Melbourne’s Armenian-Lebanese eatery Zareh named Gourmet Traveller’s restaurant of the year

Previous winners of the award have included Saint Peter, Attica, Orana by the late Jock Zonfrillo, and Quay

Armenian-Lebanese eatery Zareh has been named Gourmet Traveller’s restaurant of the year, in a category of the annual industry awards that has historically been dominated by European-leaning cuisine and fine-dining establishments.

The restaurant’s menu pulls from the Armenian, Egyptian and Lebanese backgrounds of co-owners Tom Sarafian and Jinane Bou-Assi: aish baladi (Egyptian flatbread) is made with a flour milled in the Mornington Peninsula; kafta nayyah comprises raw minced lamb from Tasmania and Victoria; hummus is crowned with spanner crab.