Kazbah

We went here on a weekday for lunch.
Ambience was good. They have good view of the darling harbour.
The service was quick. I have ordered the sish kebab.
Taste was okay. a little less spicy than the Indian version of kebabs we usually have. The pickled veggies and hummus was very tasty. Potato fries were crispy and spicy.
Some of my friends tried the lamb shank. The dish looked awesome in the clay pot. It was piping hot and was served with couscous. Heard that it would have been better if it was little more spicy.
Overall the food was good. But I felt the food was a bit pricey. If the group size is large, they do not have any group discount policy and there is a 10% extra surcharge on top if it.

I went with friends and my young kids. Getting a kids menu for the children was a great bonus, I expected no kids menu whatsoever.

A great selection of Middle Eastern dishes, it is almost hard to decide which ones to try! I love the décor as well, it really transported you to the wonders of Arabian night: D
My favourite dish? As simple as it is, the crusty grilled bread with the dips. They were so enticing, baba ganoush and all, you couldn’t stop eating the addictive food!
I also really enjoyed the mains, and loved how the meat was brought out on a skewer — it looked a little badass, like a sword skewering the prey!
Overall, great place to eat, although the service isn’t very polite, and have a tendency to be a little impatient!

I’ve enjoyed myself at Kazbah every time. I can’t say I’m a regular visitor, but over the years, I’d probably visit twice or three times a year, sometimes to catch up with friends and other times for work functions.
I must say that I’m never disappointed. No wonder they manage to start with just one restaurant and expand.
I’ve visited Kazbah for brunch before but unlike other times, this time I was part of a breakfast banquet rather than order a la carte. I didn’t know what to expect — forgive my ignorance — as I have no knowledge of what North Africans would have for breakfast.
Most of the items were a lot of grains — muesli, cous cous and other grains. I think of most note is the sweet cous cous — I’ve never imagined cous cous being anything other than savoury, and even though it wasn’t like a «wow this is how I’ll have them from now on», it still brightened my day (and it was already pretty bright given I’ve finally managed to get back into regular sport through dragon boat paddling) with a fresh idea.
The breakfast tagine is something I’ve enjoyed every time, and am glad that it was part of the banquet. It can be a little spicy if you’re not the spicy type. Interestingly, I had the same tagine in their Balmain shop a few years ago and it was different… less spicy and entirely delicious. This one’s still delicious but could be a little less spicy.
They also put on a sausage, bacon and haloumi platter (maybe to please the Australians/​us) — I didn’t go there for bacon, so I just focussed on gorging on the haloumi.
Rounding off the banquet were these massive pancakes (photos to be posted)… they were really delicious, but we were full already! Somehow we managed to finish them too.
So, my conclusion is, for $ 30, you get both quality and size… well worth it everyone!

Superb. Loved all the stuff. Great lamb kafta, snapper. Would love to come back again for more.

Good location. Good fitout. Not really pram friendly if you come in from the harbour. The service here was atrocious. There were hardly any customers and yet I had to ask for EVERYTHING.
I had to ask for help with the pram. I had to ask for a high chair. I had to ask for our menus. I had to ask for some water. I had to ask to take our order. This has got to be the worst service in Sydney! I ordered a chai tea for my wife at the end of the meal and I could see the docket sitting there and the boss had an argument with the kitchen. Kitchen took the docket but NEVER made the drink. After waiting a little while, I think it was clear the drink was NOT coming but nobody bothered to come over and tell us. THey were actually waiting for us to get frustruated and cancel the order. WOW this was super super bad. Don’t come here if you want a decent dining experience.

Loved this place! We had a group of 6 so we had the «Royal Dinner Feast» it was $ 65 each. I love dinning this way, sharing dishes and truly experiencing the flavours of Arabia. Service was excellent and very friendly

Slow service, poor quantity of food for the price, and the chicken shish most of us ordered was cold. The chips looked and tasted like they were 2 days old. The group of 8 I was with agreed not to go back there again, and this explains why on a busy Saturday night every restaurant at Harbourside has lines out the door whereas this one has spare tables. Quality control and customer service training needed.

