Moroccan Tagine

Popped in here one night a couple of months ago as they were closing up. The guys not only agreed to cook a meal for me but fired up the coffee machine too! I ended up staying drinking coffee and chatting with Abdul and Abdullah for the next hour before heading home to enjoy a most marvellous Tagine. I cannot praise the guys enough, for not only their hospitality and warmth but their food too. A great place to eat with outstanding service. Thank you!

I think my amazing Parisienne all you can eat veggie and cous cous Moroccan experience has totally ruined cheap Moroccan for me. Or may be it is just Moroccan Tangine.
Apparently the restaurant owners did not really understand restaurants where one apparently should «try and get the food on the table for everyone at vaguely the same time». Long story short; Me and Linzi (who got our pretty much not very edible tangines, my chewy lamb with prunes being probably vaguely more edible than her soggy cooked-​for-​10-​days veg) had finished our meal for at least 15 minutes before Becky’s surprisingly amazingly yummy meatball dish turned up.
Can’t we go for plain mediocrity rather than inedible vs. nigh on heavenly? And since when shop is bought pita «Moroccan bread»?
As usual for a terrible experience; thank god for Unilocalers’ company. And I hope we didn’t scare off our new Unilocalers despite Lizzie’s best efforts!

In a word? Meh.
Depending on how hungry you are, you could have two perspectives on this place.
1) Quirky, rustic and authentic OR 2) Understaffed, slow and bordering on being an overstretched local.
I wasn’t massively hungry, so I was in the first school of thought about this place and very open-​minded about the possibility of unearthing a local gem.
We (the gang of Unilocalers who were here for the latest CMYE — Around the World in 80 Meals event) started with lovely warmed pita bread and an eggplant spread (unfortunately I didn’t catch the name of it). Yum. The spread was so full of flavour, I could’ve eaten just that alone. We also ordered potatoes with a harissa sauce on them, that were far, far, far too spicy. Think the kind of spicy that overtakes and negates any other flavour in the dish. The kind of spicy that makes you urgently reach for whatever drink you have in front of you (in this case, a very refreshing glass of moroccan peppermint tea). Bad times.
I ordered a lamb tagine with couscous for my main and was pretty excited about this, as I’d never had tagine before. The tagine arrived piping hot and the liquid in the pot was still bubbling, like it was still cooking. I hate eating super hot foods (goes way back to burning the roof of my mouth eating pizza when I was a kid), so I waited about 10 minutes for it to cool down.
The lamb was nice and tender, but the vegetables was very overcooked, to the point of being mushy. The broth was okay, but didn’t have the depth of flavour you’d expect from such an earthy dish. In all honesty, I’m voting for a do over in my first tagine experience. I’m erasing this tagine from my mind and have just become a tagine virgin again.
Oh yeah — BRING CASH! They don’t take cards and the closest cash machine in the evenings is a 5 minute walk away across from the Portobello Market building.

Generally I like small, family run places that look a bit haphazard and thrown together (much like my own family’s business). Sadly this is not one of those. This place is just rubbish, not in a ‘so bad, it’s good’ kind of way. Just not good at all.
Arrived for a group dinner not really thinking about what to expect, but you know… expecting a cool Moroccan place. Especially since this street seems quite Moroccan influenced with grocery stores and shops selling traditional goods. But this establishment does a very good impression of a grotty kebab shop. Kind of a dive, definitely not somewhere you bring anyone on a date, or at all.
Inside is bare and old fashioned and they had to turn the radiators on because it was so cold. Upon entering to see my friends, instantly my morale hit the floor as the place is so uninspiring and depressing. They were out of half the items on the cheap, plastic laminate menu. Basically you could have tagine, or… tagine.
The service was slow, bordering on the ridiculous, as two of us got our food and the rest half an hour later. Everything came in drips and drabs, as if the chef was very slowly making one dish at a time. My vegetable tagine was totally overcooked and my chips undercooked. Asking everyone else how they enjoyed their food illicited blank stares and ‘ummm it’s okay’. All I ate was some warmed up pita bread and overdone carrots.
Going to a little hole-​in –the-​wall place like this, you hope to find amazing food that you can tell all your friends about and Unilocal it to the point it becomes totally popular and therefore uncool. But no, the food, much like the exterior and interior, was bad.
I couldn’t even summon up the energy to write a funny, cool, or useful review. Consider this a public service announcement.

I often visit Moroccan Tagine after a day shopping in Portobello market and I’ve never been disappointed. Ths relaxed restaurant serves really tasty Moroccan food. The lamb tagine served with couscous is amazing and so is the lamb grill. in fact everything I have eaten here from the lamb grill, roasted sweet peppers and the flat bread has always been delicious. Alcohol is not served here but that never bothers me as there asre plenty of bars in the area. The mint tea is very refreshing after eating a feast of spices. I always leave Moroccan fully satisfied and the best thing is it’s about 10 mins from home so I can walk off all the food!

A very Authentic experience, except the English weather.
This is a perfect place for lunch, and they usually have a special dish of the day.
The menu is quite extensive for such a small place and consists of a large selection of mezze dishes which are all displayed at the counter, as well as tagines and cous cous.
Good value for money.