Marrakesh

I ordered delivery from Marrakesh through Mr. delivery since I was visiting in town and thought the menu sounded nice. Unfortunately I wasn’t impressed.
We ordered a vegetable tangine, chicken tangine, Mohamara dip and vegetarian Bastila. The tangines were very disappointing. They had little flavor or spice. I have made a more flavorful tangine in the past myself. My husband thought the same of his chicken dish. The green beans in the vegetable version were canned and not fresh. The portions were very small and barely covered the bottom of the take out box. I would not recommend this dish.
The Mohamara dip was okay but also had little flavor. It was slightly greasy. It was also a small portion but with a lot of pita but we still didn’t finish the dish.
The Bastila was the best item we got. It had a lot of authentic spice and was full of vegetables. The portion was big. I would recommend it. Overall we would not order here again since most items were disappointing.

We haven’t been here in a long time and we were really pleased with our meal. Very authentic chicken tagine with raisins and chicken peas. Chicken was ver tender and delicious blend of flavor. The other dish we had was the vegetable Bastila which was phyllo stuffed with vegetables with yogurt. The pastry was nice and flakey with a browned top.
It was a pretty quiet night, only a few tables. Give it a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised!

Moroccan and Mediterranean cuisine situated in West Madison right off University Ave. It’s easy to spot but if you’re driving too fast it’s easy to miss the turn. Mediterranean cuisine is not common in Madison and having one on the west side in addition a couple that are downtown is great.
Their lentil soup is good. Classic dish with soft lentils and spices makes this a flavorful appetizer. We also had the sampler plate with hummus, zaaluk and tabouli. The hummus and zaaluk (grilled eggplant) were good. For entrees we had the chicken tangine with couscous, lamb tangine and the seafood bastila. Their tangines are served in an earthenware pot with a cute little cover — nice presentation. I have always been a fan of chicken tangine with couscous, soft and succulent pieces of meat in a nice savory stew sauce. The bastila is also awesome with thin crispy layers of pastry crust with generous serving of seafood (or choice of meat and other fillings). Those bastilas fill you up pretty fast, I highly suggest sharing one amongst the table.
Service was really slow. Be prepared for significant waiting times at every stage — water, ordering, being served and getting the check. We were there on early on a weekday night and they were not too busy, but still we waited for quite a bit. Later into the evening as more people came, the waits became longer. It seems like they are under staffed?
The portions were big and will fill you up. However, for some of their dishes like the curries and kebobs, I feel like you could get something of similar quality downtown for less. I would head back for their specialty dishes such as the bastila, when I am looking for a slow dinner or have loads of waiting time to spare.

