Marrakesh

Seemed authentic ambiance. Nice belly dancing. BUT the food was beyond pathetic. I am a person who can pretty much eat anything but i could not eat the food here. Had to cough up ~65 $ for 2 and then had to go Taco bell to get something in my stomach.
Not complaining about the cuisine but only complaining about the preparation.
Will NOT go here again.
Pretty expensive for 10mins of belly dancing and pathetic food.

The couscous with lamb delicious. I had a full course meal here and all of the food was baked with some kind of cinnamon and bread-​like outside. Very unique food for people who are adventurous worldly eaters.
The interior of Marrakesh is gorgeous. Big, fancy tables and cute chairs upholstered in middle eastern cloth. The ceiling is decorated with cloth intricately designed to create dimples and patterns. I haven’t seem anything quite like it before.
The hookah is not what you should expect at a typical hookah bar. It tastes like clay and is very harsh, not like the fruity flavors you get with popular shisha. Be careful when you order it.
Oh. I’m writing this as if you can still come here and try it. Forgot that this place is closed now. What a shame. It was a truly an original and flavorful restaurant in La Jolla that piqued my interest for years before trying it. I hope that they open up in a new location somewhere in San Diego. Perhaps it would be more popular in Hillcrest.

I came here for lunch a couple months ago. It was a Saturday, at around noon, and I was the only person dining there, how weird!
Atmosphere was cozy, décor and ambience were unique (I uploaded a picture).
Server was friendly and attentive.
I recommend ***Lamb Merguez*** for appetizer, I am a big fan of lamb. Merguez is basically sausage, and the dish came with hummus and pita bread as well (I uploaded a picture for this appetizer). Very tasty!
I also recommend ***Lamb Mrouzia***, it’s actually honeyed lamb. Please see the picture of this dish I uploaded. The dish has prune, almond, and raisins in it. Again, very tasty!

I’ve been coming to this restaurant chain for nearly a decade. It remains the most unique and exotic getaways unlike any other dining experience. From the tent-​like interior, to the low set tables, to the hand washing, to the mint tea desert, to the belly dancers, you are guaranteed to be satisfied when the check arrives.
As a recent experiment, I brought my own bottle of California Syrah to dinner here. Syrah is native to the Middle East. So I figured it would pair well with the Moroccan food. The manager agreed with my prediction. Boy, was I right. Try pairing a California Syrah (not French — which lacks fruit and is usually upstaged by the Grenache and Mourvedre) with the Honey Lamb. Be sure to try the roasted prune with a swish of the wine. It’s like a genie popping from the lamp!
Even when the service is less than stellar, no one comes close to matching their unique style of dining.

