Kogarah continues its march towards claiming the crown for the coffee and cafe capital of southern Sydney with the opening last weekend of the El Jannah restaurant and takeaway.
The Kogarah store on Railway Parade is the sixth El Jannah to open in Sydney following in the footsteps of outlets at Granville, Punchbowl, Blacktown, Penrith and Campbelltown.
It celebrated its official opening on Australian Day with a ribbon cutting ceremony along with a free brunch for the local community
El Jannah means ‘paradise’ in Arabic and owner Charles Estephan describes his menu as a western take on Lebanese cuisine.
And if the first few days trading are any indication, El Jannah is what Kogarah has been waiting for.
Crowds queued on the footpath outside for takeaway and the 50 seat restaurant at the rear of the premises was full.
It has become so busy that Charles and his co-workers had to put crowd control measures in place.
“It’s been crazy,” Charles said. “We have been absolutely flat-out. We have had to put bollards outside to control the queues.”
The menu includes charcoal chicken with garlic sauce, chicken and beef burgers, falafel, skewers, shawarma, as well as regular Lebanese sides such as hommous and babaganouj and salads such at tabouli and fattoush.
El Jannah joins a number of new hospitality outlets opening in past months around Kogarah’s railway station including ex-Dragon’s Jason Nightingale’s Flow Espresso on Railway Parade earlier this month.
El Jannah is at 100-102 Railway Parade, Kogarah is is open 11am to 10pm Saturday to Wednesday and 11am to 11pm Thursday to Sunday.