{"id":15988,"date":"2026-08-26T06:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T06:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/15988\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T06:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T06:17:11","slug":"middle-eastern-restaurant-and-bar-zanobia-to-open-in-barangaroo-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/15988\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle Eastern restaurant and bar Zanobia to open in Barangaroo\u00a0\u00a0 – hospitality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zanobia opens at The Streets of Barangaroo this week, bringing a new Middle Eastern restaurant and bar to the waterfront precinct.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The opening represents a long-held vision of Founder Jorge Ballas and his wife Jo-Anne, who operated\u00a0sister venues Zanobia in Leichardt and North\u00a0Strathfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ballas, who is also the founder and director of Beirut Street Food, spent his childhood in Iraq, Dubai,\u00a0Syria, and Lebanon where he learnt to cook alongside his mother. Those influences, including food serving as a\u00a0centrepiece\u00a0for family gatherings, will continue to shape Zanobia\u2019s menu and approach to hospitality.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The menu celebrates traditional\u00a0flavours\u00a0and cooking techniques, spanning hot and cold mezze, salads, and meats cooked over the restaurant\u2019s charcoal grill. The beef, lamb, and chicken, which is all certified 100 per cent halal, is marinated for up to 48 hours in house spice blends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Highlights include baked halloumi with\u00a0raisin, pine nuts, and spiced honey; Jordanian lamb\u00a0mansaf\u00a0with yellow rice, goat yoghurt sauce, and roasted almonds; chicken fesenjan\u00a0with walnut, pomegranate\u00a0molasses, tahini, sumac, and saffron rice; and kibbeh\u00a0sajiyeh\u00a0with minced lamb, onion, pine nuts, and\u00a0pomegranate molasses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Desserts include\u00a0rose milk cake, pistachio tiramisu, and saffron rice\u00a0pudding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The beverage program takes inspiration from the region, and cocktails feature flavours\u00a0such as\u00a0Za\u2019atar, pomegranate, and aniseed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of the beverage program, the restaurant will also feature Lebanon\u2019s national spirit, arak, which is\u00a0distilled from\u00a0grapes and infused with aniseed. The spirit is a\u00a0Lebanese drinking tradition tied to mezze, and is prepared tableside\u00a0with water and ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ballas says he has wanted to open a version of Zanobia in the city for many years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe loved the\u00a0Leichardt community so much but we saw a huge opportunity in the CBD dining scene for a Middle\u00a0Eastern restaurant,\u201d says Ballas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur food is all about community and shared experience, and we want Zanobia to be\u00a0a celebration of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zanobia\u00a0opens Friday 28 August. The restaurant will open Sunday to Wednesday from 11am to 10pm, and Thursday to Saturday from 11am to 12am.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photography by OneCut. <\/p>\n

For exclusive hospitality news every Tuesday and Thursday, subscribe\u00a0here\u00a0or follow us on\u00a0LinkedIn\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zanobia opens at The Streets of Barangaroo this week, bringing a new Middle Eastern restaurant and bar to the waterfront precinct.\u00a0\u00a0 The opening represents a long-held vision of Founder Jorge Ballas and his wife Jo-Anne, who operated\u00a0sister venues Zanobia in Leichardt and North\u00a0Strathfield.\u00a0 Ballas, who is also the founder and director of Beirut Street Food,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[13858,826,420,421,13859,460,8,60],"class_list":["post-15988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mediterranean-restaurants","tag-barangaroo","tag-hospitality","tag-mediterranean-restaurant","tag-mediterranean-restaurants","tag-middle-eastern","tag-openings","tag-restaurants","tag-sydney"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117160351388390404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}