Shane Delia to Open Maha East in Windsor
Maha East to be launched in Windsor is an exciting development on the Melbourne dining scene. Over the past 11 years, Maha has gone from strength to strength. Now, Shane Delia and his team are ready to expand and bring a little bit of their magic to Melbourne’s south-eastern suburb of Windsor. Set to open this June, Maha East will showcase a more relaxed side to the Middle Eastern cooking their CBD venue is renowned for.
“To put it simply, I am not opening another Maha. Our signature Bond Street restaurant will remain our flagship, it would be extremely difficult to recreate what we have there. I have a brilliant team that loves the venue and my Head Chef, Daniel Giraldo, is cooking some seriously amazing food,” says Delia. “My long time Sous Chef at Maha, Simon Lillico, will be moving across with me to head up the kitchen at our new venue. Our business has always placed importance on promoting from within and providing career paths for team members. I am extremely excited that Simon is ready to take the helm of our new project as Head Chef.”
Delia hopes to create a home for the Windsor community, a casual and easy-going place where his team know you and you know them. At Maha East, you won’t have to tell the staff your first drink because they will already know. Whether it’s a long boozy lunch, dinner session or a few quick cocktails and meze at the bar with mates, this is somewhere you’ll be able to walk in at any time and know everything is under control.
Focusing on good tunes, better food and exciting booze, Maha East is completely different to the high-octane, Asian inspired noise of its bigger neighbours.
From the menu, guests can expect to see relaxed, loosely inspired Middle Eastern dishes in an non-confronting, share style format. A 4-course banquet, similar to what has made Maha so successful, will be available along with an à la carte menu, comprising of meze items, larger dishes, veggies and sweets. The menu will feature a balance between established Maha favourites, like Turkish delight doughnuts and slow roasted lamb shoulder, and new creations, such as taramasalata filled fried buns with salmon caviar and house baked breads with hummus and Persian saffron XO.
Delia explains, “what I’m really looking forward to is cooking some of the food I used to cook with my family and putting my own twist on it. I want to teach my team the secrets my family taught me, like how to get pastry extra flaky and how to balance spice, heat and flavour.”
Another major focus of Maha East is its beverage list. The venue will stock all of Maha’s signature cocktails, including everyone’s favourite, the Pomegranate Sour.
On the wine list, there will be around 120 bottles, consisting of both new and old-world wines and some unexpected treasures, hand-picked by the team’s Sommelier and Restaurant Manager, Ross Frame. “Ross will be the main man on the floor. He has been a leader in relation to training and building a positive culture at Maha. We are thrilled that he has taken up the challenge to help build future generations of hospitality professionals at Maha East,” adds Delia.
Opening on Thursday, 27 June, Maha East is your new ‘local’ in Windsor, where memories are made, friends and family gather and good times are in abundance.