Freshly made falafels and hummus flow at this cruisy northern beaches spot

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Mandy Zieren, co-founder of falafel bar Queen Ester, knew Sydney’s northern beach suburbs would get excited about Israel street food. “I grew up in Avalon,” she says. “My partner Hila Zabari and I know a lot of people here, we’ve worked in hospitality here. We knew. And there is no food like it in this area.”

Queen Ester, which opened in Mona Vale in April, is sister to the original Queen Ester in Newport, co-founded by Zieren, Zabari, Niko Styr and his partner in 2021.

Despite Zieren and Zabari’s knowledge and instinct, none was prepared for the crowds on day one at Newport.

“It was crazy,” Zieren says. “Lines out the door, every day, all week.”

It wasn’t just novelty. People flood to Queen Ester’s two sites for the quality, in particular the falafels and hummus, the most common Israeli street food.

The former come wrapped or in a bowl, and each crunchy, herby, nuggety dark bronze ball is a deep-fried orb of juicy happiness.

Here, at a spacious, music-soaked cafe below a surfboard shop wrapped with cactus and outdoor seats on astroturf, the falafel bowl means they come laced with creamy tahini, Yemenite-spiced green pepper sauce zhug and sweet pickled fruity sauce amba. All within a lush grove of green salad, cabbage, tomato, pickles and shifka, small yellow peppers.

The mix of flavours and ingredients match the backgrounds of Queen Ester’s owners. Their heritage stems from Turkey, Poland, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, Romania, Argentina, South Africa, England and India.

“So everyone brings a little bit of their perspective to what is Israeli food,” Zieren says. “Everyone has brought in a bit of their heart, their family and their memories.”

Queen Ester uses pita, not flatbread, and much thought has gone into the size of the balls, the vibrancy of their green insides and, most importantly, being freshly cooked. For a dry falafel is no one’s friend.

“I can’t tell you how many people come in and say, ‘We don’t really like falafel’,” Zieren says. “And we say, ‘I’m not sure you have ever tried what we mean as a falafel’.”

There is also chicken schnitzel lusciously edged by rice, fried eggplant, hummus, zhug, pickles, shifka and Moroccan matbucha made with tomato and peppers, and ziva, a fat pastry filled with cheese and olives and served with boiled eggs, tahini, pickles and crushed tomatoes.

Queen Ester’s make-it-fresh motto extends to daily cakes, including the Cara orange syrup cake, made by local baker and cookbook author Rowie Dillon.

Gluten- and dairy-free, this beautifully dense almond-meal wonder resembles a sliced gold medallion awash with luscious citrusy lava.

Eat it on a bench outside, with a strong flat white served in a brown and black 1960s Hornsea Pottery Heirloom cup and saucer. When spring starts and the sun is higher and hotter, Queen Ester’s outside tables are shaded with umbrellas. But even today, a few days short of spring, babies loll on the sun-lit green astroturf, licking hummus from their fingers.

People in sunhats and shorts wander in with dogs, tradie belts and wet towels, ready for lunch. No one races around.

Queen Ester’s menu is divided between breakfast and lunch, the latter offering falafels or spicy chicken shawarma in pita or bowls.

There are timber tables lining one wall, stools edging a blue-and-white tiled counter and shelves bearing cans of Israeli olives and yellow peppers, and snacks including packets of Cheezel-shaped barbecue-flavoured Bissli and Bamba baked peanut butter puffs. The music, a playlist that makes you sway while ordering, is as soulful as the food.

And if you hang out at the wide front window, watching the rapid industry of the open kitchen inside, it’s not far off visiting a friend’s house for a beachside get-together.

“We always want it to feel like you’ve walked into someone’s kitchen, grandma’s kitchen,” Zieren says.

And the name? “Hila’s grandma’s name was Esther,” Zieren says. “But she was telling me the story [from the Old Testament and Hebrew Bible] of Queen Esther, who saved a lot of Jewish people from being persecuted. We changed the spelling but they were both two strong, powerful women, which is important for us.”