A fancy new “kebab” shop has rolled into Surry Hills with a menu that revolves around succulent, spit-roasted chicken shawarma.

Owned by fine dining chef Mat Lindsay from Ester along with Russell Beard, Mark Dundon and Jin Ng from Paramount Coffee Project, the new takeaway joint serves up a tight edit of Middle Eastern street food, including chicken shawarma, felafel pita, sabich, and a non-halal snack pack (NHSP).

“We’ve kept the menu short as we wanted to just do a few things well,” says Russell Beard, who also owns nearby café, Reuben Hills.

“There’s just one kind of meat on the shawarma – for now – but we’ll be doing some different meats as specials and possibly some collaborations down the track.”

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While usually considered to be a hangover snack, Shwarmama’s life-changing shawarma is something you’ll want to sober up for, lest you forget any of the saucy details.

The namesake menu item is made from harissa spice-marinated spit-roasted chicken, piled with onions, cabbage, pickles, tahini, hummus, garlic sauce and chips, rolled up in warm, fluffy laffa bread.

The non-halal snack pack also represents a significant upgrade to the popular tradie lunch. The dish is made almost identical to the shawarma, with all toppings piled on a batch of hand cut potato chips.

Vegetarians who have the self control to shun the juicy, rotating chicken, are also well catered for, with menu items like the sabich (pronounced sa-bick), a pita pocket jammed with fried eggplant, smashed boiled egg, cabbage, onions, pickles and a rainbow of sauces, as well as the vegan-friendly falafel pita, with felafels fried fresh to order.

Turn it into a meal with the house made pomegranate soda, a refreshingly tart drink that offsets the rich food perfectly, as well as two tap wines and Marrickville’s Wildflower beer. There’s also coffee to accompany your “early morning brekky kebab”, which is something they hope to make happen.

The express venue has no tables or chairs, and is just “standing room only,” says Beard.

Unlike other “kebab” shops that feed off the late night crowd, Shwarmama opens from 10am until 10pm, pushing the boundaries of what had previously been considered acceptable kebab hours.

Shwarmama
Shop 2, 106–11 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills
Mon-Fri 8am-3:30pm, 5pm-10pm, Sat-Sun 10am-10pm
shwarmama.com.au