Merrylands in Sydney's western suburbs is home to a large Afghani population…read more There is a myriad of Afghani restaurants all a stone's throw from the suburban railway station along with some well-stocked Middle Eastern grocery and butcher shops and some other restaurants with a Persian and Syrian flavour. Which isn't out of place as Afghan food is influenced by Iranian, Indian and Mongolian cuisines and ingredients. Kebab Al-Hojat is a hole in the wall and just does kebabs. Now when Sydney siders think of kebabs that usually conjures images of the typical late-night hangover cure of a donar kebab - shaved lamb and salad with your sauce of choice all rolled up for convenience (extra paper napkins please)! Kebab Al-Hojat is Afghani - they don't do donar kebabs. But as it is they're only speciality they do a kebab very, very well and if you don't there at about 11.30am you may have to expect to wait for a table in its small space. The pick is the mixed kebab ($13) - you get three meats that come straight off the skewers - beef (absolutely tender and succulent), chicken (seasoned well and good), and what I would call lamb kofta which is second only to those wonderful cubes of meat mentioned before! All of this is accompanied with a basket of Afghani bread (it's similar to naan and if you haven't tried this type of bread its worth just coming here to taste it as they make it themselves), a yoghurt raita, chilli sauce and a plate of salad (usually onion, lettuce and red cabbage). There is a jar of sumac on every table so you can season your meats. The menu is limited to the variety of kebabs they do (about six varieties including the minced plate). Order your kebab of choice and it's skewered and placed in the clay "tonir" that resembles a tandoor (none of this shaved meat stuff that is rotated for hours on end in other "kebab joints") - it's made fresh to order. The interior is spartan but so what - you come here for food and not atmosphere and if it wasn't for the Hondas and Toyotas buzzing past outside you could be at a kebab house in Kabul. Kebab Al-Hojat is a great place to experience Afghani street food before or after exploring the great food places that Merrylands has to offer. And kids love it!

I was visiting from US and my friend introduced me to this place. The food was very authentic and…read moredelicious. I would like to recommend this place to any one who enjoys the authentic food and this place accepts only cash.

Freshly made Afghanistan bread!! Hot out of the oven $1 each…read more The only place to get it made fresh

We agree wholeheartedly with the previous review/comment made, as my husband and I have also dined…read moreat Bamiyan Dural and found the attitude of the owner extremely unprofessional and obnoxious as he has no concept of customer service, refuses to hear his customers and only wants them to order the way he wants them to. His portion servings in a banquet that costs $35/pp are inadequate for a person with the smallest appetite and very bad value for the money spent. There are many excellent Afghani cuisine restaurants in Sydney and this one has certainly been crossed off our dining list.

Do yourself a favour and avoid this restaurant. The owner is rude and inconsiderate to its…read morecustomers. We booked a table for 12 at the Bamiyan in Dural for Dinner on July 27. Some of us had been to Bamiyan in Norwest for a meal a couple of weeks earlier, and were very happy with the service, the quantity and quality of the food as well as the flexibility of the serving staff to cater for our dietary requirements. We were eight of us then. We had a banquet and a dish from a-la-carte menu between each pair of us to share at Norwest. Even after we had our fill, there was some food left over. We therefore decided to order accordingly at Dural to avoid wastage. When we ordered six banquets and six dishes from the a-la-carte menu to share, the owner of the restaurant came and told us that we cannot share and that we had to order twelve banquets, all banquets to be the same. We tried to explain to him that Bamiyan in Norwest had no problems with us ordering different banquets and extra dishes to share. They catered for our dietary requirement. He would not listen and kept on telling us that we will not have enough to eat. When we told him that there was food left over at Norwest after we had our fill, he got upset and told us not to waste his time and walked away. We then worked out the six banquets and six extra dishes taking care of each one's dietary requirements and gave it to him. Each banquet had four entres and two mains and would have been enough with the extra dish if the size of the portions was the same as that in Bamiyan Norwest. He then told us that he would serve everything together to save time and make it easy for the chef, which we agreed to. The entres were just adequate for us, but the mains were at the best enough for four people not six. We were quite disgusted and surprised at the quantity of the two mains included in the banquet which were served in a soup sized bowl for all six banquets and even for the smallest appetite was barely enough for four people and definitely NOT worth the price of six banquets. Our group dines out every month at Chinese, Thai, Middle Eastern and Indian restaurants and never have we been served such small quantities. When we asked the owner if the banquet was for six or four people, he raised his voice so that other patrons could hear and said that the banquet was for six and we wanted twelve of us to eat from it. He further embarrassed us by going to the tables behind ours and telling the customers that we ordered six banquets between twelve of us and were complaining that the food was not enough. He did not mention that we also ordered six extra dishes which together with the banquet should have been adequate. The food was not enough because the two mains were dished out in one container each in soup sized bowls for the six banquets. We would have given no star to this restaurant if we could due to the insolent and unprofessional behaviour of the owner.

I have always wanted to try this place in Dee Why, as it is always crowded. Now, I have to put it…read moreout there, I have no idea what Afghan food is supposed to taste like, so I can't speak about its authenticity. The best way to describe the food, it is a cross between Indian and Eastern European food. There is a lot of curries and Naan bread on the menu, so you feel that you are in an Indian restaurant. One of the best things about this place is that it is BYO. Restaurants like this are becoming rare, and so it is good to see them. Especially they don't even have a corkage fee. Ordered the carrot dessert - all I can say that it was strange, in a good way.

The food had great variety. Four of us loved the food. 3 of us had the vegetarian options and one…read morehad the chicken korma. Much lighter meals than your standard Indian fare. Very tasty food from entrees, through to mains and desserts. Prices are very reasonable and the owners friendly without being over-attentive. BYO option too. I hope the place does well because it deserves it. We will definitely be back!

Our norm is Kabul House but they were busy. So decided to try Bahar. Oh boy, Slow service and not…read moreorganized. They really need to get their act together. They will bring the main course without plates and forks. Asked four times for a jug of water. Awful service and the old Persian server has an attitude ( clam the f***k down-you chose to be the server and we are not eating.

A really good selection of foods that you may not be familiar with…read more.. I can recommend the banquet meal for a great way to try out a selection of the Afghan meals available. This seems to be a very popular restaurant in the area and it is very busy on a Saturday night. On a warm summers night, the outdoor seating might be nice and offers some view of the nearby small lake.

The food was great and generously portioned. Quite a lot of options on the menu we only tried the…read morelamb Biriyani and chicken kebabs