Jinnah’s

Mohammad Ali Jinnah is the founder of Pakistan. He was commonly called Quaid-e-Azam – the great leader. He was known as a freedom fighter for the Muslims of the South Asian subcontinent. In 1948 he was laid to rest in Karachi.

Today, a restaurant along Marrickville Rd stands in his honour.

Like many of Marrickville’s brothels and adult shops, Jinnah’s is accessed off-street. That is you have to walk up the stairs to get to the ‘main business.
Posters of Bollywood actors decorate the wall of the restaurant’s staircase. A large picture of a smiling Princess Diana greets you as you finally ascend the stairs.

Every inch of the restaurant is covered by pictures. There are photographs of Paul and Anita Keating, Bob Hawke and unfortunately John Howard.

Newspaper clippings of the Pakistani cricket team are framed and duly honoured on all three of Jinnah’s expansive walls. Cushions are stuck on the walls while the ceiling fans are covered in wrapping paper. A T.V is hung high up on the corner of the wall, which constantly features a Bollywood movie.

We knew we were in for a treat.

My mother reckon’s Mohammad Jinnah, is a blackmailer and the root of all of Pakistan’s problems. But that didn’t stop her from enjoying the Karachi chicken wings.

The menu is indeed expansive and for convenience divided, into food groups. The flock of lamb, farm of poultry and farm of cattle section of the menu includes more than 20 lamb, chicken and beef dishes.

Our very attentive waiter was into up-selling. Trying to convince us into getting the entrée ‘platter’, my family instead settled on deep fried onion rings (in chickpea oil), tandoori chicken and pappadums for entrée. We did, however, succumb to his suggestion to enjoy mango chutney with the pappadums.

Our beef, chicken and prawn main dishes came out in clay pots, each with a wooden spoon and a little Pakistani flag with the name of each dish written on it. A nice touch.

The food was sensational and my mother approved.

The great thing about Jinnah’s is that you can enjoy a drink. In fact the restaurant urges B.Y.O.G (Bring Your Own Grog) on the shop window. This makes it vastly different from the Muslim restaurants I normally eat at in Lakemba.

“That’s because the owners of Jinnah’s have good business sense,” my mother notes.

It would have been a great night except my new vow to stick to the new ‘drinking rules’ of 2 glasses of wine a day policy. At that stage the scene from the Bollywood movie revealed the lead actor to be an alcoholic. As he yearned for a glass of bourbon, the lead actress, clothed in a gorgeous green sari, danced seductively in front of him, her toes delicately touching the bottle of booze. He didn’t care for her, his face in perspiration, desperation in his eyes only for the bourbon. I knew how he felt and it was time to go.

As we left, we couldn’t help but ask the owner of Jinnah’s about Paul Keating’s visit to the restaurant.

“Oh Mr Keating comes here every five weeks”

We will definitely be back.

Jinnah's Tandoori & Seafood Restaurant
02) 9572 8833