Earlier this year, I was invited to dine at Middle Eastern restaurant Inara in Busselton. It was my first trip to Busselton in several years, and it was eye-opening to see how much the area has changed.
Inara, which means “Ray of Light” in Arabic, is located next to the Busselton Pavilion and Busselton Central shopping centre, just off the main street. But don’t let the location deceive you – this was one of the best meals I’ve had this year, and one that will be hard to beat.
Inara is bright, open and well-lit, with dining areas both inside and outside. Access is easy and the venue is comfortable and relaxed.
Owner and Chef Dan Johnson has dedicated years to exploring the food traditions of the Middle East. Inara, which opened in November 2023, specialises in Levantine cuisine, with dishes inspired by the culinary traditions of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Greece, Egypt, Iraq, and the Palestinian territories.
Chef Dan’s culinary skills have taken him around the world, to the restaurants of
renowned luxury international resorts including COMO and Jumeriah Hotels across the Maldives, Vanuatu, Bali and Oman, as well as cutting edge restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland.
It was while working at Bunker Bay in WA’s South West that his love for middle eastern food sparked. Dan discovered cookbooks by the pioneer of modern middle eastern cuisine in Australia, Greg Malouf, and a 20-year obsession began.
Owners Dan and Jo have sponsored three Inara chefs, recently promoting Paulo Punzalan to Head Chef. Paulo has extensive experience in high end kitchens in the United Arab Emirates. Surprisingly, the sponsored chefs all live in Dan and Jo’s house, reinforcing the close team spirit at Inara.
“We’re a big advocate of really looking after staff,” says Dan. “I think it’s very important. Three of them live in our house. They’ve got the front three bedrooms and we’ve got the back bedroom. We struggled to find a house for them, you just can’t find rentals.”
We dined from the Autumn menu, which you can see above. See Inara’s current menus here.
The dishes we tried were:
- Freshly baked bazlama (Turkish flat bread)
- Hummus, green tahini, fried chickpeas
- Roasted honey figs, moutabal shamandar (beet & tahini dip), goat feta, fig silan (concentrated syrup)
- Halloumi, honey, lemon, thyme, aleppo pepper
- Chargrilled Beagle Island octopus, antep ezme (spicy tomato salad), taramsalata, crispy potatoes
- Slow-roasted Valley Spring lamb shoulder, hawaij (Yemeni spice blend), pine nuts, cured lemon, tahini yoghurt
- Chargrilled cabbage, muhammara, feta, smoked harissa oil
- Broccoli tabouleh, freekeh, mulberries, seeds, mint, feta, pomegranate honey
- Kunefeh (layered shredded dough and cheese soaked with syrup), orange blossom, pistachios, burnt honey ice cream
- Coconut-tapioca ‘Malabi’ (Israeli milk pudding), saffron syrup, fresh berries, pistachio
Every dish we tried was well-cooked and full of flavour. From the impossibly puffed-up bazlama flat bread to the melt-in-your-mouth lamb shoulder, each dish was as good as the next. As with much Levantine cuisine, meat isn’t always the main ingredient and vegetables take centre stage.
Highlights are hard to pick, however the fig and haloumi dishes would be non-negotiable orders on a return visit. The chargrilled cabbage with muhammara, feta and smoked harissa oil, as seen above, was visually stunning and didn’t disappoint in flavour.
Our dessert highlight was the kunefeh (spun pastry dough layered with cheese and soaked in a sweet, sugar-based syrup) with orange blossom, pistachios and burnt honey ice cream. This was a texturally unexpected and overall enjoyable experience.
It’s a delight to eat such great food and meet passionate owners in a somewhat unexpected location. If you’re visiting Busselton – or even just passing through – Inara should be on your hit-list for a memorable dining experience.
In my view, Inara is WA’s best Middle Eastern restaurant.
If the drive is just too far, however, a Perth-based version of Inara is on the drawing board. Expect a similar theme but different name. Dan is keen to open in the southern corridor between Fremantle and the city.
“When we came back to Australia in the 2019, we ate at Propeller quite a lot because there wasn’t much else. I like that location. We’re looking now to see what’s around, we’ll see if it comes to fruition next year,” he explains.
Inara is participating in this year’s Cabin Fever festival. See here for more details and to buy tickets for their “Ember & Mezze” lunch event.
See some more pictures from our lunch below.
Inara
Shop 43, 30 Kent St, Busselton WA 6280
11:30am – 10pm Thursday -Tuesday (closed Wednesday)
Website
Instagram
All images : Morsels.
Morsels dined as a guest of Inara. Thanks to Janine Pittaway from Bright Communications.
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