Souk Medina

I visited on Saturday 12^th December for our annual Christmas lunch get together. I booked at Souk Bazaar, having visited before. We turned up to find they were closed for lunch, despite making a booking there. Never fear, we were sent to their other restaurant ‘Souk Medina’ which was about 5 minutes walk away. I’m so glad we did because I had the best lunch ever.
We opted for a lot of tapas style dishes and just shared everything. All the food was amazing, from calamari, humous to little soft cheese and feta parcels. The best, however, was the aubergine dip. So much so, we ordered a second!
We noticed others around us smoking shish, so after our meal, we asked to move to the comfy sofas to have one as well. We created own flavour we named ‘Grint’ — grape and mint! The pipe was electronic, like vaper cigarettes.
Above all, I’d like to say a special thank you to our waitress, Laura, who made our meal so enjoyable! Her service was phenomenal! We were laughing the whole way through.
So thank you! And we will be back next Christmas!

A must visit in the heart of Covent Garden!
My girlfriend and I went last night and had a fabulous evening. The atmosphere was traditionally Moroccan with all the sights and smells you would expect.
The customer service was outstanding– in particular, the Italian waitress who was hilarious and fun!
We had the set menu and all the meals were delicious– special mention to the chicken tagine which literally fell off the bone.
Absolutely brilliant!

Very bad service. They take forever to take your order and then forget to bring it but still charge you for it

I really enjoyed this place, maybe more so than most of the other reviews. I went here as part of a Christmas party, the mint tea and the food were amazing.
The #1 reason I have reviewed it as a 5, is the set menu, whichever one you order, you will get an endless supply of the foods, so I had an endless supply of lamb, once I ate it, I was given a new one. This was coupled with the fact, they take Tastecard so I had amazing food, ever lasting at half price.
Plus Covent Garden is a lovely area to walk around before and after.

Just a few steps from Seven Dials and near Covent Garden, this Moroccan gem offers a lovely menu and atmosphere. With three visits under my belt with three different groups of friends, the Marrakech and Casablanca menus go down well. Between sweet and savoury dishes, visitors will experience a treat that’s embellished by a friendly staff, belly dancers and the option for an after dinner sheesha in one of the many side areas of Souk Medina that make one feel right at home.

Been here twice now and the service is terrible. First time I was there, it was crowded so I was quite forgiving with the bad service but today it was quite and we still had to wait nearly an hour for our main.
My grilled sea bass was over grilled and it was dry. I ordered a fresh mixed fruit smoothies, which wasn’t freshly made as it came from a bottle.
3 stars for the décor as it was the best thing about this place.

I celebrated my birthday on 24^th January 2015. I booked a table for 14 people at 7pm, when we got to our table downstairs, there were only 12 seats, so when my 2 late guests arrived and asked for couple more chairs they were left standing for over 5 minutes for the chairs to arrive.
The food and the belly dancing show was good, I like the décor of this restaurant but downstairs is too hot and when they put the aircon on it gets freezing.
We had set menu and my vegetarian friends asked to have more falafel because portions are tiny and we were a big group, but the waiters told them they can only do free of charge refills for main courses not on starters.
I don’t think I will be back with a big group next time and will ask to be seated upstairs.

Very much a Moroccan hideout in the centre of London, Souk Medina is certainly an intriguing place to eat. Stepping into this restaurant feels like entering an exotic maze as there is noone beckoning you in or ushering you to a seat but instead there are many nooks and crannies in which you can lounge at leisure and many exits or entrances to escape or emerge from.
The food is wholesome; pleasant to look at and satisfying to eat. However, although there is a good variety of ingredients, the overall flavour was surprisingly lack-​lustre (not absent but not quite igniting the taste buds as you might expect from Moroccan cuisine). Nevertheless, Souk Medina serves up a hearty meal amongst an atmospheric cove in the heart of London.

Should have gone with my gut and ordered what drew me into this place, but no.. .
I ordered the more decadent and rich moussaka instead. I think I would have enjoyed couscous with root vegetables much more.
Now that I’m writing this, it makes me want to go back for a do over and try the couscous and vegetables. It’s hard for me to imagine root vegetables could go wrong.
If I had to do it all over again, I would just come for tea and company. Super colorful and cozy place with very skilled and warm belly dancer.
At some points the music was too loud for conversation, which I always find annoying because I’m not the best at shouting.
A pleasant experience nonetheless. Very friendly and fun staff.

