Posts Categorized: Windsor

Stars reflecting off a wine glass Along comes Mama Ganoush. Although officially the restaurant of Geoff Malouf and Michael Baroud from Arabesque in Elsternwick, the star right now is brother Greg. Waiting for Momo to reopen in the Hyatt next August or September he had time on his hands. A $200,000 budget upgrade, an interior designer and a few more bits of kitchen equipment later and we have something pretty special at the Windsor end of Prahran. Greg will only be there for four to five weeks. I can only hope the kitchen learns as much as possible from him before he leaves. First is the design of this converted shop front. Quite sober and not on drugs we were mesmerised by the stars reflecting on the china and glassware. Last to leave… We visited on Saturday, night two of opening. And it was packed. We were told to arrive a 9pm. There were a few forgivable blips in service. Both the white and the red wines I wanted had run out – my taste obviously being a bit mainstream and populist. And it took some 40 minutes to seat us. But it really is the food that this place is about and no doubt the service will settle down. “Better than Abla’s,” asked a friend. Yes. Better and far more refined but also more expensive. Still Mama Ganoush represents good value with starters about $17 each and mains about $28 and sides at about $7. Our starters were Kibbah (above) an amazing spicy kid kofta (below) with goats cheese cream and herbs. Cheesy Ladies thigh pastries came with honey cardamon stewed leeks. The leeks were a particular highlight. The double lamb chops was about as good as lamb gets but overshadowed by what has to be one of the best dished I’ve eaten this year – Claypot roasted free range chicken with giant cous cous, Turkish Sausage and Sweet Spices. It is made with a seven year old master stock liberated from Momo. It was so good that we were instant messaging all Monday about it. At this point we were full but we couldn’t ignore pudding. I was so overcome I forgot to write down what it was.