Traveled to Madison this weekend for a concert, and decided to look for things that are difficult to get back home. Fortunately, we ended up finding out about this establishment. Never having tried Moroccan cuisine, and always up for trying out new things, my party of culinary adventurers headed to this establishment when they opened.
The exterior is a little worse for wear, and it doesn’t look like anything to write home about. Do not believe this impression. It is false, and will lead you astray. Listen to this friendly gourmand, and walk through that front door. The establishment is very nicely decorated, cozy and comfortable, despite having plenty of seating. One side of the restaurant is very standard chairs and tables, another side seems more «traditional». Lots of cushions, etc.
We were greeted by an extremely friendly gentleman, and were promptly directed to a table. After being seated and procuring water, he did something I’ve not really encountered often in a ethnic restaurant. He offered to either let us review the menu as is, or if we wanted, he would give us more information about the dishes, cultural relevance, etc. Being a very curious bunch, we opted for the later.
After a brief but interesting crash-​course on the menu, we opted for ordering a handful of appetizers as well as our entrees. To start, we got the sampler plate, which contained hummus (It’s hummus. ‘nough said), zaaluk, (grilled eggplant blended with tomatoes, green pepper, garlic, olive oil, and other spices) and mohamara (roast rep pepper dip with walnuts, artichokes, garlic, and other spices), as well as makouda (potato, carrots, spinach, garlic, cumin, fried into a croquette, with a dill yogurt sauce). Excellent flavors, a very nice tanginess to the zaaluk and mohamar. Normally I despise eggplant, but found myself repeatedly reaching for more. The makouda was heavenly. Kind of like a weird cross between kibee, falafel, and samosa.
For our entrees, myself and my friend Brian ordered the lamb tagine, a stew of lamb, potatoes, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, peas, onion, garlic, cilantro, and parsley. The lamb was amazingly tender, the dish was piping hot, the vegetables still had a good crunch to them despite being in a stew, and the side of rice complemented it wonderfully. The taste was kind of an interesting cross between Indian and Middle-​Eastern. Larger quantity of sauce, like Indian, but the spices were much more layered like Middle-​Eastern.
My friend Cindy ended up getting the vegetarian bastila (phyllo dough die with carrots, spinach, potatoes, onion, and garlic). It ended up being a misunderstanding, but one hell of a fortunate one. I got to sample a piece, kind of a vegetarian pastie.
For a beverage, I had the Moroccan blended red wine (cabernet, syrah, and merlot from Moroccan wineries), a very light touch of sweetness to an otherwise dry red that complimented the stew nicely. Cindy had the Moroccan mint tea, a sweet, nice delicate mint tea prepared traditionally. (Courtesy of the aforementioned information, we got an amusing anecdote about why it’s served how it is)
Desert was, of course, a piece of baklava. Delightful crispy, not overly nutty, and just enough sweetness. A nice molasses drizzle to boot. They even cut the piece into smaller sections so we could share (I’m the only one that had room for it, so I’m the only one that actually ordered it)
The prices were reasonable, towards a little on the higher end, but very much well worth it. There was a couple mix-​ups with orders, both at our table and others around us, leading me to think it might be somewhat understaffed, and our friendly, helpful server was extremely soft spoken, so when more people started to filter in, it got a bit difficult to hear him. That aside, service was extremely prompt, very friendly, and the dishes were all brought out piping hot.
If you’re the adventurous type that likes to try new things, or a fan of cuisine from the region, I highly recommend this establishment. My group left full and happy.

I will start with the positives:
Best hummus and dinner I’ve eaten in a long time. I would love to give this 5 stars because the food was amazing but it was far overshadowed by the worst service I have ever experienced. Dinner in all took over 2 hours and there were only 5 tables (all of whom were talking about how long it was taking) we got there at 6:45 on a tuesday so I don’t know what the problem was. We and others never even got silverware, even after being served our main course, and had to ask multiple times for the check.
I definitely will go back but will make sure to not be in a hurry.

I’ve never eaten *in* here before, so I can’t speak to the service or décor much at all. It’s pretty dark is all I can so.
Marrakesh catered for a Thomas Piketty book club event we had, and we ordered tons of stuff: meditterean (sp) salad, hummus, vegetables, and chicken tagine. All of us thought the food was off the charts, and I didn’t think it was too oily and greasy at all (like I sometimes do with Moroccan restaurants). If you are looking for ethnic cuisine that’s less commonplace in Madison, I’d definitely check them out.
They are a little hard to find because of poor signage, but with a couple U-​turns, you should get to it without trouble.

I have no idea how they got such high reviews on Trip Advisor. The food was bland and the service wasn’t much better. It was also uncomfortably warm in the dining area. I saw one couple walk out. Sadly disappointed.

Really awful dining experience — bland muhummara, burned and strangely textured felafel, badly seasoned meat kabob. I loved the Shish Café — which was previously in this location — and this is nowhere near as good. Very disappointing, I will not be back.

My wife and I had an excellent dinner at Marrakesh tonight. The Moroccan soup was hot and very tasty. The lamb couscous was very flavorful. The price was more than reasonable for the quantity and quality of the food. We had a lovely chat with the owner. We will definitely be back.

We just went to Marrakesh for New Years Day. The food was amazing and our server was really nice. Probably the best hummus I’ve ever had. Try the mint tea. Our server had some extremely rude customers but our service was great despite the restaurant being very busy and those rude customers making her night miserable. I would definitely go back and would recommend you visit.

We just had a brilliant meal. Service was warm and friendly. The flavors of the lamb with apricot and chicken tagines were exceptional. Appetizers Zaaluk with pita bread and Makouda croquettes are recommended. Atmosphere is improved 200% over the smelly and dark dining room of the pervious restaurant. The new owners are thoughtful and here to share there special recipes.

