Ashley Ludkin
When it comes to Zareh’s immense appeal, for want of a more eloquent descriptor, I’ll fall back on a simple, four-letter word: buzz. It’s not new restaurant buzz, even though the lengthy, well-documented gestation of owner-chef Tom Sarafian’s first restaurant means it’s tricky to secure a booking under two weeks out. Sarafian is also a local fan favourite via his head chef role at Bar Saracen, assorted pop-ups, appearances at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and his excellent take-home range of harissa, toum and hummus. But the real buzz of Zareh comes less from scoring a seat than the genuine excitement that dining here brings.
It starts early. The flatteringly lit Smith Street shopfront has true bustle. It’s a closely packed room with a counter running the length of the room, taking in both the bar and the open kitchen with its glowing wood-fire oven and charcoal grill. An all-vinyl soundtrack highlighting new and vintage albums from mainly Arabic artists sets the mood to party and the excellent staff get you seated, watered and menu-ed at an impressive pace when every stool and chair is occupied. It exudes the confident feel of a place that’s been doing it for years and, with the arrival of the food, you might find yourself praying to the restaurant gods that it will be.
The single-page menu is relatively brief but can still cause agony for the decision-phobic. Try the bastourma toast, and calm yourself with the knowledge that there are no bad decisions on Zareh’s Armenian, Egyptian and Lebanese-influenced menu. A two-bite flavour bomb, this dish combines house-made bastourma made from cured and airdried waygu girello, brushed with a fenugreek-forward chemen sauce, goat cheese, roasted peppers and fresh herbs, sitting on chargrilled sourdough. It brilliantly checks all the tastebud boxes.
The same meticulous standard continues with kafta nayyeh, a chunky-cut raw lamb dish deftly spiced, topped with fresh herbs and radish slices and served with crisp-fried pita. Then there’s the deservedly cult-like Bar Saracen-era dish of hummus topped with a toum and chilli-centred sauce of prawns and crab, or charcoal-grilled chicken kebabs, marinated in onion juice and accompanied by superb pickled green chillis or muhullabeya, a Greg Malouf-inspired milk pudding dessert, pretty with rhubarb, strawberries and pistachios. All hits, no misses.
Add a rousing drinks list that includes an arak-spiked martini and wines from Armenia and Lebanon, and Zareh delivers truly memorable dining. Believe the buzz.
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