As a copywriter, I’ve often led people on exciting travel adventures from the comfort of my office chair. My fondest fantasy-trip has been Morocco: I enjoyed meandering through the endless alleyways of the souk, haggling over an intricate lamp, sipping refreshing mint tea and fortifying myself from a table full of plentiful plates.
Once 2015 – the year of wedding – is over and my bank statement seems to be balanced in my favour, I will actually physically make it there. In the meantime, I shall happily get my Moroccan fix at Argan, Al Jasra Boutique Hotel, Souq Waqif.
Somehow it’s remained on our ‘Restaurants to Try’ list for far too long. It’s not like we even have a good excuse, plenty of people have recommended it. And once we arrived we soon realised why: it’s a beautiful, tastefully-decorated room that offers lots for your eyes to eat up.
We were lucky enough to be invited by the restaurant to try some of new menu items. I say lucky, because it felt like we got to try almost everything on the menu – our table kept being filled with delicious-looking dishes. Thank goodness we stopped ourselves from having a little after work snack.
What we ate:
Amuse Bouche – argan oil, harissa dip, olives and hot Moroccan bread.
Our stomachs stopped their rumbling noises at the sight of our amuse bouche. Our waiter brought our attention to the two argan oil dips, a true delicacy: one was mixed with almonds and honey, the other kept just as it is. Both were delicious, so much so that I could have been happy to just feast on those and the bread. The argan oil with almond and honey tasted like a premier almond butter, slighty sweet, rich and oh so addictive.
Starters
Zaalouk – Grilled Eggplant with tomato and olive oil
Taktouka – Mixed pepper with fresh herbs and tomato paste
Potato salad – with onions, black olives and lemon juice
Lamb briouatte – Moroccan pastry (similar to samosa)
Cheese briouatte
Harira Soup – lamb and chickpea soup
Our table didn’t appear big enough once all these lovely looking plates arrive. Two dishes that have to be recreated in the home kitchen are the Zaalouk and Harira Soup: both were packed with so much flavor. The Harira soup was also served with a little lemon and a date so that you could add another taste dimension to this dish.
Main Courses
Royale Couscous
Vegetables, chicken, lamb shoulder confit, and beef merguez sausage with caramelized onion and harissa sauce and pouring gravy
Lamb Tagine
Slow cooked lamb shank with dried prunes, sesame seeds and ras al hanout spice
Pastilla Chicken
Filo pastry stuffed with chicken and almonds, topped with almond icing sugar
We were already beginning to feel full when our main courses arrived. I think I heard my trousers pop in protest. Yet they all looked so tempting that we couldn’t possibly turn down the opportunity to try each dish. Although the Pastilla was erring on a dessert, it was still a delicious marriage of slow cooked chicken, crunchy light filo and a sweet hit of sugar – and despite feeling full Mr L & M even went back for more.
Each of the dishes were tasty, and I’d happily order them again next time I come (and there will be a next time). The lamb tagine was beautifully tender and well seasoned with the right balance of spices and sweet notes, and I am a sucker for a sprinkling of sesame seed. And the caramalised onions in the Royale Couscous were a wonderful sweet accompaniment to the meats.
Dessert
Orange cinnamon – sliced fresh orange with orange blossom and cinnamon
Sweet platter – selection of Moroccan sweets
From all that feasting we were both feeling a little sleepy, so we welcomed the change of seating for the tea and dessert. Our waiter led us over to the central Majilis area, where we could enjoy a more intimate experience over tea and sweets. It’s a very nice idea, and I enjoyed changing the dynamics of our dining experience. The orange gave us a little lift and before you knew it we’d also managed to polish off most of the sweets (what happened to those full stomachs?).
Would we come again and pay? Absolutely. The standard of service and food is well above average. We noticed that each table received a lot of attention, and that staff seemed to have a lot of knowledge and passion about the food they were serving. This restaurant also accepts Entertainer vouchers so we’re sure we’ll be back with guests to show them why they need to be dining here.
L&M rating: 4.5/5 (A mighty mint rating)
Lemon & Mint
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