«I have a bad feeling about this…»
I first attempted to visit this place during their opening 2 weeks. When I went, the dining rooms were quite full, but all the diners looked unhappy. The harried waiter said that we coudl eat there, but it would take 1.5 hours to get our food due to the kitchen and servers being too busy. It was not laziness on his part, but rather that there were 2 servers for 2 dining rooms. I saw diners who looked very unhappy with nothing in front of them. We quickly left.
I returned in 2014 for dinner and fortunately it was not the chaos we previously encountered. The layout of the restaurant is very odd – I get the feeling it would be more successful if they didn’t have 2 dining rooms. At night, the curtains to the dining room are halfway up; however, it doesn’t block the headlights of cars that park directly in front of the building so you get big shining lights in the restaurant if someone’s starting up their car.
When asked, we said that we were OK sitting anywhere in the restaurant, which was at less than 25% of capacity. Yet we were placed in a table in view of the restroom.
I’m not sure our server checked on how we were doing 1x while we were eating. The dishes were really expensive; you basically have 3 kinds of main entrees and a lamb tagine is $ 17 with no sides or appetizers. As for the food, if you told me that the tagine was from any part of the world, I would have believed you. It did not have any distinctive flavor other than meat&veggie stew. The b’stilla, a dish with cinnamon, sugar, eggs, pastry dough, and chicken, was all right but a little more quiche-​like than being encrusted in pastry.
I am very glad we had a Bucky Book coupon as this was not worth the full price, and I don’t really consider it to be worth the coupon price either.

We were excited and expecting a good meal.
We were seated and waited not even receiving water while the waiter slowly came and went as if in a trance. Didn’t see anything approaching efficiency and lacking any attention whatsoever we walked out.
The restaurant was perhaps a quarter full.

Strangely inconsistent reviews of this place. Many poor ones on Unilocal,yet it’s rated the #1 restaurant in Madison on Trip Advisor. Our experience was very positive. Between the three of us, we had three variations on the tagine; chicken, beef and lamb. Each was prepared quite differently and all were very tasty.
The owner was our server. It was very obvious she has a passion for her cooking and the use of only high quality ingredients. I felt prices were appropriate and portions were large. Recommended.

Update:
Instead of spending time making his business better, the owner boldly tracks me down, calls a family member and threatens to sue if my review is not taken down. it is called freedom of speech sir! also they set up a fake account on Unilocal,give themselves a 5 star rating under the name Yamna F. then they send me a condescending message from that same account. can this experience get any worse? we’ll see.
people’s bakery sells donuts and lunch sandwiches and is a fast food restaurant 15 miles away from Marrakesh (full service, dinner only restaurant), menus don’t share a single common item, so no competition there, and this is by no means an endorsement. I made no attempt to hide my identity as I have no reason to, in fact I posted experience specific details to help you remember us. We went to Marrakesh, ordered food, paid for it and reviewed it like any other community member would, plain and simple. An apology was received from this merchant in a private message acknowledging overreacting and frustrations with Unilocal reviews overall, despite the unprofessional comment they left on my review. This review will be changed to 2 stars if no additional ill will is displayed by this Establishment and their personal Unilocal account under Yamna F.

I had been looking forward to eating at Marrakesh and finally got the chance last night for a special dinner with my wife. I couldn’t have been more disappointed. We shared a hummus appetizer and the chicken couscous. The hummus was fair, the bread was stale and the entrée was terribly over cooked with very little flavor. As someone else noted that this used to be the Shish Café makes it even worse.
Our waiter was very friendly which is the only reason I gave 2 stars and unlike other reviews talking about slow service, we had little wait since there was almost no one else there. Also, the prices are very high, especially considering what you get.