If you come here late in the evening in the middle of the week like I did, don’t be put off if the place looks empty. This is exactly what happened to us, but we ended up having one of the best Moroccan dinners ever. We came here with a
certificate, which they gladly honored.
If you’ve looked at the website before coming here, you will be surprised. The Fassi Dinner, Chef’s Special, and Vegetarian Delight are all non-​existent. The only two options aside from the A La Carte menu are the Traditional Feast and Mixed Grill. Even the waiter didn’t know that the website lists other options… Good enough for me though.
Every price-​fixed dinner is served with the following (in serving order):
— Harira Soup: Vegetable soup with lentils, tomatoes and garbanzo beans. Pretty simple bean soup that gets you ready for the rest of the meal. A bit too sour for my taste, and gets even more intense with the lemon they tell you to add. Still a pretty tasty start.
— Marinated eggplant, tomates & cucumbers, spiced carrots: I tend to heavily dislike eggplant, but this dish convinced me to give it another try. All three types of salad were very delicious and you could taste the freshness.
— Bastilla Filo dough stuffed with chicken, eggs and almonds, covered with powdered sugar and cinnamon: Typical at every Moroccan place you go to, but they do it right here. Great contrast of flavors between the chicken inside and the sweet powdered sugar outside. This is the dish with their signature camel imprint.
— Baklava: I don’t know if they make their baklava in house, but this is some of the best I’ve ever tasted. Baklava in the U.S. tends to be over-​sweetened to cater to American tastes, but these guys do it just right. This results in you being able to taste all the flavors, not just the sugar.
— Fresh, delicious bread
— Sweet mint tea
For the meat portion:
— Traditional Gril (Choice of chicken, lamb, duck, or fish): We went with the duck, which comes with a leg and a piece of breast, with grilled potatoes and a delectable sauce. Very succulent and flavorful. I don’t know if there’s a better way to prepare duck than this. Everything was bursting with flavor.
— Mixed Grill (Chicken, lamb, and shrimp kabobs served over couscous and vegetables): You’re allowed three kabobs of any combination (ex. 3 chicken, 2 lamb + 1 shrimp, 2 chicken + 1 lamb, basically 27 different choices). The lamb is PERFECT. This is how all lamb should be cooked! Extremely tender inside, no char on the outside, marinated with the right spices, and just downright delicious. Same with the shrimp. DIdn’t see the point in getting chicken. Couscous is always legit.
Our waitress was very kind and attentive, made sure our tea was always refilled, and was a pleasure to chat with. I will definitely be coming back here in the future, with or without a coupon.

Sorry Marrakesh, but I’m not impressed. Aside from décor and ambiance I feel like Marrakesh has little to offer other then triple digit bills.
We came in on a Saturday night for my sisters birthday as she loves this style of food. There were about 15 of us, luckily my sis made reservations. In the context of ‘Friendly & Helfpul’ I give them 5 stars for Friendly and about 2 for helpful. The first disappointment is that their online menu does NOT reflect their in-​store menu in regards to pricing or ‘rules’. By Rules I am referring to the fact that they have a set per person menu with the options of Chicken, Seafood or Vegetebles (their menu typo, not mine) as well as an a la carte menu online. However they do NOT allow you to order a la carte menu items on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. I understand the business tactic (however lame it may be), but I think you shouldn’t have to find this out when you arrive at the restaurant.
All of the meals are served family style so first they serve the soup then the ‘Salad’ on a platter for everyone to scoop off. It’s followed by a Bastilla which is described as Filo dough stuffed with chicken, eggs and almonds baked and covered with powdered sugar and cinnamon. This item really was confusing to me. The sugar and cinnamon just didn’t make any sense in the meal. It was very overpowering and tasted like the sugar was mixed inside with the meat. Maybe some people would like this, but I found it odd. Throughout the evening we ordered drinks however on average it would take upwards of 10 minutes to get a beer.
While we ate a belly dancer came out and performed throughout the dining room. Not really my cup of tea, but hey, it adds to the ambiance. The main dish was served on individual plates. I had the honey chicken which was overcooked and poorly seasoned in my opinion.
After a little while they dropped off the check. It included the (expected) 18% gratuity to total about $ 700. When I say drop I mean it literally… I had to walk all around the restaurant to find the host to ask him to come split the check. Now we were expecting it to be about this much, but we weren’t expecting them to say they don’t split checks. After about 15 of us gave the host a blank stair he said we could split up the total by credit card. He however was not going to be doing any of the math. We proceeded to sift through the poorly itemized receipt to figure out the total for each person at the table. I found it genuinely insulting that he would think it’s acceptable to just drop off one check to a party of 15 and not offer to split the check. We didn’t expect him to break up the check by person or anything nor were we trying to get out of the gratuity. We were split across 5 different tables so I think he could have at least done checks by table or something so we could have split it amongst smaller groups.
All in all I say I will not be returning to Marrakesh. I hope they enjoyed the one time $ 700 purchase as it will be the last from this group. I strongly urge anyone in a larger group to find somewhere else to eat.

