Mandi is the biggest celebrity of Yemen’s cuisine, part of a beloved food category called the “mixed rice dish”, whose other famous members are biryani, bibimbap and jollof rice. Mandi is spiced basmati rice, topped with meat – usually chicken or lamb that’s traditionally roasted in an underground oven – with zahawiq, a spicy, tomato-based sauce, served on the side.
At Yemendi, in Sydney’s Beverly Hills, everyone is here for the mandi. There are three types on the menu: the chicken features saffron-spiced chook that falls off the bone from a light wiggle of the drumstick; the mendi lamb is topped with hunks of meat with jiggly fat stores and marrow-filled bone tunnels to mine; while the haneeth lamb has more tender, bone-in meat. All feature broth-enriched rice so fluffy, you’ll rarely see two grains clumped together. On some days that rice is deeply savoury and speckled red, yellow and orange, on others it is lighter in colour and heft.
The size, however, is a constant – the mandi are always massive. One platter is challenging for a single person and is best shared between two, with an extra dish on the side. The mandi are between $24 and $28 each, but $75 gets you all three meat options on a family-size serve of rice. Like all mandi experiences, it’s best to dine in a group.
Yemendi is not alone in serving mandi in Sydney. By my count there are 13 mandi eateries, most of which have popped up in the last few years. Most are takeaway-oriented and, as well as mandi, serve other mixed rice dishes with a South Asian tilt.
But what makes Yemendi feel special is that it’s a very Yemeni experience. Mohammed Al-Arasi, who co-owns the restaurant with Jubran Baflah, says while Yemeni culture is similar to Saudi Arabia and other nearby countries, Yemeni food is distinct. As per Yemeni tradition, diners are served soup before the meal; here it’s marak, a thin, lemon-amber-coloured spiced lamb broth that is affrontingly tasty, like a shot of liquified bone marrow and garlic.
Aside from the mandi, the menu offers four rich, spiced Yemeni stews that are rare in Sydney restaurants – like salona, a thick and extremely savoury prawn stew served sizzling in a stone pot. (Look for the “prawn curry”. Al-Arasi thought this was the simplest translation.)
But the most transportive experience is downstairs in the private dining room. A booking of six to 12 people will give you access to a room emblazoned with colour and patterns from the region – bright red floor cushions, an intricately patterned rug and curtains with colourful tassels.
The walls are painted, like a bold flag, in beetroot purple and mustard yellow. If there was a window with sunlight flooding in, this would be one of my favourite dining rooms in Sydney. But the aesthetic isn’t what makes it special; it’s how it encourages diners to eat and interact.
“Sitting on the ground creates a different connection. It doesn’t feel formal … You can just be messy,” says Al-Arasi. “It’s [also] for the people. We Middle Eastern, we are born eating on the floor. We don’t have dining tables. I thought, ‘let’s do one room, for the people that want to bring memories back’.”
• Yemendi, 500 King Georges Road, Beverly Hills, NSW, (02) 8018 8877
