Owner-brothers Abdul Quadeer Syed (Javeed) and Abdul Khader Syed. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
Just writing about the food at Royal Bait al Mandi is making me desperate to go back.
I almost didn’t discover it, but when a friend and I tossed around ideas for a catch-up dinner, our first choice was closed. We settled on Middle Eastern cuisine, and I scoured the internet for a place that was neither too far from either of us nor in the city centre. Somewhere that would also be open on a Monday night.
That’s how we found Royal Bait al Mandi.
It is a long name, but Royal Bait al Mandi translates to Royal House of Mandi. This restaurant, along with two others in Sydney, is owned and operated by brothers Abdul Quadeer Syed (Javeed) and Abdul Khader Syed. While their hometown is Hyderabad, India, it is their many years of exposure to Arabian food culture that inspired them to bring traditional Mandi to Australia.
Mandi is a traditional Yemeni dish, but one that feels familiar across the Middle East and South Asia. Traditionally cooked in an underground pit over hot coals, Mandi begins with lamb, chicken, or fish seasoned with the aromatic hawaij spice blend, which includes cumin and other Arabian spices. The extra magic is that the accompanying rice is also cooked in the pit, placed strategically underneath the meat, so it absorbs all the fragrant juices and oils that drip over it.
The serving size is huge. Photo: Kazuri Photography
To comply with Australian council regulations, the brothers have cleverly adapted the traditional method using LPG gas and specialised pots.
The result? Gorgeous smells swirling up into our nostrils as we walked in and sat down.
The dinner menu offers various options of Mandi, including lamb, chicken, lamb rack, and fish, from individual trays of Mandi to their gobsmackingly oversized Royal Meter Platter that feeds six people. The chicken marinates for 24 hours in a mixture of 17 to 20 spices before being grilled.
Three signature house-made sauces underpin the Mandi: a red, tomato-based sauce that is acerbic and mild yet full of flavour; a thin, silky yoghurt-based sauce; and a green sauce that is smooth and punchy, chilli-based with spices.
The family-meal-sized chicken Mandi. Photo: Kazuri Photography
We each opt for individual lamb Mandis, and they arrive quickly, served on round metal serving platters. The serving size is huge. It looks like a lot of rice, but this is no ordinary rice – it is flavoursome and umami, flavoured with cardamom and other spices, strewn with cashews and strands of fried onion.
I strip the lamb shank off the bone and separate it a bit with my fork. Then I add the yoghurt. After dipping my finger into the red sauce to check its spicy heat factor, I poured it over the rice, lamb and onion and mixed them all together.
It reminds me of Somali pilau, perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned rice that you could eat on its own.
The icing on the cake for all this deliciousness is the Irani Chai, also known as Hyderabadi Irani Tea. Milky, cardamom-perfumed sweet tea brewed for four hours. It tastes like home, like so many homes I lived in and visited in East Africa. It is pure delight.
Later, I pop past for a takeaway serving of the chicken Mandi, charred and stained a bright orange from the herbs and spices. The flavour is beautiful, like chicken cooked in a tandoor oven, with a bit more of a kick than the lamb. Every mouthful is happiness.
Go with a group and order the bells and whistles of the Royal Meter platter; literally with bells! It is a metre-long tray, plattering up everything mandi to share, and it comes out with great fanfare. Or go quietly like us and tuck yourself into a corner where you can savour every mouthful and sip endless cups of chai.
Royal Bait al Mandi is located at shop 2/1 Woolley St, Dickson, very near High Road. It is open from 1 pm to 12 am every day. Follow Royal Bait al Mandi on Facebook and Instagram.
Original Article published by Michelle Taylor on Region Canberra.
