Marrakesh is a restaurant located just off of Market Square on Chapel Bar, opposite Las Iguanas. It is easy to get to by foot, tram and bus and is a great location. The restaurant, as you may have guessed, specialises in Lebanese Moroccan food. The restaurant is decorated to suit the style of the food that is served. It is dark and has an exotic feel to it. Moroccan-style music plays in the background as you enjoy the food.
There is both a main menu and a lunchtime menu. The "platter" we'd been told about was on the evening menu and was £15.50 per person. The price really isn't bad for the amount of food you have!!
Mario opted to have a green tea. We were both disappointed when we received the tea. £3.50 for a teabag in a cup of water. If you're paying that price, you should at least have loose leaf and a teapot. I had a mint tea, which did come in a small teapot and had fresh mint leaves in. The tea was lovely and refresh and cost £2.50.
I'll do my best not to waffle on too much about the individual dishes that we had because there were so many! I'll try to give an overall summary of each photo. When we looked at the menu, we thought we'd get maybe a platter with a small selection of each of the mentioned dishes on, we were very wrong!! The dishes we received with the mezze were slightly different to what the menu states, but it was still delicious!
The first things we were brought out were the cold mezze. On the left are vine leaves stuffed with rice, lemon juice and olive oil. In the centre, at the bottom, is hummus, which is chick peas blended with tahina, lemon juice and an olive oil dressing. The dish to the right is Tabbouleh which is freshly chopped parsley, cracked wheat, fresh mint, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, red sweet peppers with a lemon and olive oil dressing The dish at the back is Baba Gannough, which is roughly chopped, grilled aubergine, mixed with tahina, garlic, fresh lemon juice, olive oil and topped with pomegranate seeds. These dishes were served with a basket of pitta breads.
These dishes were all amazing. The vine leaves were delicious and the hummus was very rich. The tabbouleh was very flavourful and the herb taste was very refreshing. My favourite out of the four was the Baba Gannough. I could have eaten that all day! The pomegranate added such a sweet and light taste to the aubergine and it complimented it perfectly. The pitta breads were also delicious and warm.
We next received two plates with a selection of warm mezze. These pieces were not explained to us, as the dishes above were, so one of them I can't name, sorry!! These plates had falafel, which is fried broad beans and chickpeas with a selection of herbs, cheese samboussek which is feta cheese and spinach in a fried pastry. There was also lamb samboussek, which was the same pastry as the cheese one, but with lamb and herbs instead. The other, which is on the bottom left of the plate, is the one I can't name! It was minced lamb with herbs and had a strong nutmeg flavour to it.
This plate was very tasty. The falafel was nice, but it's not the best falafel that Mario and I have had. I loved the cheese samboussek! It tasted divine and reminded me of a cheese and spinach pie that I'd had in Corfu a few years ago. The lamb samboussek was also very tasty. The lamb was nicely seasoned and the herbs didn't overpower the intense flavour of the lamb, and the pastry was lovely and crisp. The "unknown" lamb was also tasty but I feel that the nutmeg flavour overpowered the taste of the lamb a little bit.
Next came out three plates of more warm mezze! I was so surprised that we were getting so much food - the table definitely wasn't big enough and we were sat on a table for four! At the top of the picture are chicken wings that were marinated in fresh ginger, herbs and lemon. The middle plate is Arayes, which is minced lamb with parsley on Lebanese bread. The bottom plate is Batata Harrah, which are sautéed cubes of potato with red and green peppers, coriander, garlic, chilli and olive oil.
The chicken wings were really tasty and well marinated. The lemon really complimented the ginger, which added a slight kick to the chicken wings. The arayes, we thought, weren't anything special. I would explain them to be like a Moroccan quesadilla but it was a little... plain tasting! The top Arayes was crisp, but the others were a little soggy as they cooled. The potatoes were delicious! They were slightly spicy but not too overpowering. They were a lovely texture to the potatoes and they were wonderfully seasoned.
Just when we thought the meal was over, the plates were cleared and we were discussing payment, yet another plate was brought out!! Pudding! YAY! Pudding consisted on 5 pieces of baklava, or 5 different variations of it. Once again, it isn't on the menu so I can't tell you exactly what's what!
One of the bite-sized mouthfuls was chocolate, but the others tasted of really delicious baklava. The giant mound of cream in the middle was a little overwhelming but I think it was more for decoration.
We would definitely recommend this restaurant if you fancy something a little different. The food was really delicious and the mezze was a good idea if you're not sure what food to choose! I also liked it because I've not eaten a lot of Moroccan or Lebanese food before so I got to have a taster of a lot of different dishes.
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