Baba Ghanouj Dural Lebanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

If I could give 0 stars I would. Visited for a family dinner. Prior to arrival, rang and asked about options for our group of 8. Was told on the phone that we could either choose off of the menu or because there was so many of us it may be easier to go banquet style.

Upon arrival at the reasturant, we were greated with menus. The young girl clearly stated that here was the menus, "But it may be easier to do banquet style because of the large group". This statement was heard by all eight of us at the table.

We began choosing our food options, La Carte, like we were offered.

The young girl returned to take our order. As we began listing our choices with a confused look on her face she said in a rude tone " As I said before, you have to choose a banquet". The tone of this statement was said as if all eight of us were dumb and clearly did not understand plain english. We said " You did not say that, we were told that we could order La Carte". She then said " You can but it is a min spend of $45, what would you like to do". We responded " We were not told that, if that is the case we will need more time".

We began looking over the banquet options, which are awful value for money. The cheapest option that had meat was $65 pp. We decided that this is not what we wish to do and decided to leave.

As we began to leave, this young girl came over with attitude and stated " Where are you going, we can negotiate, you dont have to leave". We continued to walk out, saying that we do not wish to partake in either option you gave us and rather we would just pay for the drinks we drank.

She kept insisting on a "negotation" to which we responsed, " we are out for a nice family dinner, we are not going to negotiate over food". As we continued walking they suddenly changed their minds to we could order La Carte but we already decided we did not want to associate with them.

I will never be returning to this restruant. The staff are extremley unprofessional...

I really wanted to like this place! Unfortunately the food just wasn’t good. The waiter was nice and the owner came over to introduce himself which was also nice. On his recommendation, we ordered the ‘Mama’ Banquet. The dips were nice (and the highlight for me), although there was not enough bread served with them. The pickles were clearly from jars and olives overly salty. The batata were served as roasted sweet potatoes rather then the usual white variety and were sans any spices or seasoning. The tabouli was 95% parsley and also quite tasteless. Cauliflower was soggy and similarly bland. We were asked how we liked the skewers cooked and asked for medium, however they were past ‘well done’ and consequently dry. The waiter could see we left most of the food and asked if we would like to take it away, for which we elected not to as it was overall unenjoyable. Also, It was quite overpriced for what we got and I wouldn’t recommend or return.

Response to below: Yes, I did dine at the Dural location and made an online booking before doing so, of which you should...

What a beautifully done up place tucked away in a bylane of Dural. This could well have been in Marrickville or Newtown. Carmel - the owner - clearly takes a lot of pride in keeping the place (and her staff) buzzing. Wine by the glass (Merlot) did not disappoint - the pour was not stingy by any means and the drop was quite good. Now to the food. Hummus Beiruti (hummus with meat) was splendid, esp the meat - it was full of flavour. Kebbeh Meelieh (fried koftas of mince meat with pine nuts) was delicious and well balanced. Warak Inab (vine leaves) was good although I think they were bought in, not made in house (the rows of cans on the kitchen shelves are a clear give away). We had Baba Mshakal (skewers of chicken, lamb and kefta) for main course which was A+! The meats were delicately flavoured and cooked to perfection. Dessert was Knefeh B Jebneh (bit like a semolina pudding) was heavenly... the flavours were exceptional.

All in all, a great experience. A top quality Lebanese place - highly recommended. Not cheap but not over...