Adding a Middle Eastern flavour to Adelaide’s East End, this family-run café’s signature dish is the munooshi – an Arabic pizza folded and filled with all sorts of savoury and sweet ingredients.

The dough for the 10-inch pizzas is made and cooked to order in the small, bustling kitchen, and the smell alone of the freshly baked product is irresistible.

Word has got around over the past 12 months, so sometimes you’ll have to wait a while for your takeaway or table order (there’s outdoor and upstairs seating). However, it’s well worth it, and the kitchen activity is an entertainment in itself. Owners Caled and Dee Osman can usually be found on site, with service always friendly, if sometimes a little frazzled.

Prices for the munooshi pizzas range from around $4 to $9, salads from $9-$11, and Arabic sweets are about $2.50.

Favourite menu item: Cheese and zatar munooshi. This pizza is filled with melted mozzarella cheese and a traditional Middle Eastern zatar spice mix including thyme, oregano, sumac and sesame seeds. If you ask for a cheese and zatar munooshi “plus veg”, you’ll also get the added fresh zing of tomatoes, onion and olives. Love it.

Other options: The lamb mince munooshi (with tahini, tomato and fresh mint) and falafel munooshi (with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and tahini) run a close second to the cheese and zatar. There is also a selection of salads, pita wraps and breakfast munooshis.

Something sweet: To sate your sweet tooth, there’s the dessert munooshi – with Nutella, banana and strawberry – as well as a selection of Arabic sweets such as semolina slice, ladies’ fingers and birds’ nests.

Desk lunch rating: Munooshi may not be the healthiest lunch option in town, but it’s delicious, filling and guaranteed to make your workmates drool. You may need a peppermint to hand if you opt for any of the choices with onion or garlicy sauces.

The making of a munooshi

Munooshi Café
36 East Terrace, Adelaide
Phone: 08 8223 5595