Tibas
504 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
03 9380 8425

OK, bear with me on this post, because I’ve never had Lebanese before so if I’m a bit vague in what each of the dish are, don’t blame me!!!  Whilst I don’t know much about Lebanese cuisine, the food is good- REALLY good and it’s cheap too!  Five of us ate there, at $15 each.  Let’s have a look at the yummie food I ate:-

5 cheese pie ($1 each) and 2 cheese & spinach pies ($3 each)- they are both soft warm and buttery, stuffed with cheesy goodness.  Highly recommended!

As you can see, there’s plenty of salads and plenty of food to go around.  Each table was also given a giant packet of Lebanese pita bread.  On the left, we’ve got the Mixed Grill $16-Lamb cutlet, chicken & lamb shavings, lamb skewers and Lebanese sausage.  Everything was so flavousome and yet all the flavours are different.  Admittedly the lamb cutlet is a bit overcooked, but the chicken and lamb shavings are very tender.  The lamb skewer is made of lamb mince I think and it’s really yummie.  Too bad I don’t have much time to slowly savour the flavours because our friend Inhaler basically inhales all the food in two secs!   I was actually quite lucky to be able to take the pics for you, after I finish taking each photo, half the dish is gone!

This is the Manager’s Special $20- same type of meat as the Mixed Grill (the mixed grill was only ordered because we needed to make sure Inhaler is full!)  On the right is falafel and trio of dips that comes with the Manager’s special.  Dips: Hommus is very subtly flavoured with garlic.  Babaghannooj- eggplant flavoured dip has a smokey flavour.  Cucumber & yoghurt dip is quite similar to Tzatziki.

The falafel is just a deep fried ball of crunchiness, but also very soft on the inside.  The side salad is extremely fresh, and if you are wondering what those florecent pink things are, they are actually really yummie pickled turnips.  I wrapped everything inside the pita bread and let all the flavours just mix together- YUMMMMMM

We also ordered 2 grilled quail ($5 each)- very tender and full of flavour- I’ve only had chinese quail before, so this is a new one for me.

Chicken wingssss ($2 each) is my favourite!  They are so succulent and beautifully spiced.  Too bad there are a few burnt bits there but it does add to the charcoaly flavour.

Although Inhaler had most of the food, we were still bellyfull by the end of the meal.  We rolled ourselves off our chairs to have dessert across the road- that’ll be on the next post   With Tibas, I would certainly recommend as one of the best cheap eats- the decor is OK but the service is quite friendly- I would certainly give this place a 9/10 for this cheap and cheerful Lebanese place. Obviously I can’t wait to try a few more Lebanese places to compare!