 kebabs were excellent, with just the right amount of sauce to meat to salad ratio. Sometimes kebabs can be so overloaded with the cheaper salads that you wonder how they mistook your order of a lamb sandwich for a piece of pita bread stuffed with lettuce. Sadly, the meat and salad was slightly disappointing – the salads that were on display in the shop included a very tasty spicy onion salad and the traditional favourite, tabouleh. The salad that came in the meat and salad combo was onion, tomato and lettuce – yawn. The meat however was very tasty.
The bloggers were also a big fan of the hommus, it had more garlic in it than hommus usually has which made it doubly tasty. The Turkish bread, while it could have been a little fresher, was good and well priced - $3 for what seemed like several metres of the stuff. The chips were neither here nor there, they were pretty soggy by the time we got them home, and they could have done with a heap more salt. Of course, we still ploughed our way through 2 family sized boxes very happily.
In all, Medya King Kebabs was a positive experience in the kebab shop genre. We were impressed with the staff who all looked up from their respective positions at the grill and smiled and waved us goodbye when we left. The Sponge, so caught up in the wonderful smile and wave moment, had some trouble walking out the door. The plastic flaps covering the door were wider and heavier than he expected, and knocked his sunglasses clean off his head. This also happened to him on the way in, so it’s difficult to tell whether the plastic flaps were at fault, or if the Sponge has some kind of walking difficulties.
In summary:
Service: Friendly and smiley.
Food: Very solid kebab store fare with especially good hommus.
Ambience: Fluorescent lighting and white tiles.
Highlight: The hommus and the shish kebab meat.
Lowlight: The Sponge says the heavy plastic flaps covering the door, the rest of us think the meat and salad and quality of the chips.
Rating: 3.5 spinning mystery-meat rotisseries out of 5.
Will we be back? Yes, we’d love to try it out hungover or drunk, which we admit, is the true test for the quality of a kebab.
Details: Around $15 a head for a stupid amount of food.
Coming up: Our research says that ‘Al Sito’ at 885 Beaufort Street is next on our list. We have never seen this place, and believe it is very new, so it will be an exciting stop for the bloggers and their fans.
9 comments:
I've particularly enjoyed this review, especially as it comprises the 'search' component of the research I was hoping to do for this venue. Being a Beaufort St resident (only by nights out, and not by profession I should add) I will give this place a go, especially when I don't fancy getting all dressed up to go to Ankara in trendy Mt Lawley.
Can you tell me whether deserts were available here? Perhaps Baklava or other goodies? I'm assuming The Deliberator has the 'meat' component cornered. Berhaps Bito could report on deserts, seeing she (currently) may be the only one who remembers that far into the night.
Hi grrlfrommars, thanks for your comment. We think that Medya is an excellent place to go when you don't feel like donning your glad rags and heading into groovy Mt Lawley. We would be intrested to hear what you think when you get there.
On desserts, we are pretty sure the traditional Baklava was there, but cannot really recall what else was available. BITO had baked a delish lemon meringue pie that night so we didn't pay close attention to the options. We tend not to order dessert when we go out - perhaps this is something we need to rectify to ensure our reviews are complete.
BSB
Love your blog, although I almost barfed reading and looking at the pic of your "gourmet"pizza from the Civic! It's a charming little money-laundering place isn' it?
You've missed a couple of places on "the strip" Avenue 9 and Rembrandt's. Avenue 9 not only provided food (no, really,) but also entertainment as there was a large table of "body builders"- ever seen biceps in high heels ? We went to Rembrandt's the other week - The Sponge and Deliberator will have their carnivorous appetites whetted and appeased - Eastern Europe cuisine is ALL about meat....
Serionsly though, the pierogi we had was better than what I had in Poland last August!
Our next tasting is now locked in being The Banyan tree - we're only doing take away's as we figure we might need to don "fat girls" clothing for that event and such satorial elegnace might put other diners off !
Keep up the great work :)
Thanks for considering the importance of desert BSB, even a perusal report would be of great service to the punters.
Marz, I believe we have been misleading the good readers of this blog. It appears the next venue is 885 Beaufort St, and Avenue 9 is 882. Rest assured the bodybuilders are still to come, as are the Polish pierogi, potato pancakes and all other forms of Eastern European alliteration.
[Disclaimer: It is true that Marz and I know each other. We actually met in Vienna and discovered that all that divided us was in fact Beaufort Street. Now that we have meandered back to Australian shores it us what in fact unites us.]
Ok, im a chef and this is MY kebab shop of choice. I lurve the food here, plus the fact i can place my order then duck over to IGA to do my shopping, then grab my kebabs on the way out.
The owner (lovely lady) is a qualified pastry chef and i can attest the Baklava and sweets are excellent. Also give the dips a go-they have a tasting plate on the counter. The beetroot dip is heavenly!
Keep up the good work BSB's.
Glenn
Very pleased to know that we're not the only ones who felt a great deal of affection for this kebabery. The dips are on our to-do list.
What happened to the lady that runs this place along with the man who sits out the front smoking his afghani hooker?
Have they sold medya? Or are they just on holidays?
Either way the quality of the pide has gone down hill.
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