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Thursday, April 03, 2014

Hawa Charcoal Chicken, Granville

Charcoal chicken, chips and vegetarian platter at Hawa Charcoal Chicken, Granville

Granville might be known as the original home of El Jannah chicken but down the road you’ll also find Hawa, slick with red and black uniformed staff and the motto “in taste we trust”. There’s a huge dining area here, with stacks of benches and booths inside plus chairs and tables on the street.

You can smell it as soon you hit the main street of Granville. That’s the scent of chicken skin charring to a smoky crisp as fat drips and sizzles onto glowing charcoal below. Endless racks of flattened chooks spin around and around on a spit. This is barbecue chicken, Lebanese-style. Garlic sauce is mandatory.

Lebanese charcoal chicken at Hawa, Granville
Charcoal chicken

The crowd is a happy mix of families, teenagers and blokes. No one bats an eyelid at the soccer players hoeing into an entire chicken each. Construction work down the back indicates there’ll be a kids play area opening soon.

Toum garlic sauce and pickles at Hawa Charcoal Chicken, Granville
Toum garlic sauce and pickles

A whole chook will set you back $20, but once you factor in the free sides, it easily translates to a family-sized meal. You’ll score rounds of soft Lebanese bread, salty pickled cucumber, lurid pink pickled turnips and thick and fluffy toum (that addictive Lebangarlic sauce).

Charcoal chicken at Hawa Charcoal Chicken, Granville
Whole charcoal chicken $20

Chips with chicken salt at Hawa Charcoal Chicken, Granville
Chips with chicken salt

Mix, pick and graze in any order you please. Dunk the chicken in garlic sauce. Don’t forget to order chips. Dip those in the garlic sauce as well. Bliss. And if you’re skint, take-away chicken is half the price.

Shish lamb skewer and shish tawok marinated chicken with salad plate at Hawa Charcoal Chicken, Granville
Kefta spiced lamb mince, shish lamb and shish tawok marinated chicken skewers with salad plate $19.50

Charcoal chicken might rule the roost here but you can also dig into skewers of kefta spiced lamb mince, shish lamb skewers and shish tawok marinated chicken, jammed onto giant swords and cooked over a flaming grill.

Vegetarian platter with falafel, tabouleh, dolmades, eggplant and cauliflower at Hawa Charcoal Chicken, Granville
Vege platter $15

Vegetarians don’t miss out on all the fun either. The vege platter is a cracker, piled high with hoummus, baba ghanouj, dolmades, deep-fried cauliflower, deep-fried eggplant, tabouleh and crunchalicious garlicky falafel balls. Everybody wins.

Fattoush salad at Hawa Charcoal Chicken, Granville
Fattoush salad $8

Hawa Charcoal Chicken, Granville

Hawa Charcoal Chicken on Urbanspoon

Hawa Charcoal Chicken
43 South Street, Granville, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9637 3111

Opening hours:
Open 7 days 10am-11pm

This article appeared in the March 2014 issue of Time Out Sydney in my monthly Food & Drink column Eat This! [Read online

Read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews
19 comments - Add some comment love

posted by Helen (Grab Your Fork) on 4/03/2014 02:20:00 am


19 Comments:

  • At 4/03/2014 9:37 am, Anonymous Tina@foodboozeshoes said…

    I haven't eaten at either EJ or Hawa :( Such sadness

     
  • At 4/03/2014 10:00 am, Blogger Milktea Eats said…

    omgsh this looks good! is the flattened chickens moist?

     
  • At 4/03/2014 11:39 am, Blogger Sharon said…

    Everything looks great but the vege platter and fattoush salad look absolutely droolworthy! Appreciate that you've included them in the review :D

     
  • At 4/03/2014 12:04 pm, Anonymous Hannah said…

    Even though I've given up on my fake veganism because a good steak, crispy American bacon, and smoked salmon are frikkin' delicious, I still believe that vegetarian platter is singing me to dreams.

     
  • At 4/03/2014 12:48 pm, Blogger Unknown said…

    Love it all. Especially that there's still a place in Sydney where you can find free sides. Bonus for the pickle love too.

     
  • At 4/03/2014 2:05 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Yeah, Hawa is great and usually shorter queues than El Jannah. Although that may change with this publicity. Thanks for that!!! For a keen meat eater, that veg plate sure looks nice as well.
    Stan

     
  • At 4/03/2014 2:14 pm, Blogger Rosa said…

    Awww man I've been craving the Lebangarlic sauce for so long... I bought a tub of garlic sauce from costco and its just not the same. I wish the trek to Granville wasn't so out of the way for me.

    www.rosa-dyn.com

     
  • At 4/03/2014 5:23 pm, Blogger Annie said…

    interesting competition in Granville. will definitely check this out next time i have cravings and the queue at el jannah is too long

     
  • At 4/03/2014 10:21 pm, Blogger Sarah said…

    Oh wow, amazing.

    Those dips look so good - I love how they swirled on the plate with a little dip for the oil. Beautiful!

     
  • At 4/03/2014 10:34 pm, Anonymous Cindy (a foodie's joy) said…

    Goodness! The chicken looks great! Another place to check out when in Granville! Yay!

     
  • At 4/03/2014 11:03 pm, Anonymous Eva@thehungryplum said…

    Last week went to EJs with a couple of friends but tried to convince them about Hawa or Al Awafi..really keen to compare but the original always wins out for some reason!

     
  • At 4/03/2014 11:50 pm, Anonymous Chris @ MAB vs Food said…

    The garlic sauce is not as good as El Jannah, but the chicken at Hawa is certainly worth checking out

     
  • At 4/04/2014 12:23 am, Anonymous Mr C @ The Food Diary said…

    Wow looks awesome, I'm normally a fan of EJ but the chicken looks better here!

     
  • At 4/04/2014 3:19 pm, Anonymous chocolatesuze said…

    the crazy long queues at ej's made me cross the street to hawa and ive been a convert ever since!

     
  • At 4/05/2014 4:47 pm, Blogger Sherrie @ Crystal Noir said…

    I definitely have a small addiction to toum! Garlic love!

     
  • At 4/14/2014 5:46 am, Blogger Rebecca said…

    this is our local haunt. Kid friendly, family friendly and yummy to boot. The food is not as salty as El Janah. Don't forget to nip down the street afterwards for some awesome desert at El sweetie

     
  • At 4/19/2014 11:43 pm, Anonymous Sara | Belly Rumbles said…

    Do love free sides :)

     
  • At 4/22/2014 11:15 am, Anonymous Amanda@ChewTown said…

    I've had EJ but have yet to try Hawa. I definitely think I'll need to try it soon... actually... maybe dinner tonight!

     
  • At 2/02/2015 3:32 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Thanks to your recommendation on the vege platter at Hawa, we had that yesterday lunch in addition to the chicken. The chicken was of course great, but the vege platter was fantastic!!! Thanks for the pointer!
    Stan.

     

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