When you are still talking to your ride share driver 10 minutes later about the minute details of the menu from the restaurant he has just picked you up from…you know you have been somewhere which is worth sharing.
Cubby’s kitchen is all about share food. It’s about family, love and recipes from their Lebanese mother Cubby Mouna whilst sisters Amanda and Diala and brother Richard work in the restaurant.
It might seem odd that Matt Yazbek, the founder of Japanese cuisine focused Toko Group (Toko and Tokonoma) would make Lebanese their next venture but you see the influences breaking through- like a kid who just can’t help embellishing the perfect cupcake with sprinkles, glitter and just a bit of wow factor.
The old Fish Shop on Crown street has been divided to create a new intimate space; higgledy piggledy lighting cables create a graffiti style ceiling, exposed light bulbs, a communal table dominating the middle space, wooden window blocks display large jars of house pickles and chilies. It’s just a glimpse of what’s to come.
We’ve all had a hundred Baba ganoush and hummus in our life, but topped with sweet miso or edamame? Why did no one think of this? Luscious creamy scoopable goodness is accompanied by a basket of flatbreads. Cauliflower is the new LBD with its perfectly scorched florets topped with tarator and pinenuts.
The lady fingers are their mum’s specialty, made every morning, wow, the pasty is feather light stuffed with savoury Flinders Island lamb. We swap shish kebab for a special of chicken and we’re glad we did. It’s cooked on cedar wood and provides succulent pieces of smokey chook licked by flame. It’s one of those conversation stopping moments where it’s just you and that piece of chicken and no one else in the world.
If food is love then Cubby’s Kitchen is an arrow into the heart where family, hospitality and originality (and BYO!- $8 per bottle) come together in all the right places.
Cubby’s Kitchen
500 Crown Street,
Surry Hills 2010
Monday to Saturday for dinner from 6pm
