We took my in-laws here for lunch because my mother in-law loves the restaurant; it has a homely…read moreatmosphere with Turkish souvenirs on the wall. I think that the relaxed atmosphere and that it is quiet on Saturday is one of the reasons why my mother-in-law likes it. The menu is not extensive but covers all the main Turkish dishes and even had something for my fussy brother-in-law - the hamburger and chips. That satisfied him. The Turkish bread comes out of the oven, is cut up and brought straight to the table - we kept on going back for another basket of it. Apart from my brother-in-law who just ate the plain bread (it is tasty enough). The rest of us enjoyed the Turkish bread with the two large humus and carrot dips. My mother-in-law likes the chicken kebab but I prefer the doner kebab covered in yogurt and a tomato sauce. All of the dishes come with salad and rice with pine nuts except for the hamburger and chips - I can't imagine my brother-in-law eating salad. And the cost of the meal and keeping the in-laws happy was very reasonable.

My family is Turkish. We cook Turkish Food. My parents own a kebab shop. My mum's cooking is…read morefantastic. There you go - my biases are on the table! I never like going to Turkish restaurants. I find my versions of everything to be much more interesting, and generally, Turkish restaurants are lazy. A bit of yoghurt, a bit of garlic and throw in a random vegetable - voila! A Turkish dip. Zzzzzzzzzzz So my hopes weren't very high. I have learnt to keep my expectations pared down. Well, I can reveal that this is the best Turkish restaurant I have ever been to. We walked in at about 12:30 on a Saturday and there was no one in there. The baker was there and he gave us a table and told us someone would be out shortly after giving us some menus and telling us he was still baking. We ordered some Turkish beer (clean, crisp, fresh), a couple of dips and a couple of mains and a potato salad. It was all to die for! The capsicum dip is the nicest dip I have eaten in my life. I don't know what was in it apart from the roasted capsicum, but I wanted to lick the plate. The beetroot dip was a very good version. The very lovely lady who appeared to be the owner and our waitress was just sublime and she threw in a smoky eggplant dip for free. This too was divine, as was the potato salad. The mains we got were the Turkish pizza and an iskender. The Turkish pizza was paper thin and beautifully crisp - beautifully flavoured. The iskender was an excellent version - the bread was beautiful. I have to say, this place is more expensive than your average crap Turkish place on Sydney Road, and the serves are smaller, but it is fantastic. I would highly recommend it. (when we paid, the lady gave us a piece each of her home made Turkish delight - OMG!!!)

Allahhu Akbar This…read moremeans "God is Great." I'm compelled to evoke this exaltation because the kebabs are so good here, God's hand must be acknowledged in their making. Alhumdullilah This means "Thanks be to God" and it is appropriate to say this after you've eaten their dips. Mashallah This means "by God's Grace" and you can say this about the expertise of Tiba's chefs for their method of grilling over charcoal. Now you have learned a little Arabic, a little about Islamic phrases, and exactly the right amount of knowledge to find great Lebanese food in Melbourne.

So authentic!!! Delicious and full of flavor. If you are…read morelooking for Lebanese food while in Melbourne AU, I highly recommend this restaurant.

Half Moon is up there with my favourite businesses in Coburg. I first ventured here to try the…read morefelafel and have been a regular ever since. The felafel are made fresh to order and you can have three of these plump, hot, gently spiced babies stuffed in a pita bread with a combination of vegetarian items. There's six options to choose from, but why you'd get anything other than the "Half Moon" with chilli sauce I don't know. Think crispy felafels, salad, olives, pickles, hummus... wrapped in a warm pita and weighing almost the size of a small child. This whole thing will set you back a mere $8. Other than the fact that the food here is delicious and cheap, the owners and staff are really what make this a worthy experience worth crossing town for. Run by a family for the last 12 years, they're super lovely and really care about their customers. The "father" is so kind and will make a point of walking around the tables outside to check that his customers are happy, that they have enough napkins and that they're looked after. I love chatting to him and if I time my lunch break right I might be able to sit with him while he has his lunch break in the late afternoon. Customer service doesn't cost anything, yet there's not many places that get it right or enjoy it as this family does. 5 stars.

I was left a little underwhelmed by the Half Moon Cafe. Maybe it was the glowing reviews, or maybe…read moreI was expecting something more authentic because it's Coburg. We arrived one busy lunchtime, and joined the line of people ordering kebabs. I went for the eponymous Half Moon sandwich, which was with falafels and salad. The woman taking our order at the counter asked us to take a table outside and the other would be brought out to us. I thought she was clever to be able to remember which order went where without any table numbers or tickets. It turned out she didn't have a clue, and our order was bounced around between 4 different tables before it was given to me. At one point, she even gave the order to me, then took it away, and then returned to hand it to me again! The sandwich itself was good value at $8, but no where near as large as others have suggested. I finished it without a problem, and I wouldn't consider myself to have a bigger appetite than most guys. The salad and sauce was nice, but the falafels were ordinary. I'd have preferred them to be crunchier on the outside and soft inside. The other disappointment was that they used packet pita bread rather than baking their own, as any proper restaurant in the middle east would do. Even so, if I were in Coburg again, I would return to Half Moon Cafe for lunch.

