Keith O.
Yelp
Short Review:
Beautiful restaurant & café area, stunning decor with good service. Go for brunch/lunch over dinner; book a week in advance for brunch (its popular). Order anything (recommend 'London to Marrakesh') and enjoy yourselves! Food is great, dessert is delicious. Wine dramatically overpriced, grab a cocktail. Mint tea over coffee, and if you are after shisha save yourself £10-15 and walk to Edgware Road. Great for a weekend day-time date.
Longer Review:
+ Café: Really cool spot. The afternoon lunch is great value for £22pp to be honest, as the food and pastries are top notch (can see the menu on their website). Great spot for meeting friends or a casual weekend date.
+ Lunch (in restaurant area): Great value for money at £19pp for 3 courses, and nearly the same as the dinner menu. Portions are good size, restaurant is bright and bustling, and you can really see the beauty of the decor. Outside is great in summer.
+ Brunch: I come regularly for the brunch, and for good reason- its amazing. You could have everything off the menu and want to try even more. I think their 'London to Marrakesh' set menu is a winner, and a nice way to start a fushion boozy brunch. Again, a GREAT choice for a weekend date if you want to impress.
Dinner: Mixed bag for me, and did this last night (22/02/2015). Found the experience very relaxing, though the lighting a bit too dark on the outer ring of tables, my partner and I had to put the menus under the table lamp (no, we don't wear glasses :) ).
+ Houmous and Crispy Gambas (Prawns) to start; both utterly delicious to start with, and the bread with the houmous was mixed varieties of fresh warm yumminess. Also, I hate prawns, but I loved these.
On the servers recommendation (whom may I say, are excellent) we had the Cous Cous Mechoui for two; slow charcoal roasted whole lamb was delicious and tender; cous cous was light and fluffy; but I wasn't blown away by the vegetable broth. Portion was MASSIVE, we thought we'd need to be wheeled away. It serves 2 extremely hungry 6ft+ men, or 3 normal people :D That said, I'm not sure it was worth £31 each (£62).
+ Refills of mint tea was great (fragrant and sweet), but the coffee should be better quality for £2.75 in a high-end establishment, or ideally 'authentic' Maghrebian coffee, given the focus everywhere else on the menu for high-end authentic food. Whats wrong with doing a spiced Moroccan coffee?
- I found the wine selection EXTREMELY overpriced, and really that is my only true complaint. I like wine, I don't mind paying for it, but the Marius Chapoutier (a blend) is on the menu at £29 a bottle, whereas I can buy it in any wine store for approx £7 including sales tax. Similarly, my 'go-to' grape variety of Getwurtztraminer (which is an excellent pairing for the heavier and spicier food), is down as an Italian varietal for £37 ( I can't understand not going with a true Alsace grape personally), whereas the same bottle is £10 in wine stores. I understand the wine markup model, my family are restaurant owners, but even I think this is a bit extreme, and lends to a feeling that its all a bit overpriced. The entire bill for 2people came to £128-£25 'Family' promo = £103.
Credit to Momo's they do regular promos of £25 off dinner, and it helps. But they excel in the day, and I think they know. :)