MELBOURNE | TISIRI is a Coburg North food truck focusing on wood-charcoal-grilled meats, and comfort food with a twist. It was founded in 2021 by friends Abdulhai Abdu, Adam Shukor, Abdulrahman Omara, Burak Efe, Serag Ahmed, and Mustafa Kurkcu. I was recently invited over by Abdulhai to check it out.
Between them, the friends have over a decade of experience working in Melbourne’s cafes and restaurants, and catering large music festivals. The pandemic opened a window for them to strike it out on their own and open their first business.
They popped up across town in 2021 and 2022, before finding a permanent home in a new little food truck park in a former used car sales lot in Coburg North, dubbed “Coburg Corner”. It’s a great little spot, currently home to TISIRI, kebab truck “K Lish”, Nepalese and Bhatti food truck “The Flavours”, waffle vendor “Indulge Waffles”, and an Iraqi knafeh truck. A few more trucks are slated to open before the end of the year.
The dishes on TSIRI’s are borne from Abdulhai and Adam’s love of food, and meals shared with friends and family. Their aim with TISIRI is to create simple dishes that are comforting, approachable, and delicious.
Most of what you’ll find on the menu started as a limited specials, tweaked based on customer feedback and TISIRI’s own evolving sense of what’s working and not working, before graduating to the full menu.
Inspiration comes from the boys’ industry peers (Abdulhai counts Raph Rashid of Beatbox Kitchen/Juanita Peaches, and the team at Good Measure as particular inspirations), along with the classic dishes that they enjoy eating at home.
Abdulhai brought out a selection of favourites for me to try, and consider me impressed. I couldn’t fault anything. One of the most popular items is the brisket roll, and it’s easy to see why. Tender jus soaked beef brisket, Kewpie mayo, house pickles, and fried onions in a Turkish roll, which all come together wonderfully. Also must try are the loaded buffalo fries. Boneless chicken thighs coated in Sriracha butter, cheese sauce, and fried onions, on lemon pepper shoestring fries.
Harissa spiced lamb skewers feature tender chunks of lamb with melt-in-your-mouth fat and a big char flavour. You can also get the lamb in a soft Turkish roll with labneh and mixed salad. Other items include things like a HSP with beef brisket and caramelised onions, a smashed patty cheeseburger, wings, fried chicken, and a few sides.
It’s food which can be heavy and unbalanced at many places, but the TISIRI boys get the balance between light and heavy elements, and flavours, just right. To drink, it’s Moroccan mint tea and a few Middle Eastern juices and sodas. Liquor licence pending, there should be a small bar opening on the site later on this year.
Food trucks have become all the rage over the past decade, and with that, has come a sense of commercialisation and a loss of the independent spirit and sense of community that encapsulate what food trucks are all about. “Coburg Corner” might not have the hype or money behind it that some of Melbourne’s bigger food truck parks do, but thanks to people like the TISIRI boys, and the other vendors here, it’s got a heart and realness that big marketing budgets can’t buy.
TISIRI
1083 Sydney Road
Coburg North
Victoria 3058
Australia
Telephone: 0403 349 971
E-mail: [email protected]
Website
Open
Sun, Tue – Thu: 5:00pm to 9:00pm
Fri – Sat: 5:00pm to 11:00pm