This actually looks like the dodgiest little kebab vendor ever! It's in-between a couple buildings…read moreand just has a seedy look about it... come night time though, this place is everyones best mate. Kebab's after a big night are more a religion nowadays than just grabbing a cab home. You need to enjoy the oily cuisine with your friends while drunkingly trying to hail a cab that will take the atrociously that you are home. This place is lit up by some lovely christmas lights at night and with all the pubs around I'm sure Town Hall makes a killing in the evening. I have enjoyed one or two kebabs here (it may as well have been 58 for all i know) and have to say that they do go down very well. Not too oily but still enough to fulfil the grease my body is craving.

Enter at your own risk. One of the many establishments that doubles up goods with services, during…read morethe day you can get your car washed (can't say I ever have but I know what a clean car looks like, and these are clean), and while here can also grab a kebab while you wait. Located across from the Town Hall, one notices many looking across the road for the few seconds that wait between paying and eating. Quick turnaround (not always a good thing) and quite a character in the van. Late nights are good ones, and the chilli-ing spices will fill the senses the morning after.

"Open til 3am" This…read moreis a straight out lie. It's 2:24 and I'm outside, lights are off, and the door says closed. I've eaten there before, it's reeeeeally good. But you need to change that open til 3 am google nonsense. When you do, I'll take this down. Til then you're gonna be disappointing playas like myself. #crotchgrab Peace x

A pretty good venue for takeaway both in it's own right and for the fact that if Danny's burgers is…read moretoo busy, you can go across the road for yes, something different but something great. Most of the menu items are pretty good and reasonably priced, but it could be improved with having a more accessible menu option, i.e. a printed takeaway version, as finding a menu online as well as reading the menu in-store are both frustratingly difficult. HSP is brilliant, but has gone up in price. It's also messy, (good messy) so well planned transport and bagging is a must if you opt for a takeaway version.

Had very high expectations for this place based on all the reviews, but ended up pretty…read moredisappointed. The food was OK, but not nearly amazing as we'd expected. Possibly that's because we ordered their vegetarian options, which were all side dishes -- maybe they're more known for their meat options? Either way, they should really up their vegan and vegetarian game! We went for my boyfriend's birthday -- so, yeah, it was a special occasion, which made our experience even more disappointing because our expectations were set so high. For starters, even though we'd made reservations two weeks ago, we were squeezed into a tiny little table with four patrons on either side and very little elbow room. We could hear all of the conversations of the two tables next to us and they could hear our conversation. Didn't make for a romantic birthday dining experience, that's for sure. On the plus side, the service was very attentive -- a French girl who knew exactly what was and wasn't vegan. She pointed out the various sections of the menu and our various options. My boyfriend started with a drink (arak gantous/abou raad), a strong aniseed-flavored liquor. He enjoyed it but I stayed far away based on the smell alone, haha. Then for our entree we ordered: - taratoor (almond and tahini dip) - hummus dip - crudites (fresh veggies to dip in the tahini and hummus) - pickled veggies to dip in the tahini and hummus This was probably the highlight of the meal -- I really loved the taratoor and the hummus was good too, although the flavour got a little repetitive compared to some hummuses (hummi? lol). The portion sizes of the entrees were good so we were actually starting to fill up. So next we ordered: - 1 serving of crunchy potatoes seasoned with garlic and coriander - 1 serving of rice pilaf - 1 serving of freekeh None of these wowed us. The crunchy potatoes were very very dry and honestly needed a sauce of some kind. My boyfriend ate three potato cubes and flat-out refused to eat the rest, leaving me with a very bloated potato-belly at the end of the evening because I hate wasting food so I had to eat the rest of them :/ The rice pilaf was nice enough with barberries and pistachio, a traditional Persian sort of dish, but like the potatoes, it was very dry. The freekeh with pomegranate dressing and almonds was just not very nice. My boyfriend ate most of it and I avoided it. Ultimately I think the problem is this is the type of restaurant designed for share plates, and the vegan options were all side plates to share, not mains. And as side plates they didn't go together well as a cohesive whole. There were literally no vegetarian mains available (much less vegan mains) and I think this is a real shame. It forces veggos to select these side dishes that don't really form a complete meal, and everything ends up tasting very dry and odd together. Rumi should definitely make more of an effort to come up with a vegetarian (preferably vegan) main so that nobody misses out. So. Yeah. Probably avoid this place if you're vegan or vegetarian. We spent $86 altogether and for that amount of money (and a birthday celebration dinner!) we expected to be much happier with our food and experience.

Bear and I came here because we had seen Anthony Bourdain's visit. Though the food here was good,…read moreeverything felt incomplete. Like we ordered the lamb and got a delicious lamb shoulder, completely on its own. Who just wants to munch on red meat? As a Middle Eastern, may I make a quick suggestion? Please add back in the flat breads, the rice, the potatoes. They are needed. We ordered the: Crispy fried school prawns - Delicious, needed more sauce 'Batata Harra' - Really good, needed a (any!) sauce. Advieh marinated lamb shoulder - Needed something to accompany it. Shaved Cabbage Salad - Really underwhelming. Don't recommend. I can't remember the rest. It's a shame because the potential is definitely there, but it definitely misses the mark. Ambiance and service could improve too.