All Fattoushed Out

Thursday night found us at Arabella Restaurant and Bar. We were seated at a lovely table up front with a fantastic view of king Street. The view itself was not so spectacular but a perfect location for people watching if that's your thing. (It is mine, but then I'm a perve)

The girls, Christine Edel and Briony ordered a bottle of wine (to share, not each they're not booze hounds for goodness sakes and it WAS a school night lol), and we ordered a couple of mixed dip plates to kick things off. The mixed dip plates were divine: Hummus, Babaganouj and Garlic Labneh. OH MY GOD I have never seen a Hummus so silky looking, it was glorious. And they all tasted frikken awesome! At first I thought the $18.00 price tag (per mixed dip plate) was a bit steep, but then I saw the dips and how yummy they looked I stopped caring about the price.

We also ordered Ladies Fingers: Gorgeous pastry filled with feta cheese herbs and parsley. So dainty and oh so yummy, Fattoush: the MOST AMAZING salad I have EVER had in my life!!! It doesn't sound that flash, I mean it's just tomato, cucumber, shallots, radish, capsicum, lettuce and fried crispy bread but combine all of that together and dress it and its fucking genius. We also ordered the Grilled Eggplant Salad: Grilled Eggplant, capsicum, shallots, parsley, tomato and lemon. So delish!
Best part of the night, 4 chicks that work together talked about pretty much everything other than work! So excellent.

The wait staff was very friendly and we didn't wait too long between courses. The food smelled AMAZING and the portions were huge!!

Edel ordered the Shish Tawouk, oh so good marinated chicken breast served with pickles, salad and yoghurt. Is it just me or does the chicken look like the head of a penis? Just asking.

Briony ordered the Lamb Schwarma, marinated lamb strips served with salad, yoghurt and pickled beetroot. The pickled beetroot looked soo good; I don't know what shade you would call it though; kind of a cross between hot pink and magenta looked lovely on the plate.

Christine ordered the Mansaf Lamb: rice with minced meat, mixed nuts, herbs and spices; topped with strips of lamb and a side of yoghurt. It didn't look like much when it came out but it smelled like heaven.

I got the Mansaf Dejaj: Rice with minced meat, mixed nuts, herbs and spices topped with chicken strips and a side of yoghurt. I was a bit weirded out by the nuts in the rice when it came out but one taste and I was hooked. It was, for me, phenomenally good. Oh so frikken good.

Everybody left something on their plates, not because it didn't taste good but because we were so stuffed. I was seriously tempted to do the Al Bundy and unbutton the top button of my trousers, but civilised people can't do that shit in public! Oh and Edel had her leftovers at work today and OH MY GOD the amazing smell was wafting across the office and making me drool, I was so jealous.

A great night was had by all, at least that's what I was told (they could be humouring me lol) Oh and the whole bill (wine included) came to $199, so a very affordable night out.