Time Out’s People’s Choice Awards this year invited readers to select their favourite restaurant, bar, pub and café, and the votes are in.
The year 2022 has brought some formidable challenges for hospitality – continued staff shortages, terrible weather, and eye-watering inflation – and yet one brand-new venue bang in the centre of Sydney has seemingly sailed through it all on a sirocco of fresh, complex flavours, fluid architectural curves and unbridled ambition.
Take a bow, Aalia – Time Out’s 2022 Restaurant of the Year.
Aalia (which also wins our award for Best Fine Dining Restaurant) opened in early 2022, the brainchild of the ESCA Group – the folks behind Surry Hills restaurant Nour – after years of planning and research. A sculptural space of light, sandy neutrals, you could call it a visual extension of Harry Seidler’s neighbouring mushroom-shaped building here at the former MLC Centre, now known as 25 Martin Place. It’s an appropriately elegant setting to experience executive chef Paul Farag’s thoughtful menu – a celebration of the history and vibrant cultures of the Middle East and North Africa.
Inspiration for Farag’s menu spans Lebanon to Syria, Egypt to Iraq. In his words, it’s “an Arabian odyssey of dishes showcasing a beautiful region of the world which almost everyone seems to forget has a luscious coastline, flanked by oceans, rivers, and seas…
“In the same way you assume a Mediterranean restaurant is going to be bright and fresh in flavour, this is truly the same principle for Middle Eastern cuisine. The idea is [for] each dish to represent a particular region, or specific era of Arabic culture.”
Inspiration is historical too. Tenth-century Arabic cookbooks introduced Farag to techniques and ingredients that, coupled with his extensive experience and innovative cooking style, allow him to push the boundaries of our expectations. Aalia is here to redefine how we think about Middle Eastern food – and it’s bigger than just what’s on the plate.
“Each dish has a story behind it and storytelling is a big part of the experience and service offering,” says co-founder and executive director Ibby Moubadder. Take for example the lamb hawawshi: it’s designed to conjure up visions of the busy, humid streets of Egypt, one hand free for a beer, sweaty with condensation.
Storytelling is a big part of the experience
Much of the Aalia menu lives firmly in the ‘unGoogleable’ camp, like the tender and smoky skewers of quails with molokhia (a salsa verde common in Cyprus) or the dry-aged Mareema duck with fesenjan, a stew specific to northern Iran. The result makes for an educational crash course while making best friends with your waiter as they patiently and good-humouredly run you through the menu, poised at the ready to jump in when you begin to falter.
Aalia has enjoyed a busy and successful first year of service, with diners “embracing the diversity of the food,” says Farag. “The recognition that we have received has been humbling and something that we do not take for granted,” adds Moubadder.
In Arabic, the name ‘Aalia’ means ‘pinnacle’, ‘the highest point’, or ‘sublime’, and Moubadder says that’s what they’re aiming to achieve. And if year one is anything to go by, so far, so good.
Read our full review of Aalia.
Return to Food & Drink Awards results page.
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