H
ow many of the ideas you’ve had while smoking a hookah have ever come to fruition? Ideas beyond, “How about heading home and taking a nap?” Well, smoking a hookah was how the concept of Marrakech Moroccan Café & Grill was born, and the result is a welcome addition to the intercontinental dining scene on Clifton’s Ludlow Avenue.
During a recent Marrakech visit, our server was happy to fill us in on the backstory regarding the restaurant’s founding. The two prospective owners (who were both working as cab drivers) were relaxing at the Bohemian Hookah Café on Ludlow, talking about how much they’d like to open a restaurant. As fate would have it, when they came outside, they saw that the space directly across the street was available. I asked our server which of them had trained as a chef, and she laughed and told me that neither of them had.
“Everyone in Morocco is a gourmet cook!” she replied.
Whether that’s true, I can’t comment, but our meal was definitely not what I’d expect from a cab driver.
Our server, an American woman who has lived in Morocco and plans to return soon, was a great guide to the small café’s menu and volunteered a lot of recommendations. Her enthusiasm made a good meal better.
Let me skip ahead to the “Don’t miss it” dish. We were all wowed by the Bastilla ($9.99). I’d seen a variation — Bisteeya — on other Middle Eastern menus, and had never tried it, but the description of this “sweet and savory chicken pie” intrigued me. Our server said it’s a special occasion dish, probably because the preparation seems elaborate. Chicken, cooked with saffron and ginger, is shredded into a fine floss and then layered with firm scrambled eggs, spices and slow-cooked caramelized onions in a flaky pastry crust or “warka,” the Moroccan version of phyllo. The savory ingredients make up the base filling, but then there’s a sweeter layer, with ground almonds, a dusting of confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon sprinkled into an asterisk design. The sweet and savory contrast was crazy good. The Bastilla’s big enough to share; I took it home and kept nibbling on it for the rest of the day, but it was at its best when it arrived hot from the oven.
Couscous ($8.95 with vegetables; $11.95 with meat) is another dish that our server was right in recommending. It’s listed on the menu as being served “with lamb,” which is a real understatement as it arrived with a big juicy lamb shank atop a fairly large serving of semolina pasta, surrounded by carrots and onions. If you’re fueling up for the winter ahead, this is probably the best 12 bucks you can spend — it’s enough for at least two meals. The lamb is tender and mildly flavored, and the stew is rich and delicious. It could have used a little slice of bread, just to help scoop up the gravy.
We were intrigued when our server told us that cooking couscous is a long, involved process. I’d always assumed that it was a pretty quick-cooking pasta, like the boxes you pick up at the grocery, but she insisted that it takes all day. Marrakech is proud of their couscous dishes and also their tajines (they offer lamb with prunes and onions and chicken with olives and lemons or vegetables), which are cooked in a distinctive conical clay pot that traps the steam and returns it to the slow-cooking food so none of the flavor escapes.
My vegetarian guest enjoyed her falafel sandwich ($5). Instead of the typical large patty that can get dry before it’s warmed through, Marrakech crumbles their falafels a little, and the result is moister and easier to eat. The pita isn’t baked in-house but it’s very fresh, and the yogurt sauce was just right. The only dish we weren’t keen on was the Zaalouk ($3.75), a roasted eggplant salad with seriously smoky overtones and — at least on our visit — the uninviting texture of overcooked okra.
There are several pastries on the dessert menu, so we had the chance to try something new: Chabakia ($3.75), a plate of sesame cookies sweetened with honey. Delicious and easy to share with a group.
Another treat at Marrakech is the Moroccan tea ($1.99 cup; $6.75 pot): green tea brewed with fresh mint. No liquor is served at the restaurant because of religious restrictions, and the owners don’t allow alcohol to be carried in, but they are OK with it at the outdoor tables that are set up in nicer weather. There’s a deli counter inside that encourages carryout, so that would be another option. I can’t imagine anything much nicer than a Bastilla picnic next spring.
Go: 341 Ludlow Ave., Clifton Call: 513-442-2233
Internet: facebook.com/cliftonmoroccancafe Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 3-11 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday; noon-9 p.m. Sunday
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2014.