Even though I love the sister Restaurant in Balmain, this being Darling Harbour I was rather skeptical. However I’m happy to report that it was great. The food was fantastic, I had the feta potato cakes with smoked salmon and tried the chicken sweker which was served with pita, humous, pickles and salad. It was all exceptionally made and tasted great. The staff were friendly and knew their stuff, they recommended a great wine too. Very happy.

My experience at Kazbah wasn’t great. We arrived to a fairly busy restaurant at 7:30 pm on a Saturday night and were seated at our table after a brief wait for the table to be set. Firstly, the one positive is that the restaurant looks awesome with authentic decorations and moody lighting, there was also a belly dancer doing the rounds during our visit which added nicely to the atmosphere. I also have to give the head waiter props for trying to keep us happy during our visit, sadly I could tell from his face that he knew how bad the night was going himself.
The wait time for food was the worst part about the night, we had to wait over an hour for our mains to come out and I thought I might die from thirst our drinks took that long to come out. All the wait staff looked absolutely rushed off their feet, a few extra staff might have made the place flow a bit better.
We ordered the chicken tajine and the pork belly shish kebab. The pork belly was the better of the two dishes by far, but was a pretty standard pork dish by traditional standards. The chicken tajine was very average and the couscous was atrocious, it was hard and lumpy, not fluffy at all like couscous should be.
I’d like to give this place a second chance, but I definitely won’t be coming back to the Darling Harbour restaurant, maybe the Kazbah in Balmain is a better bet?

Great place for groups. The banquets menu is delicious and more than enough food! Stand outs were the beef tagine (amazing) and the grilled chicken with pomegranate. Their petit fours were also great — fight for the pistachio macaron and the baklava!
Staff were great. Attentive, chatty and brought out a special dessert wine for the birthday girl.
Only let down is that their wines are very expensive — Our $ 45 a head banquet quickly transformed into $ 80 a head after a few bottles of wine. Not sure if they do BYO, but it would be worth looking into if you like wine with your meal.

As I am not a tourist there is not many reasons that I would want to go to Darling Harbour. But this is the only reason (that I can currently think of) that would make me not think twice and head into tourist central. Yes, there is one in Balmain. But this location is a little more convenient as I would have to drive to Balmain.
Now the only way I could see going here is for a brunch with a big group of people who like eating family style. The reason is, there are so many good items on the menu, it is best to make your own sampling menu.
Get a few:
–breakfast tagines (lamb mince, sujuk sausage (
), veg, eggs, and an amazing mix of herbs and spices)
–sweet couscous with nuts, dried fruit, rhubarb, cardamom milk
–warm Rice Pudding, Saffron Poached Pear, Hazelnuts
–the chickpea/​garlic/​fava bean/​egg dish
–a round of turkish coffee
Trust me you’ll thank me and forget that you are tourist land.

We went here for a friends birthday.
Can’t say I have tried Arabian food before, but the food was amazing.
Since we had quite a few people there, we had to order the banquet.
The food was extremely authentic and tasty.
One thing I loved about this place was the vibrancy and atmosphere. We also got to watch a lady belly dance.
Overall, it was a lovely dinner to celebrate a friends birthday. Definitely recommended!

I’m a huge fan of Kazbah in Balmain, so I was delighted to see the name jump out at me on a stroll along Harbourside While Darling Harbour might not quite live up to the coolly trendy appeal of Darling Street, the owners have done a stunning job with the décor. It’s a beautifully designed, buzzy place to sit and sip your mint-​infused water.
There was no question we were going to order a breakfast tagine, and seeing as I was with two guys, we were always going to go for the lamb mince option. And what short work was made of that delicious number! Mouthwatering flavours topped with perky eggs, it was all we could do not to scrape the tagine clean with our serving of turkish bread — so we did!
I’m definitely going to come back and sample the rest of the menu, plus there was a 30^th birthday going on during our visit, which makes me keen to get a bigger group together and take on a banquet. But brunchers and holiday makers beware, there’s a 10% Sunday and Public Holiday surcharge.