Meadow Heights Classic Lebanese Bakery, 19/A Meadow Heights Shopping Centre, 55 Paringa Boulevard, Meadow Heights. Phone: 9309 8206
Sweet World, Shop 20, Meadow Heights Shopping Centre, 55 Paringa Boulevard, Meadow Heights. Phone: 9309 2552
Working at Airport West has changed the way I think about the Ring Road.
So, too, has the cessation of the long-running works that made the road a sometimes stressful route.
Instead of ploughing my way across the city, it now seems like a breezy avenue to foodie riches in the northern suburbs, especially on a sunny if cold Saturday with light, free-flowing traffic.
Take the Pascoe Vale Road exit, a few clicks past Broadmeadows central, turn left on Paringa Boulevard and I’m at Meadow Heights Shopping Centre.
It’s a mid-sized centre with a nice, relaxed vibe as folks go about their business.
Inside, there’s an Asian grocer, an IGA, a halal butcher and so on.
Outside to the left, there’s what looks to a pretty good Turkish kebab place and, right next door, a halal pizza joint.
On the right are the two businesses a colleague has given me a great tip about.
Meadow Heights Classic Lebanese Bakery has, I’m told, been on these premises for about four years.
But it’s got a lovely, warm, lived-in vibe and the staff are super.
The range of pies and pizzas is mostly regulation, superbly and cheaply priced, and attracting a steady stream of hungry customers.
I choose for my lunch, though, a pizza I have never come across before.
The zayban ($5, top picture) has tangy yogurt, fresh mint, olives, cucumber and tomato.
Right here, right now its seems like a brilliant contender for my meal of the year.
It’s perfect!
I grab four spinach and cheese pies for home use. They’re $3 apiece, also outstanding and more heftily filled than is often the case.
Then it’s time to switch from savoury to sweet and Lebanese to Turkish with a stroll right next door to Sweet World.
The baklava, as fully expected, is excellent and full of dusky flavour.
I like it that it is served in a modest, $1.50 size, too.
Coffee can be a bit of a lottery in such places, so I am happy to report that my $3 cafe latte is expertly done.
I get a modest package of take-aways here, too.
But not of the baklava or the other syrupy items; instead I get lovely looking, and buttery, cookies.
I know not the Turkish name for them, but they look awfully similar to Italian biscotti!
The wikipedia entry on this suburb is blunt: “Meadow Heights offers little in the way of attractions …”
Consider The Sauce disagrees!
consider the sauce 
Glad you’ve enjoyed it! That pizza looks delicious 🙂
Those biscotti-esque sweets are called “kurabiye” koo-ra-bee-yeah (the koo is pronounced like the koo in cook)
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Thanks for the tip and the correct name! Gosh, the pizza was amazing!
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mmm the spinach+cheese triangles look delish with the charred edges!
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I’ve been curious about a place named “Turkish Patisserie” on Paringa since I saw it listed on Urbanspoon. It seemed so far out from any commercial strip or large thoroughfare. I had wondered whether it was real, or a chimera that some website mapping function misplaced in the middle of a residential desert. Maybe the name has changed and been replaced by the sweet shop page you dropped on the ‘Spoon. Now that I can visualise them, I reckon these joints look worthy of a long bike ride next time I’m in the mood to explore the west side some more. I’ll have to plot a route from the Roxburgh Park train station.
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P.S. If you’re interested in a type of doppelganger dining experience similar to this jaunt, and not far from it, have you ever visited the shopping strip in Dallas? It’s like a Little Turkey, located east of Pascoe Vale Road, bordered by Blair Street, equidistant from the Broady and Coolaroo train stations. (Which are how carless me gets there and back when I’m working at the psych ward at Broadmeadows.) Like the centre you hit here, it’s got a couple of savoury purveyors and a Middle Eastern bakery. It’s all set on a pedestrian plaza that must have been a popping place when the now-abandoned Hard Yakka and other factories nearby were humming. It seems like a place that’s evocative of the West Side, your oeuvre.
I wouldn’t bring it up, except you’re into bargain eats that are also good. The two joints I tried there fit the criteria. Dallas Kebabs doesn’t look exceptional with its namesake item, but they have wonderful pides with an assortment of fillings, and for only $3.50 a pop! The bakery a few storefronts north, Emek Teknesi, has a tonne of Italian-style (or kurabiye, as I learnt from Sumeyya above) biscuits, plus Turkish baklava, and much fresh-baked bread. I got seven varied pastries for $10.50 — a good deal for these days! Across from it is another Turkish sanger stop, Dilek Takeaway (beware the killer robots!) which looks to have better kebabs than the “Dallas” joint. There was only so much I could consume on my most recent ride through there, so I passed. I’m curious to hear your take on the places.
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1846564/restaurant/Melbourne/Hume/Dallas-Kebabs-Dallas
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1485744/restaurant/Melbourne/Hume/Emek-Teknesi-Dallas
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1825967/restaurant/Melbourne/Hume/Dilek-Takeaway-Dallas
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That’s an excellent tip – thanks, Bukko!
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