Walked in hesitant of eating here. Moroccan décor, but very tacky. Extremely stuffy inside so we sat outside.
Ordered the Spanokopita and Lamb Kebab and Chicken kebab.
Plates on table were dusty and stained. Had chips of gunk on it. There were 3 uncleared tables around us the entire meal.
Appetizer took 25 minutes. Entrees took 15 on top of that. Food was bland. Definitely not worth the money at all.
Server only came out twice to bring appetizer and entrée. Didn’t refill waters or remove finished appetizer from table.
Definitely not worth coming here. Don’t know how the happy hour or night dance scene is, but I imagine mediocre given service and ambiance.
Go somewhere else if you’re eating in this area anyways. Plenty of good places around much more worth it and better.

I’m telling it like it is, this place is MEH at best. Sure some of the offering were OK, the soup was good but the ambiance and main courses are just average. I wont be back.
We went with about 8 friends, and were in a great mood but after entering this place I felt as if it was a mistake. Unfortunately I couldn’t just walk out (wish I had).
Nothing was memorable, not even the belly dancers that wanted dollars (like strippers) to dance. It was a CRAPPY experience.

Great belly dancer. I am not normally a fan of those, so for me to recommend a restaurant because of one is pretty strange. They typically tend to be obnoxious when asking people to dance, this one is funny and really nice.
The atmosphere and the space is beautiful and romantic. I wished my husband was with me, it would have been a great date place.
The food is pretty good, and there is a ton. It’s too bad they don’t do a la carte on weekends. I would have chosen that route. It’s expensive otherwise and way too much food. The food is pretty good, but not the best Moroccan I’ve had. I liked the soup, the salad and appetizer better than the main dish.

The setup is really nice. There are both outdoor and indoor sitting. The inside is a bit dark for my taste, but the Arabic/​Mediterrian décor is really beautiful. The seating is lower than normal so if you have long legs, you may be uncomfortable through out dinner. I’m only 5’8″ and I found myself constantly repositioning myself.
The food…
There were five of us and we all ordered the tradition feast, except for my friend Theresa because she’s a vegetarian. She had the vegetarian feast instead. The feast came with:
Soup
Salad (eggplant, cucumber, & carrots)
Chicken bastilla (pastry pie filled w/​chopped chicken, almond, and saffron)
Honey chicken (entrée, this was my selection)
Dessert
There was a lot of food, but everything was a missed for me. It was either too sour or too sweet. Maybe this is the how it is suppose to be, I don’t know.
The soup was too sour for me. It came with a basket of oat bread (I think it was oat). Dipping the bread into the soup didn’t make it any better. It was like eating soggy sour dough. I had a couple spoonful after that and that was it. Theresa seems to like it though.
The salad was also sour. It was served on a platter with each of the mashed eggplant, diced cucumbers, and chopped carrots separated and covering a third of the platter. I took a couple spoonful of the eggplant and ate it with the leftover bread. Together, it was quite tasty. I didn’t try the cucumbers or carrots as they were not appealing to me.
The chicken bastilla was served with an image of a large camel right in the middle. I first glance, I thought it was baked into the pastry wrap. Further examination, it was actually created with sugar powder sprinkled around a stencil. Either way, it was very artistic. At first bite, the bastilla was really good. The grounded chicken, pastry wrap, and sugar was a combination I’ve never had before. Unfortunately, the sugar started to over power the rest of the ingredients and it just became too sweet. Less sugar powder for me next time, if there is a next time.
My main dish was the Honey Chicken. It was a half chicken (breast & wing) dressed with a sweet honey sauce, dates, and raisins. IT WAS SOOOO SWEET! The meat was just drench in the sauce. I couldn’t even finish the half of the breast meat. I gave the wing to my friend Jenn and the half I didn’t finish to my other friend Lourdes to take home.
The dessert… again, SWEET! I forget what dessert was, but I remember taking one bite and that was it.
The highlight of the night… definitely the Belly dancer. Beautiful and elegant. She danced around the whole restaurant half naked and went up close to each table. She didn’t like me take a video of her though. LOL.
Conclusion: I don’t think I’ll go back. It’s quite pricey and the food was not my taste.

