Khan Baba – Newtown
Restaurant Review by Franz Scheurer
Khan Baba is a Pakistani and Indian café on busy King Street. Its décor is non-existent and it’s a very casual place with simple laminex tables and an unpretentious look and feel. They cater for take away, do home catering and have a lovey backyard (If Sydney ever gets a summer…)
However you don’t come here for the ambience, you come here for the food. A tandoor tucked away in the back of the front kitchen and a huge, round hotplate give you an inkling what is to come. These guys are committed to fresh ingredients, an incredibly clean and organised kitchen and the customer truly is king with very personalised service and nothing is too much trouble.
Being a Muslim restaurant there is neither any alcohol for sale nor can you BYO but boy these guys can cook! An ice-cold bottle of water appears the second you sit down and I can recommend the mango lassie. The menu is quite extensive (although the print is very small and made for 20/20 vision).
We ordered a good cross-section of dishes from murtabak, to a mixed entrée plate, to various meat dishes and a dhal and finally received a Ganjar Ka Halwa, a warm, halwa-like dessert.
The first to appear were some vegetable samosas, obviously hand-made as none resembled the huge pyramids you so often get and they were stunning; no trace of fat, although deep-friend and crisp and crunchy on the outside with a gooey, moreish filling. A vegetable martabak, cooked on the hotplate in front of us, was filled with egg and onions. It was ethereally light and I could have eaten another few portions. A mixed entrée plate with Bihari kebab, Lamb seekh kebab, Chicken tikka and Chicken pokora was everything as good as I had anywhere in Sydney before. Next we had the Taka Tak Bheija Fry, brains cooked on the Tawa (hotplate), cut into tiny pieces with a real hit of spice and the Taka Tak Gurday Kapooray Dil, heart, liver, kidneys and testicles, also cut very finely and cooked on the hotplate. Another fantastic dish. Lots of spice, a good chilli hit and some fresh greens it was a joy to eat. For the more conservative palates at our table we also ordered a lentil daal, which was not soupy but had good texture, with each lentil being clearly definable, and Lamb Rogan Josh, the essential reason to scoop up with bread. I must say that the bread, made in the Tandoor while you watch is a reason to revisit. It’s easily the best Indian-style bread I’ve tasted. The naan is glorious, the Peshawri naan is outstanding and I’d be happy just to eat it on its own, but it of course gets even better using it as a scoop for the food. The usual accompaniments are again outstanding. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better cucumber raita.
It’s great to see that the staff is really enjoying what they do, they aim to please and with food this good, they succeed amiably.
Noise: 70 DB (unless someone with a mobile sound system passes on the footpath then it will briefly go to 110 DB
Would I go again: Love to!
Would I recommend it to my friends: Yes, without reservations
Value for money: exceptional
Best dish: Taka Tak Gurday Kappray Dil – you have to try this!
Score: 6.5/10
Khan Baba
453 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042