If I could give 0 stars I would.
I got food poisoning from this establishment.
I feel bad, because I can tell the woman who owns the place is a kind lady, but due to my food poisoning issue, I think she really needs to rethink what they are doing in the kitchen.
I ordered the soup, the chicken rafissa (sp?) and my hubby ordered the chicken bastilla.
The soup tasted as if it was minestrone with a few added spices. Not luxury and it was lukewarm.
The chicken rafissa seemed like it tasted ok! It was heavy looking — not much color in the dish — just a brown sloppy appearance. But the crisped up puff pastry was what I was looking for. Unfortunately, the pastry was overly drenched in oil — too greasy for my liking. The flavors were ok, but it was too heavy overall.
My experience with moroccan food previously was not so drab. But, I did eat a majority of it, as it wasn’t that bad. The chicken was ok, but it seemed lukewarm as well. I can guarantee that this was not made fresh, but simply reheated and put in a tagine for decoration. They forgot my saffron rice, and when the waitress (finally) came back and asked how things were — she finally gave me some — very little actually…
My hubby liked his chicken bastilla. I had a bite and didn’t much care for the flavor combination — im not a fan of sweetness from cinnamon and savory egg at the same time.
The bill came back with soup being charged extra.
On the topic of prices — This food is WAY overpriced. IT should have been 7 bucks for my meal.
If this restaurant is going to survive, which I’m not sure — They need to be willing to rethink how they do things in the back of the kitchen. Whatever they did gave me food poisoning. THey need to cook things fresh, have better attention todetails and also have lesser prices.

This is close to the house and I had visions of it being our go to place. Probably not going to happen. Prices are a bit steep and the service is S L O W. We had hummus to start and the flavors were there but the bread was cold and stale. It clearly came from a store and not made in house. He brought out more after we left a bunch of hummus and no bread. Bread the second go around was warm.
Food was just ok… veggies over cooked and chicken a bit dry. There was one other table in the place so it wasn’t like the kitchen was slammed.
There are lots of dinning choices in Madison, I’m sorry this one won’t be on my go to list.

Ate here last night and the food was to die for! My husband and I decided to check it out with another couple. We started with the falafel, which was excellent — moist but not greasy. The makouda was also very good as well.
Our husbands both had tagines — mine had the lamb and my friend’s husband had the beef, which I had a bite of and it was very good. The dates in the beef were a delight. I had the chicken bastilla, which was dusted in powdered sugar and cinnamon. It was a sweet and savory delight!
For dessert we tried the flavor of sahara, which my friends were crazy about but I thought it was a little chewy. The mint tea was very good.
The food was excellent and we all were very pleased and immediately were talking about when we could go back. Our waitress seemed new but she was very sweet and helpful. My only complaint was the bar menu — it seemed like there was a lot of wine but only a selection of five pretty standard beers. My friend also ordered a gin and tonic, pretty standard, but they didn’t have tonic. I think he ended up having a gin and sparkling water, lol.
Overall the food was very good, the staff was friendly and helpful, and we will definitely be going back here again.

I was really excited to see a Moroccan place open in Madison. Unfortunately, this place did not live up to my expectations. The ambiance was a little uncomfortable, the food was mediocre, the service was slow, and the prices were steep.
We were seated at one of the tables against the wall, which is one long bench/​booth adorned with cushions. The idea is cute, but in reality it is just uncomfortable. There is a reason food is served at a table with chairs that reach it adequately. Also, another group was seated at the same bench as us, and was sitting literally inches away from me when the restaurant was fairly empty and there were several open tables. Talk about awkward! The music was too quiet, and it felt like you couldn’t talk openly at your table, as the whole room could hear you. Also, one of the waiters kept staring at our table, which made me feel even more uncomfortable.
We ordered the Lamb Tagine and the Chicken Couscous. The food took a long time to come. It was decently spiced, and the chicken was cooked really well. I was impressed with how juicy it was. The lamb, on the other hand, was dry and overcooked. Tagine usually has some dried apricot and lemon in it, both of which were lacking. Both dishes tasted almost the same, which is strange because they are very different dishes. The saffron rice that came with the tagine was a frightening bright yellow-​orange color. Saffron does impart color on rice, but never that bright. It looked like they had put turmeric in it to make it even more colored. I’ve had some amazing Moroccan food at restaurants in Los Angeles, and sadly this food did not compare.
While our waitress was very nice, she simply didn’t come by enough to check on our water, etc. Given that the restaurant was pretty empty, this was unexpected.
The dishes on the menu were all around $ 15 – 18, and the portions are pretty small. In my experience, Moroccan restaurants are on the more expensive side, but we’re in Madison, people, come on! This city is supposed to be affordable! The BF was still hungry after dinner, and I was actually able to finish my whole meal and still felt dissatisfied. I almost never finish my meal when I eat out, so that’s saying something.
I think I’ll just wait till I’m back in LA to have Moroccan food again.