This place has got to have one of the most comfortable seating one can have in a restaurant with pillows and walls covered in traditional tapestries.
The Moroccan food here is excellent and is served traditionally with a basket of pita bread. Though they have lamb and even duck dishes here, it’s also a great place for someone who is vegetarian or vegan to experience. They have decently priced prix-​fixe menu options that comes with a variety of things to try including desert.
I highly recommend some of the exotic drinks they make if you like things made with Kahlua.

For most people it will be a first time event to go to a Moroccan restaurant the food is unique but easy for anyone to appreciate. I warn you that it can be from the sweet subtle side to the incredibly spicy, so tread carefully. I suggest you commit to a Traditional Feast. It is about 25 $ per person but it is the is the way to go. The hand washing is custom and not creepy.
The simply put a bowl in the center of the table and poor water over your hands. Just go with it.
After you order your meal a Dancer will come out and entertain while you eat the various courses of your meal. I personally have nearly all the food and I can suggest the Honey Lamb to be a pleaser. I do not care for Lamb generally but this is amazing and a must try.
The Casa Balanca beer is a must try if you have never sampled it, its goes down well with every course.
Our friend snuck away to pay with out us knowing last time.
To our friend – TY for dinner, you sneaky ninja
While he was paying and the manager, the manager asked
Manager-«How was your evening?»
Ninja-«great lots of fun»
manager-«how was your food?
ninja-«it was great, Very very good»
Manager-«how was the dancer»
Ninja-«Fantastic, great dancer, very beautiful»
Manager-«O good cause thats her right next to you»
Us when he told us the story-​ROFL

This is one of my new favorite places. My boyfriend and I stumbled upon this place while driving around La Jolla. The atmosphere is very unique and the staff there is amazing with service.
This is a great place for a date or hang out with friends. The food is delicious and the Belly Dancers are entertaining and engaging. Be prepared to get pulled out of your seat for some fun dancing with their sexy belly dancers.
I recommend getting the Traditional Turkish dinner with the lemon chicken or the Honey lamb as the main course. Oh and their baklava is the best I have ever had along with the Bastilla. I crave the bastilla all the time. Yum!

This place is fun with tasty food. We’ve always ordered from the prix-​fixe dinner menu. Its a lot of food served over a longish period of time. So its perfect for a nice dinner out.
I like most of the food here but my favorite is the Bastilla Filo dough. Oh wow that stuff is good. I really should just come here to get that. Its this warm and spicy (flavorful not hot) chicken and spice creation wrapped up in filo dough, with powdered sugar on the top, really good. Whenever I come here that’s what I look forward to eating. Oh and the mint tea, super delicious! Ever since the first time I had it here I started making it at home. Very sweet and refreshing.
Marrakesh’s is located on a corner in La Jolla where parking is a pain. You sometimes have to park quite a bit away but the food is worth it. Oh and make reservations, this place gets busy, especially around dinner time on the weekends.

Sad to see you leave but love to watch you go.
For my going away dinner my amazing girlfriends surprised me to a wonderful Moroccan dinner here equipped with even a belly dancing show, because they knew that that was just my style for an awesome night.
I forget what exactly we ordered, but I remember it coming with a lot of rice and being very good. Sorry that’s all I have as far as the food goes for this place. :/​
The belly dancer was really fun and got all of us up there to dance.
Why they’re only getting three stars is because of the service… I just wanted to tell our server «hey, life’s not that bad. smile a little!» That plus the frequent question that kept coming up… «where is our server!?» made for bad service in my book.
The place is decorated with a heavy Morrocan feeling that made it very romantic with the rich deep colors and woods with lots of candles for lighting.
I would definitely recommend Marrakesh for a intimate party or romantic evening out.

