Moroccan Feast is yet another gem of a restaurant hidden away in the pages of the Entertainment Book. The restaurant sits in a quiet unassuming street in Randwick, but once you’re inside you’ll feel as though you’ve been transported to Tangier or Casablanca.
There’s no doubt about the fact that some of the bistros and cafes in the book are quite horrible, but with luck and a little bit of adventure, you can end up at a great place like this as well. And even if you don’ t have a copy of the book, it’s fun to scroll through the Sydney restaurant directory (available online) to find new places to wine and dine. It’s all in the (continued) spirit of trying new things!
Spicy meat cigars – $12/6 pc
This was our first time having Moroccan, and we weren’t sure about the entree, so we picked these spicy meat Moroccan cigars with tahini, with the help of the waiter – who was the loveliest guy, by the way. He was all smiles, and just really polite and warm. Best customer service I’ve had in a while!
I was expecting them to be shaped like old-school cigars, you know, kind of puffy like long, fat sausages. These looked more like spring rolls, and I almost expected them to taste like spring rolls. I can assure you that they did not. These little beauties were absolutely packed with flavour – rich, smoky flavour tinted with aromatic spices. And the cream dip went wonderfully well with the crisp cigars, giving it a fuller texture and balancing out the almost heavy taste of the meat filling.
We enjoyed our entree with hot apple cider and cinnamon stick for me, and homemade lemonade for The Boyfriend.
Marrakesh Chicken – $23
Next was our Marrakesh Chicken (on the bone), cooked with paprika, tomato and Moroccan spices served with cooked olives on the side. This was also a chef’s recommendation, seeing as we didn’t really recognise anything on the menu apart from the Lamb Tajine (which ordered as our first main). The chicken was tender and just soaked with spices and other mouthwatering flavours.
All the mains at Moroccan Feast come on a bed of cous-cous, and this was the perfect accompaniment to our chicken and lamb.
Lame Tajine – $27
The Lamb Tajine with caramelised onion, slow cooked prunes, sultanas, almonds and cinnamon came out just as we were finishing off the Chicken Marrakesh. While the lamb was also a lovely dish, also succulent and full of flavour, it was on the verge of being overbearingly sweet, and we found ourselves reaching for the leftover paprika and tomato cous-cous from our chicken dish. It would have been nice if the two mains had arrived together so that the sweet and savoury elements could balance each other out.
Dessert platter with mint tea – $10
For dessert, we wanted to try something uniquely Morrocan ,and so we ordered the mixed serving for two, of traditional pastries and cookies served with Moroccan mint tea:
The tea was amazing. I’m not normally a fan of mint or peppermint teas, as they can taste like toothpaste when done wrong, but the stuff here hit the mark exactly. The pastries were also delightful, but I actually caused a bit of an accident here, which sort of dampened my mood, and I didn’t really pay attention to how they tasted because I was just so out of it.
I’d had a long and stressful week, and was feeling restless and jittery all night, and while deep in conversation with The Boyfriend – and also trying to move one of the glass cups of tea across the table, I knocked it over (it must have caught on the uneven surface) and not only spilt hot tea over my boyfriend’s leg, but also succeeded in shattering the cup.
The owner of the restaurant was extremely gracious and seemed only genuinely concerned about my boyfriend, but after that I just sort of froze and sat still for fear of breaking something else.
Apart from that incident, though, it was a great night out.
Everything from the flickering mosaic candles at each table, to the exotic drums, oriental rugs and ceramic plates hung across the walls and the clay tajines and the exquisive silver teapots (looked like just Aladdin’s lamp) added to the wonderful feeling that I’d been whisked off to a foreign land…
Moroccan Feast is located at 127 Avoca Street Randwick NSW 2031, (02) 9399 9882
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