Babajan

Babajan was a nice little cafe serving Middle Eastern food. We ordered some salad and fritter dishes from the display and the eggplant Aleppo cheese toastie off their menu, and they were all very flavourful and delicious although the portions were a bit on the small side. For dessert was their crunchy tasty walnut baklava that was a lot less sweet than most baklavas in the market. Their service, however, was almost non-existent. We waited hours for someone to take our order, gave us water, delivered our food. Overall, a nice cafe with great food, but won’t be returning.

This review is about the service alone of this place, as I didn’t end up purchasing any foods due to the absolute shocking manners of the person I encountered. I stepped inside today to have a look at their lunch offerings. Both employee working and I are wearing a mask and words being spoken are not very intelligible due to the masks and normal lunch time noise. I’m up at the counter having a look and the employee looks up at me so I say hi - they obviously can’t tell this and I don’t hold it against them as we’re both wearing masks - totally reasonable thing we’ve all dealt with. The employee then comes up to the counter and says “how are you?” expectantly and I say oh I’m just having a look thanks. Not maliciously, just a fact. She then says rudely “I was asking how you are”, moves away from the counter, rolls her eyes and mutters something under her breath all in front of me, while pointedly not looking at me anymore. I don’t expect employees in hospitality to tolerate rude behavior from customers when it’s unwarranted, but that also goes the other way. Maybe the person was having a bad day, but please train your staff or this person in particular (who worked there lunchtime 10th of March) to be more stoic. If I am all it took for them to crack, then I shudder to think how they’ll respond when they actually meet a nasty customer. Edited to add: after reading some reviews below, seems like shockingly rude service from one woman in particular is common. This woman seems to be either the owner or a manager. Either way, it obviously is not being resolved so that tells me this place doesn’t want to resolve it.

Babajan' Turkish / Middle Eastern breakfast - brunch Menu was convincing enough to travel, and by the time we reached, we were super-duper hungry. Ordered a Hot Chocolate and a Latte to go with Simit / Turkish Bread served with butter and spiced Jam, Crab and Halloumi Omelette, Turkish Pizza (sorry, can't remember the name) and Lamb with Poached Eggs We were joined by our friend, and Ozzy and He loved the Turkish Pizza sprinkled with Sumac ,(ee love Sumac) but for me, personally, it was extremely sour for my palate. Simit / Turkish Bread was loved by all three. Especially the orange marmalade jam that seemed to be spiced with saffron and cardamon (could be wrong too) Crab and Halloumi Omelette lacked the sweetness of crab meat, and couldnt see the Halloumi at all. Though, the salad served with it tasted good. Poached Eggs served with Beetroot Salad with Lamb was quite decent. Hot chocolate was fantastic but the Strong Latte tasted a bit burnt. The bottomless Tea never arrived, and neither did we realize until we got home. Quite a rollercoaster ride of likes and dislikes making it quite difficult for us to rate them. Probably, we weren't too lucky that day (not that they were too busy). Service was quick.

Mediterranean food is one of my favourite cuisines and Babajan is a lovely place to source it. I’ve only dined there during covid so I can’t vouch for their full menu, but their takeaway counter offerings are fresh and delicious. I particularly love the falafel roll and the roasted capsicum and potato salad (although all their salads are lovely). They also make a mean soy flat white. I can’t wait to visit again.