Josie and I like to network, so over the past few years we have joined a few internet groups to meet some like minded, interesting and sometimes slightly crazy people. Tonight is one of those days, where whoever’s available meet up and have a few drinks, hopefully eat beautiful food and pick each other’s minds about how to get the best deals.
So this evenings catch up is with some of our frequent flyer friends, who either live in Adelaide or have flown in to join us for the night. Most of us have known each other for many years and dine out fairly regularly, but we also have a newcomer to the group joining us. As a group we are always happy to assist anyone who wants to get their frequent flyer journey going.
It’s pretty easy to get a group of us together, someone will post on Australian Frequent Flyers or AFF that they are organising some event, somewhere in the world and whoever can attend will respond and make their way to the meeting place. Tonight’s event was organised in Adelaide at the Jerusalem Sheshkebab House, located at 131B Hindley Street, Adelaide SA 5000, which is one of Adelaide’s main nightclub strips.
The Jerusalem Sheshkebab House has been an Adelaide dining institution since 1972. Unfortunately the decor hasn’t really changed much since then so the moment you walk through those Arabic inspired doors your expectations take a bit of a hit. You immediately have those initial thoughts like, “oh my gosh, what a dive”, but once you get past that first impression, smell the fragrant spices and see the dishes being delivered to the tables you know why it has been around for 44 years.
Jerusalem Sheshkebab House entrance
Okay, let’s get the interior decor out of the way, it’s attrocious, old seventies style fibreglass bench seats and bright orange easy to clean long tables. The restaurant is fairly small, and the mirrors on the walls give the impression that you’re in a larger place. The ceiling is quite interesting with silk parachute material billowing down to give that Bedouin tent feeling. For me, it actually provoked images of hot air ballooning over the Göreme valley in Cappadocia, Turkey.
Now, people come to the Jerusalem Sheshkebab House for the food, not the interior styling and the one thing we can all agree on is the food is fantastic. From my experiences middle eastern food, is a lot of fire grilled meat and plenty of dips and breads, and the menu plan of the Jerusalem does not let you down. Their selection of entreés and mains is limited but there is enough choices to not confuse the patrons. Probably the two biggest things that stands out is that being a Muslim influenced restaurant there is no wine list, but they do allow you to Bring Your Own (BYO) with a corkage fee of $7.50 AUD per wine bottle or $3.00 AUD per beer bottle. The other more critical problem is they don’t accept eftpos or credit card, they are a pure cash only establishment. So make sure you get cash before trying to make yourself comfortable.
As we had a table of ten we opted for a $25 AUD banquet, one because it gave us a good variety of dishes to sample and two, because with every banquet over $22 AUD there was no corkage charged, therefore with 8 bottles of red wine, no corkage was very appreciated. Being a small restaurant there was only one employee servicing the entire floor, and he was exceptionally busy, but was able to handle the rush in his stride.
The banquet dishes came out all at once and were spread across the long table, the banquet consisted of Babaganouj, battered cauliflower, tabouli, falafel, beef sheshkafta, lamb sheshkebab and lastly chicken kebab. The Babaganouj was smooth, the cauliflower was still firm and full of flavour, the tabouli was unexpectational but good, the falafel was perfect and once the outer coating was pierced a vibrant green colour was exposed. The beef sheshkafta was not over cooked and remained moist, the lamb sheshkebab was succulent and worth going back for seconds and thirds and the chicken kebab was covered in a garlic sauce with a sprinkle of sweet paprika to give that extra texture.
Once the main banquet was over a few of us decided to try their baklava, and again it didn’t disappoint, their baklava was walnut based and the layers of filo pastry was expertly baked. I must admit it wasn’t the best I’ve had, that pleasure occurred in the back streets of Istanbul on a food tour, but it did the trick. Overall the feast provided was fulfilling and delicious and well worth the price.
So in conclusion, if you are in Adelaide, and want an inexpensive meal, that will treat your tastebuds and leave you satisfied as you walk out, then the Jerusalem Sheshkebab House is for you. So remember, if you take my advice and eat at the Jerusalem Sheshkebab House, tell them Simon sent you from Our World in Review.
Ratings: 1-10 (1 = very poor, 10 = excellent)
Decor – 5
Atmosphere – 7
Service – 7
Price – 10
Food – 9
Overall – 8
