Five of Melbourne's best Middle Eastern restaurants

• Five of the best Middle Eastern restaurants in Sydney

Smoky, exotic, fresh, vibrant and made for sharing - is it any wonder Middle Eastern food is having a moment? Here are five of our favourite Melbourne restaurants - plucked from the Good Food Guide 2020 - that are taking Middle Eastern food to heady new heights.

Maha

Good Food Guide score: 15 (one hat)

Try this: The kataifi-wrapped quail skewered with its own bone

As befits a Middle Eastern restaurant, where generous feasts are the cultural norm, your only options for dinner at Shane Delia's honey-toned basement bazaar are either a four-, six- or eight-course banquet. The four-course soufra menu is more relaxed, with plates of garlicky lamb shoulder or Turkish delight-stuffed doughnuts designed to share. Delia has also just opened Maltese meze bar, MahaBar in Collingwood, already one of the openings of 2020.

21 Bond Street, Melbourne, 03 9629 5900 maharestaurant.com.au

Miznon

Good Food Guide score: 14.5

Try this: Roast vegetable pita

The best spot to experience this bustling Israeli party is perched at the bar, watching dozens of cauliflowers being lovingly tended to in the oven. Staff shout "Bag of meat!" (shredded brisket and sausage-sizzle-y onions) or "Saq de coq!" (self-contained roast chicken, herbs and potato) and belt out '80s pop.

59 Hardware Lane, Melbourne 039670 2861 miznonaustralia.com

Rumi

Good Food Guide score: 14

Try this: The three cheese "cigars"

For almost 13 years chef Joseph Abboud has been serving vibrant, modern, Middle Eastern cuisine such as delicate haloumi, feta and kasseri "cigars", tissue-thin golden skins dimpled in the fryer, the ends forming gorgeous brown spirals. Tahini is mixed with Turkish red pepper paste on tender chicken shish kebabs, dusted with tangy sumac.

116 Lygon Street, Brunswick East 03 9388 8255 rumirestaurant.com.au

Tulum

Good Food Guide score: 15 (one hat)

Try this: Golden kofte wedges with yoghurt sauce

The food here has context and heart, and it's rendered with a fine dining sensibility in a cosy and welcoming restaurant. Flavours are traditional but reworked with flair. Impressively dainty and entirely delicious beef dumplings (manti) paddle in a toasty burnt butter sauce.

217 Carlisle Street, Balaclava, 03 9525 9127 tulumrestaurant.com.au

Yagiz

Good Food Guide score: 14

Try this: Prawns with whipped eggplant butter

This isn't your average suburban Turkish joint. It's South Yarra, so your table is precisely spot-lit with flattering lighting. Start with confit duck cigars in dinky glass jars, the bubbled pastry ends dipped in ash-like isot pepper, then make your way through share-friendly plates. Sandwich grilled ezine cheese – Turkey's answer to saganaki – between yufka pastry sheets for a savoury mille-feuille of sorts.

22 Toorak Road, South Yarra, 03 9821 4758 yagiz.com.au

The Good Food Guide 2020 is available now from newsagencies and bookstores, and via thestore.com.au/gfg20, $29.99 with free shipping.