PAZAR — Restaurant in Sydney

A very disappointing first and last experience. Took our girlfriend for a birthday celebration after she herself had raved about the restaurant. Food was extremely late. The bread was cold and butter warm. The smoked lamb tasted of chemicals and only smoke. Was returned after a bite was taken. Chicken was good though. After waiting two hours and a meal still had not arrived. We enquired as to where it was, and was asked didn’t you eat it already? Uh, no...That’s why we’re asking for it. The interesting thing was that waitress herself suggested we order it. After my girlfriend started complaining the manager came over. She stated our food was served late because we had added the lamb at the last minute. Again, wrong. We ordered our food all at the same time. They told us food would start arriving in 10 to 15 minutes. After over 30 minutes they brought the bread and a yogurt dish and an hour after that the first hot food arrived. The manager said it’s because they’re so busy. Great! For a restaurant who has such strict rules about arrivals and requests of expected behaviour of the patrons. I expected at least better communication. Not once were we approached to let us know our food was going to be late or to apologise and say the kitchen was busy. As to why food was forgotten the reply was again they were so busy and only two waitresses working the back room and it was too much for her to remember everything. We asked them to refund the returned lamb and they said they don’t do refunds, and also it was eaten. Yes. We tasted it. It was awful hence why it was sent back to kitchen. Only a bite was taken. By then there was a full argument between my girlfriend and the manager and the manager was not backing down and being argumentative and when told she was being argumentative and upsetting our friend whose birthday it was, her reply was that she was explaining. You have to first listen and you weren’t, and just because your using a calm voice does not mean you’re not arguing. Our experience could have been made positive if they had communicated about kitchen being busy. Offered a refund on the dish that was returned or at least offered a replacement. Instead of making excuses, accepting their faults ie, super late arrival of food, forgetting to bring food, and accusing us of adding food late (untrue) I found the waitress who served us and the manager inexperienced, and not able to handle a busy restaurant and rightfully unsatisfied customers, and for their no phone and no kids running around.... well. Phones were out, and no young kids running around which would’ve been ok because they’re young, but 2 older 8+ girls skipping and going up and down a very busy and tight area. Mistakes are made and can be forgiven, but not when your arguing with your customers and making false accusations, and not sorry for...

We visited Pazar for our first time about a month ago on the recommendation of a work colleague. I've driven past it so many times and never know it was there. Stepping in from the noise and bustle of Canterbury road and I was surprised to find myself in a stylish yet cozy oasis. We thought we'd try a couple of dishes to get a feel of the place - Sujuk- Hummus blistered tomatoes, Braised Japanese eggplant, Flame grilled octopus and of course - the fresh baked bread with butter. The service was pleasant attentive and quick and dishes started coming out almost immediately. Starting with the bread - I could eat bread like this every day. Perfectly soft in the middle with a good crunchy and chewy crust and a nice dusting of seeds. The accompanying wild oregano butter is dangerously two ways - very tasty, and very generous! Fortunately the Sujuk/Humus came quickly before we could eat all the bread, and like the bread, I could eat this every day. The flavours so fresh and clean, the Sujuk with a nice tang. Absolutely delicious. The other dishes followed along in quick succession and whilst I'm not a fan of eggplant, it was still pretty good (Labneh can fix anything) and the octopus also delicious. We paired our food with various drinks from the small but well thought out quality drinks menu and had a great night of it. The owner and head chef, Atilla introduced himself and we had a good chat about food, wine and all things good and he also suggested we check out the dining room at the rear, which we did - I know where we'll be holding our next big party! Now that we know of this place, we've been looking for an excuse to go back and finally made it again last Thursday. This time around we tried the bread again (good food needs good bread for cleaning the plate afterwards!), Harissa roast chicken, Zuchini and feta herb balls, Tomatoes oregano and village cheese, baby beetroot pistachio dukkah. Everything was exceptional again - the standouts being the baby beetroot dukkah and the chicken which was the most flavoursome and tender chicken I've ever eaten. This time we paired it all with the Lebanese Domaine des Tourelles red which was absolutely perfect with the food. Light like a Pinot but with a really lovely soft fruitiness that sat just right against the flavours of the food. I'm already looking at the menu and working out what we'll try next time. I get the feeling that there's not much here that I wont like... lucky for me it's walking distance from...

I’m sooooooooo happy the lovely people at Pazar Collective have finally reopened albeit with a slightly different concept! The clever name (get it? Just like pizzaria only it’s not Italian!) is the first clue that the menu is slightly different than the previous incarnation. There are still some stunners on the menu from the Pazar days - the roasted sweet potato, the wood fired breads and dips, the sangria and (thank God!!) the habanero caramel tres leches cake (I cried the day they closed to think I’d not taste that ever again!)

The new menu features several amazing Turkish pide. We tried the four cheese with egg and the harissa prawn plus an amazing fall salad and the sangria. The egg on the four cheese is incorporated into the filling rather than the runny egg topped version I was expecting but the flavour was perfect with a hint of tangy feta and a well developed crust from a multi day ferment on the dough. The harissa prawn had a bit of fruity heat but not too spicy and some lovely crunchy fresh rocket with a fresh tasting tomato sauce base. The fall salad was a perfect medley of watermelon radish sliced thinly plus juicy tomatoes, crunchy cabbage, cucumber, dill, mint and some lightly toasted hazelnuts in a pomegranate dressing with jewelled wedges of perfectly spiced pickled plums - autumn on a plate and my dish of the night (except that cake of course!)

It’s worth noting that the wines are great value with bottles in the $38-42 range plus some nice beer choices and the hibiscus sangria. There are cocktails on the list but they weren’t available the night we were there as they are training new bar staff.

Many of the staff are new and finding their feet and Attilla says they are training as fast as they can find people. The friendliness and big efforts of the floor staff (especially Karen!) to make us feel welcome meant I certainly did not notice anything lacking on the staffing front.

If you’re not from the Canterbury area it doesn’t matter..this one is worth the trip! Just leave the Italian...