Located in Seven Dials this is a hidden gem in tourist central.
We only came across it when looking at nearby restaurants where we could use a tastecard. The entrance is quite small and you could easily walk past and not be impressed by the look of the restaurant.
It’s deceptive though, as the place is pretty large inside, with an upstairs dining area too.
We opted for one of their meal deal type menus. £25 each for starters, all you can eat meat mains and an array of baklava for dessert washed down with sweet mint tea.
I wouldn’t pay the full £25 to eat here but with 50% with a tastecard it made it a worthwhile deal.
Starters included pitta, dips, falafel and vine leaves.
Mains were lamb tagine, a slow cooked chicken (on the bone) dish, a chickpea dish and we also opted for a veggie moussaka.
The chicken was delicious and fell off the bone and the lamb was tasty too. Perhaps a little bit too salty (and I like salt!) but still very nice.
We thought we’d take advantage of the ‘order as much meat as you’d like’ offer but found we were full and didn’t even finish all of our food, let alone order more!
It was a fun, easy, very filling, sharing type meal.
I enjoyed it, especially at a good price but we did find the restaurant so dark that it was hard to read the menus or see the food when it arrived!
It came to £15 each inc. service, with no drinks. Not bad at all.

Souk Medina is a real tardis of a place in Covent Garden. We stumbled upon it when trying to find somewhere to eat after a Unilocal event and brilliantly, they accept tastecard.
Because we got 50% off, we took full advantage of the more expensive A la carte menu. Ordering 3 meat dishes and a vegetarian one — just for some variety as we were sharing anyway. My favourite way to eat. They also said, we could ask for more meat if we desired, but we were all totally stuffed!
Sweet mint tea and baklava to finish off was a lovely treat!
Really relaxed, comfortable atmosphere, although there were times when I wasn’t sure what I was eating because of how dark it was.
Midweek meal with a tastecard, doesn’t get much better.

I went for dinner at Souk Medina about 4 years ago with a big group of friends. It was fun as we sat on the floor on cushions so it seemed more authentic, the food was really tasty and there was a belly dancer providing entertainment.
So, when a couple of fellow Unilocalers asked if my friend and I fancied getting some food somewhere after a Unilocal event and they found Souk Medina nearby with a taste card offer I was definitely up for going again.
It’s just off Seven Dials but a bit of a hidden gem. It looks like it’s a tiny little place but really cute and full of Moroccan treasures, furnishings and art. It looked pretty empty when we got there but once we were through the entrance it opened up and it was pretty busy.
We were seated upstairs and strangely I ended up sitting in the exact place I did 4 years ago. It has changed a little though as it now has tables with benches and chairs rather than cushions on the floor. It’s really nicely decorated and does make you feel like you’re far from the streets of London but it was a little too dark for my liking. It would have been great to see our food better!
We were offered the choice of two set menus and as we were hungry we went for the more expensive one. It would normally be £25 per person but it was 50% off with the taste card.
With the set menu, you get all of the starters listed, then you choose vegetarian, meat or fish for the mains and you get all of those. We went for three meats and then a veggie one too. The meal comes out and is shared so you all get a bit of everything. I really love this kind of dining. We were also told that the meat was unlimited so we could ask for a top up at any time — WOW!
The starters were houmous, tatziki, falafel, something with lamb, halloumi, stuffed vine leaves and bread. The main was veggie moussaka, lamb in chickpeas, chicken, couscous and more chickpeas. It was all nicely flavoured, although I would have preferred a little more spice, the meat was really tender and when I picked up a bit of chicken it was so good that the meat instantly fell off the bone!
We really wanted to order extra meat just because we could but we were really full and couldn’t eat any more… until the baklava came out with mint tea that is!
The mint tea was very sweet but I like it that way. It might be too sweet for others, especially when combined with the ultra sweet baklava.
I’d probably pay £20 for the meal we had, do it really did feel like a bargain when it was £12.50 each with the taste card offer. There was a 12.5% service charge added on top for the full price it should have been so that added a bit but overall I’d highly recommend it.

My friend has been telling me about this place for ages so one night we finally got around to coming. I wouldn’t have been fussed but it’s on Tastecard so thought I may as well!
The food is good but not amazing. I wouldn’t pay full price for it but I’d go back with the tastecard.
The selling point has to be the atmosphere!

Their Lamb Tagine is fantastic! I would highly recommend. I would also recommend the chicken cous cous.

