Maha Mystery

Lurking down Bond Street (aaand cue Skyfall music! sorry, I still haven't seen it yet and it's driving me crazy), just off Flinders Street, is a discrete and rather intriguing restaurant. It's so discrete in fact, that you might walk past it without a second glance...I might go as far to say that this is Melbourne's Restaurant of Mystery. As soon as you push open the glass doors of Maha and descend into this dark and seductive lair of a restaurant, you feel as though you've stepped into another (probably much more luxurious) world.

Maha was established in February 2008 as the brain child of chef Shane Delia, of Maltese heritage, and Made Establishment (being George Calombaris and his culinary peeps). I was pretty pumped to go to a George Calombaris (or Georgie Porgy...we're on a first name basis, you know) restaurant as I'd never been to one before and I've only ever heard good things. I must say, I was completely taken with Maha as soon as we stepped through the door. with it's Bedouin-styling, dark wooden tables, low lighting and shisha smoking room, you truly feel as though you're somewhere in the Middle East. There really is only one word to describe the feel of the place and that's sexy. Ahh yeeaah. My outfit seemed to suit the decor quite perfectly as I was wearing a beautiful soft and flowing Backstage dress (a bit sexy in it's own right) with my adventurous black fluffy clutch.

 What I wore: Dress from Backstage, shoes from Jo Mercer, clutch from Back Stage

 Necklace from Stannard-inc, ring from the Victorian Market

The menu at Maha is broken up into a few sections to make life a little easier for you. You can select from either the Sultans banquet, opting for eight or six courses, or the slightly more mysterious Sufrou menu, which is a selection of shared dishes prepared by the chef for the day. As I am ever so adventurous and enjoy surprises (unless it's the dog shit on my shoe kind of surprise...that's rather less enjoyable) we opted for the Sofrou menu and were indeed most pleasantly surprised.

We began the meal with a little palate cleanser (as well as, ahem, two or three one cocktail) of Egyptian hibiscus tea. Cleansing indeed it was and it all felt a bit exotic to tell you the truth. Following was the mezze board with an offering if small dishes, such as chargrilled eggplant with pomegranate molasses, fava bean foam with tomato salsa and lamb kofta and a delicious walnut and garlic dip with Turkish bread. All simple flavors and all very good. Next was the first round of hot dishes with, my favie, a chickpea, Lebanese couscous, prawn and octopus tagine. It was packed with spices and had a great zingy hit of lemon. Also super scrummy was the 12 hour cooked lamb shoulder covered in green olive and pistachio tabbouleh, accompanied by mushroom and zatar pilaf. I feel like I should tell you exactly what was good about this dish, but I think I probably had you at 12 hour cooked lamb shoulder. Mmm.

The mezze board

Chickpea, octopus and prawn tagine

Marlin with spinich and black bean chilli, fattoush salad, mushroom pilaf and lamb shoulder 

We happily made our way to the room allocated for shisha smoking for our final course of dessert. It sort of felt like we were entering some kind of Middle Eastern brothel (except perhaps more legal) as the room contained only couples, but that just kind of added to the whole sexy Bedouin-vibe thing. It really was all very James Bond appropriate. Dessert was a beautifully presented affair with the first dish of smoked white chocolate ganache, honey meringues, different textures of chocolate and lavender sugar. The smokiness of the chocolate worked perfectly with the rest of the dish and the chocolate wasn't overpowering or too sweet. There was a nice pistachio and vanilla cleanser before we dove into the honey and hazelnut covered Turkish donuts. To add another note of mystery and surprise, there were sweet and juicy balls of Turkish delight lingering sneakily in the center of the donuts. Finger licking goodness.

The oh so good smoked white chocolate ganache with textures of chocolate

 mmm...donuts

Ascending the stairs back up to the real world was rather disappointing. There were no camels, no cobra in a woven basket and no Danial Craig chilling out in Bond Street. But for a moment, just a moment, we had been transported to that Middle Eastern world filled with mystery, shisha smoke and secret spies. Well, maybe not that last part, but a girl can dream, right...especially when it involves Daniel Craig.