Emma's on Liberty, Liberty Street, Enmore

Emma's on Liberty, Liberty Street, Enmore
Saturday 8 April, 2006

When I scored a car spot directly out the front of Emma's I was thrilled. Not knowing the area all that well I had visions of parking in some back street and getting lost. Thankfully, this was not the case.

Emma's is located in a residential area and is well sign posted - the cute looking terrace building is covered in fabulous cursive writing stating - Emma's on Liberty Lebanese restaurant. You can't miss it.

Entering Emma's can be a challenge - there is a 'door' on the corner that is not in use. The actual entrance is via a sliding door facing Liberty St. Once you know this it's fine and you can laugh at all the other guests arriving struggling to open the non 'door'.

On arrival for a friend's birthday dinner, we learnt that we were to be seated at the large communal table in the middle of the restaurant. Slight problem, there was a group of four still seated, enjoying their meal smack bang in the middle of the table. We sat around them occupying the rest of the table until they left and we could squeeze in the other birthday guests.

A pre-ordered banquet was definitely the best approach with a large group of friends. The food was slow to start but picked up over the course of the evening. We enjoyed plates of lebanese bread with traditional hummus, smokey baba ganouge and tabbouli, followed by a 'greek salad' with fried lebanese bread that is called fatouche, spicy chick pea salad (my favourite dish), falafel, lady fingers - filo pastry rolls filled with lamb, pine nuts and pomegranate molasses (delicious), lamb skewers (shish kebab) and fried potato coriander (hand cut potato cubes fried with Emma's own garlic paste and fresh coriander. The food was fresh and came in abundance. The let down was the lamb skewers, the meat was over cooked and dry - disappointing as I love lamb. The stand out dish was the chick pea salad - the chick peas were soft and cooked with a spiced crumbly cheese that gave it a fabulous flavour.

For $32 pp this was a great feast. Emma's is a family run business offering fresh, traditional lebanese fare at reasonable prices. They accept cash only i.e. no credit cards and are BYO ($2 corkage) - come prepared as the nearest bottle shop is a good 15 minutes walk away.

Tonight Emma's was packed to the rafters and whilst it was a cool evening outside, Emmas is steamy inside (there are fans but you must ask for them to be turned on) and be prepared to raise your voice - it's really noisy.

Emma's on Liberty - 59 Liberty Street, Enmore - (02) 9550 3458