Visited with a group of 8 and we opted for the set meals. We used the tastecard so therefore all food was ½ price, and to be fare this would have been about right! We had wine with our meals and these were a bit pricy, but I guess only what you expect in London. The food was warm but lacked depth in flavour. The Chicken tagine seemed a bit bland and the Lamb had fatty bits, not what you want. Not the best north African food I’ve ever had but okay! The surroundings where very traditional and they’d made an effort to make the atmosphere good with a resident belly dancer etc… Nevertheless I expected a bit more from the food and it really seemed to be a bit ‘all fur coat’ and well… you know what!

This place is one of my regulars stops for — well, let’s be honest here — the atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong, the food is good, but the interior is so much better! Especially the downstairs and corner sitting areas scream ‘MOROCCAN!’. So yeah, very authentically looking place, delicious cocktails (at least the non-​alcoholic ones I tried), fresh mint tea, great service. In terms of the menu both, the selection and presentation are very traditional. I would recommend ALL their starters, including grilled haloumi, and hummus and as a main I cannot adore enough lamb stone dish. So tender, proper slow cook meal with veg, filling, comforting, making smile on ones face. Yet, the portions are very good size.
On the other hand, you can go really wrong if you feel like experiment. I tried moroccan pasta (shaped as tiny little balls) in a tomato sauce of sort, the meal didn’t talk to me or make sense — the texture or anything hooked me in.
Dessert = baklawa could use at least tiny little innovation, but with lunch menu of 2 courses (big main course, peppermint tea, baklawa) for £12 or so who could say a word. Besides, as stated above — this place’s charm is authenticity and tradition…

Great food great service great environment. i ordered the set meal which came with a small appetizer and chicken and lamb entrees with some baklava desert and tea. pretty good if you ask me and it was 20£. the chicken was amazing. it was cooked in some curry and just tasted great. the meal comes with tons of pita bread a hummus so thats always good to snack on. i wasnt a fan of the lamb so much compared to the chicken. the appetizers are forgettable as they are small and fairly pointless. you only get like one piece. the mint tea is amazing and a perfect ending to a great meal. the service was on point as well, dealing with my groups hassle. we were very time consuming and impatient and full of questions.

I came to Souk for lunch. Upon entering, it was unclear as to whether they were open for business or not. Once we were finally greeted, we were led to a back room where there was one other table with people. The décor was nice, but the chairs and benches were so short that my fellow diner, who is on the taller side, was quite uncomfortable in the seating.
The server we had was new — I think it was her first day. She was doing her best, but was clearly not trained up enough. There was a lack of knowledge of the menu and ingredients, which is not ideal for when you are serving Moroccan first timers.
We ordered the appetizer platter royal, which was barely noteworthy. It was a collection of falafel, a fried chicken item, some hummus, etc, and nothing really stood out. Our main dishes, the lamb and chicken tagines, were better, but still not amazing.
Overall, I’d be disappointed if I paid full price for this meal as it was a bit pricey. However, they were running a 50% deal if you filled out a survey. All in all, there are better options in the same price range in the area.

Thanks to a personal recc, we came here for dinner on our last night in London visiting a friend, and had an excellent meal.
The atmosphere is really cool (dark, cozy, low tables, cushions, curtains), and the space seems to go on forever with a main level, an upstairs hideaway, and an entire lower level (where we sat). We started off with some delicious cocktails, some type of mojito with rose and something with brown sugar, plus a whiskey sour, all of which were delicious.
For food, 2 of us got the set menu, while the third got an entrée (duck with cinnamon). The set menu is excellent and quite a deal, everything we had was delicious and there was a great bit of variety and sooooo much food (we couldn’t finish half of it). It seemed to just keep coming… hummus and hot pita, grape leaves, chickpeas and spinach, couscous, chickpea sauce, spicy potatoes, chicken and lamb with prunes, baklava, mint tea… I was loving every bite and cursing the fact that we don’t have anything similar in Boston (set menus = awesome value + awesome variety). My dining companions were similarly pleased with everything.
Definitely recommended for good food at a good value, for a change of pace or special occasion (this would be great for a date!).

Right in the heart of the busy Seven Dials area, Souk Medina is like a rabbit’s warren, a haven of tranquillity amongst the mad shoppers. The seductive, incensed entrance does look creepy/​inviting depending on your level of bravery but on sunny days, it’s so nice to step out of the bright sunshine into the cool, dark interior
The food is billed as north African but is a mixture of typical Mediterranean meze type dishes and coucous and tagines. The food is well seasoned and tasty.
It is quite a hypnotic place with a lovely ambiance and candle light and you may not want to rejoin the hurly burly going on outside