Cedric J.
Yelp
Synopsis:
La Camel serves Moroccan food with a pan-Mediterranean twist. Many times, I've been to a Moroccan restaurant just to have filo dough, powdered sugar, and ground chicken in multiple permutations. La Camel is different. They sport Moroccan-meat-filled sandwiches ($7.75-8.75), tanjine dishes ($8.75-9.75), a variety of sides (tea, coffee, green salad ($2.50--$3.75)), a beautiful-looking lamb shank (for a budget-busting $12)--and paella ($8.50-9), the Spanish classic of consisting of rice, broth, saffron, and seafood or chicken.
We opted for the lamb sandwich and the seafood paella. We were glad we did. The paella was high quality, and had shrimp, scallop, clams, mussels and squid in it. They skimped nowhere and it was a deal at $9, as most restaurants will charge you at least twice this amount for the same portion. The lamb in the sandwich was delicious, but the bread was a bit plain and the lettuce was iceberg. The olives were a nice addition, though, adding a hint of the vegetal bitterness to an otherwise boring meat/bread/lettuce sandwich.
Scores:
Time: It took us approximately 8 minutes to get our meal. We finished the meal within 25 minutes of ordering.
Value-3: This isn't the cheapest cart you find, but for the quality of the food and the preparations we got, we felt we got a solid value.
Gut check at 3pm: We weren't super stuffed upon finishing our meal, and felt that a snack may be in order. In reality, I was actually good until dinner, which surprised me.
Sustainability-2: They get a point for using Go Box, but I didn't see any other indicators that the meat or produces considered sustainability. They served plenty of beef (kefta) which is terrible for the planet, as well as lamb, chicken, and the local fish option of salmon (a meat-eating fish, so you can't even win there).
Fear Factor-4: To be frank, most people are unfamiliar with Moroccan food. Weird words like 'tanjine' may freak out the normal eater (it's a little clay pot that is put in the oven; it keeps things moist. Try it!). But other than that, the cart is cute, decorated nicely, and looks very clean from the outside. You can tell the proprietor takes pride in his work and cart.
Staying Power-2: The Moroccan experience is usually punctuated with the whole experience of sitting on the floor and having ritualistic hand-washing and belly dancers. This cart, obviously, lacks this experience (and the requisite premium in food price). If we had it our way, this place would thrive and kick major ass.
But there's a problem here that is no fault of the cart itself: it's his neighbors. There are at least eight Middle Eastern food carts around this pod, and three of them are on this street. Our worry about staying power has nothing to do with the quality and offerings of the cart. Our worry has to do with dilution of the brand and the difficulty in distinguishing one's self from the dime-a-dozen, gyro-slinging, phone-it-in carts around La Camel. Moroccan food is North African, not Middle Eastern. But our culturally- and geographically challenged populace probably doesn't care about that.
But they should. Because Florida and Arizona offer very different cuisines; the same goes for Egypt and Morocco.
Creativity-4: Adding really good paella to the menu and switching up the sandwich idea affords La Camel some props in the creativity department. Good work on the olives in that sandwich: seriously.
