Palestinian Restaurant Zaitoon On Auckland’s Dominion Rd Is Preserving Culture Through Food

The owners of Dominion Rd’s Zaitoon want their restaurant to feel like you’re dining with family. Banging the pot with his palm, Nehad Al Battaniji’s face is focused. It’s not often that the chef delivers your meal in a restaurant, and it’s even less common for them to do so Maqluba, the dish that’s making a racket, translates to “upside down” in Arabic. It’s cooked in a big pot, with layers of rice, meat, cauliflower, aubergine and spices. When it’s tipped upside down on to a plate, it looks like a savoury layer cake – a big mass of flavour to be spooned around the table.Nehad Al Battaniji serves a table a pot of maqluba.The restaurant is the first of its kind in New Zealand, Nehad says. “This is the first Palestinian restaurant in New Zealand, not just Auckland. There are lots of Palestinian owners of restaurants, but they’re not serving Palestinian food. They’re Greek, they’re kebab shops, they’re Mediterranean, they’re Turkish, but they’re not Palestinian.” Growing up with nine brothers and two sisters in Gaza, Nehad learnt that, if he wanted to eat well, he needed to learn to cook. Like in any large family, food was available, but it was a matter of beating his siblings to the food his mum made. He got resourceful and made food for himself.It paid off, because he then became a cook at a school in Gaza. He’d do the early morning shift, then work as a barber in the afternoons. “Every day we’d do falafel, hummus, luncheon sandwiches, and we used to sell Palestinian barrad [a lemon-banana flavoured milky slushie] and biscuits.” Dining at new Palestinian restaurant, Zaitoon.Zaitoon's dishes include falafel, warak enab, fattoush, eggplant fatteh, labneh, baba ghanoush, maqluba, musakhan, shawarma, shrak, and zahara mashweyeh.At Zaitoon, falafel is a staple, served hot and crispy from the fryer. You can also order Palestinian favourites including warak enab (the Arab version of dolma), fattoush (a bread salad), eggplant fatteh (layered rice, flatbread and garlic), labneh (strained yoghurt) and baba ghanoush.Bigger plates include maqluba, musakhan (sumac-roasted chicken), and various shawarma served with shrak, a type of Palestinian flatbread. There’s also zahara mashweyeh: grilled cauliflower with beetroot hummus and a herby, nutty salad. The journey to opening a dine-in restaurant hasn’t been without its challenges. Through it all, Nehad has had his half-Palestinian wife, Sara, by his side, running the operations behind the scenes. The pair met online and quickly formed a deep bond. With the promise of marriage, he left everything and everyone he loved in Palestine, getting through the strictly controlled border to Egypt on his third attempt. That was back in 2010. The couple now have three kids. Sara is a teacher, and Nehad’s career in Gaza continued in Auckland as a barber, a caterer, then owner of a takeaway restaurant also called Zaitoon in Manurewa. The dream, though, was always to create a dine-in hub for Palestinian food. Nehad closed his takeaway shop with a mission: to find the perfect space for Zaitoon the restaurant.“When the place came up on Dominion Road, we knew it was it,” says Sara. “When you come into Zaitoon, I want you to sit down and feel warm, like you’re in a family environment. I want you to come back because you like the vibe and the ambience, but the food is the thing that brings you back. It’s the heart.” While the restaurant itself isn’t overtly political, woven into its kaupapa is a desire to preserve a connection to a homeland devastated by war. More than 100 of Nehad’s family members have been killed in Gaza since 2023. The pair regularly send money to Gaza, and in 2021 – before the war’s recent iteration – Nehad sold his successful barbershop in Ponsonby to help his brother rebuild his home in Gaza, which was destroyed by Israeli forces. “Through food, we’re preserving a culture,” shares Sara. “We’re showcasing the beauty of Palestine and the Middle East.” Zaitoon aims to show the beauty of Palestine and the Middle East.Economic uncertainty wasn’t far from their minds when starting the Dominion Rd restaurant, but it was an “if not now, when?” scenario.“Did we take a risk? 100%,” says Sara. “Are we still at risk? Yes. The next six months to a year will say whether this was a good idea or not. But if Nehad didn’t try now, when was he going to try? There’s no better time than now.”The restaurant couldn’t have happened without Nehad and Sara’s tight-knit community of people who have connected through Palestine action, and volunteered their time for Nehad and Sara. Viv Teo, who was the creative mind behind refugee-focused initiative Breakbread and is now a prop stylist, put a team of creatives together. Artist and designer Simon Endres worked on the branding, Frances Carter took photos, Sam Bratton from Vondel helped set up systems, Olivia Cootes from The Fabric Store is in charge of social media, Sara’s dad Ashraf did the refurbishment of the space, and Samir Allen from Gemmayze Street popped by to help set the kitchen up and refine the menu. “We had the dream, but obviously we didn’t have all of the skills. The people that we’re so blessed to be surrounded by helped us get it off the ground,” says Sara. Zaitoon's dining room.More than a month in, the feedback is making the mammoth effort worth it. One couple, who’d had Nehad cater their wedding, had a full-circle moment. Celebrating their second anniversary, they were excited to be eating at Zaitoon for the occasion.As a Muslim establishment, there’s no alcohol and you can’t BYO. Sara was worried that might be a setback, but it’s not proving to be a problem so far. “We’re having people come in and do their birthday parties at Zaitoon,” Sara says. “We had a walk-in for a 15-year-old’s birthday party, and they were just so thankful and happy. It’s been amazing to see the diversity walking through the doors.”More on Auckland restaurants