1^st time here, came on a rainy monday afternoon with my gf 4 lunch. The food was amazing and the prices were great. we split an appetizer and the couscous royale combo (which included couscous with squash, carrots, kabob chicken and steak, and lamb sausage). Both courses were delicious, I enjoyed the hummus and the lamb sausage (even though it was a tad bit salty 4 me). The kabob chicken was tasty, however a little bit overcooked. The beef meat was beefy with a hint of chewy. The couscous was couscousing and it really enhanced the flavors of the squash + carrots.
The service was exceptional, as a joke, i told my gf I would use myiphone and time how often our waiter would come, and how often he would refill my diet coke. my gf thought it was hilarious and dared me to comment on Unilocal.It turns out, he swung by a couple of times (every 10 minutes) and it only took him less then a minute to refill my drinks. I was wow by the great service, my classes never sat empty and lonely.
Overall, lunch 4 2 under $ 20 with plenty of food = sweet! definitely will be back for more great food and the belly dancer.

I wandered in to kill time and grab a small bite to eat before a meeting at the la jolla library. I was alone in the restaurant and sat at the bar. I had delicious conversation while eating delicious hummus and warm pitaA plate Full of hummus a basket full of pita and 2 diet cokes came to only $ 7.
While the bartender was wrapping my leftovers, he brought me a cup of hot mint tea, free.
Im coming back next time im in the area!

I had high hopes that the Unilocal reviews for this place were wrong, but i should’ve known better than to think any of you would lead me astray. i don’t regret going, but i would never go back. nothing about this place was great — all of it was just OK. for $ 40-​$ 50 per person (depending on exactly what you order and drink), it should be significantly better.
if you follow in my footsteps and ignore the Unilocal warning that this place isn’t worth your time, definitely get the gift certificate from
so you don’t get TOO ripped off. avoid the Lebanese pilsner and order the lamb with honey.

If yall have read any of my reviews, you know I’m kind of a cheapass. Ask my wife. I searched for coupons… and luckily this place is on
!!! I got us a $ 50 gift certificate for $ 6! That took off a healthy $ 44 off our bill… how do you like them apples?
MENTAL NOTE: Leave wife at home next time! The belly dancer was HOT! Very sexy, curvey, yet athletic. Unlike a stripper, she appeared to be genuinely enjoying her line of work. I could tell the boys wanted to stare and oogle, but we all pretended like we weren’t interested cause my wife was there and we wanted to look and act like gentlemen.
There are only 5-​Course Meals and three options on weekends: Veggie Feast $ 23.95, Meat Feast $ 26.95, and a Premium Feast for $ 32.95. Everything was pretty darn good. Compared to Asian and Mexican cuisine, the food isn’t as spicy or flavorful, but still tasty. Chicken was kinda bland, but definitely order the Lamb… it melts in your mouth! The third course was this chicken pastry thingy, and it was AWESOME! Be careful not to inhale the cinnamon like I did… that sure woke me up! Some Unilocalers complained of small portions, but they must be talking about the weekday menu cause we were all really full.
We want to go back for sure, but my guy friends say to leave the wife at home next time.
Good food + Good Service + Good Deal + Hot Bellydancer = 5 STARS

The only other place I’ve had Moroccan food was at Epcot, so… by comparison, this place was very authentic to me.
Nice, romantic atmosphere. Prices were a little much but not bad for all the food you get, the experience/​atmosphere, and the belly dancer. I wanted to see her, but she wasn’t there during our meal. Service was excellent., and the seats were so comfy, I thought I could nap on them. The appetizer with a camel on it was yummy and cute. I didn’t expect it to be meaty. My main course was duck, and it was ok. Had some of the chicken too, but that was dry. My favorite was the mint tea and baklava for dessert… SO good together! The baklava on its own was nothing spectacular, but I never would have thought of having it with mint tea. They complement each other very well.
Tasty, fun experience. Not a place to regularly go to for dinner, but good for once in a great while.