Cous Cous

Since I drive by this place almost everyday, I finally decided to check them out after buying their
coupon.
The décor is nice and the atmosphere is relaxed and mellow there. Sadly, their name sake was no good! I tried both their regular and Mediterranean cous cous and I felt like I could have made them better.
Their other dishes were just so-​so and didn’t really make an impression on me.
Service was on the slow side even though there were only 2 other tables in the restaurant. Our server didn’t refill our waters and we had to remind him to do so. The food came out in a reasonable amount of time though.
I just think I can find better Mediterranean food for cheaper at more dive-​y places so without the coupon, this place would not have been worth it for me.
Food: 2.5
Value:2
Service: 2.5
Overall: 2

Four of us shared some of the small plates and all were fresh, visually appealing, and quite tasty! I don’t usually like fried things, but a couple of the dishes were lightly fried and were wonderful. Interesting sauces and spices… Will definitely go back. The waiter was good and everyone was most cordial. Crème brûlée was one of the best I’ve had. Nice restaurant!

First time visit. Around 8:00pm on a Friday.
Our waitress was professional and attentive, so the service was great. Unfortunately, the restaurant was out of a significant portion of their menu, so we were limited in what was available to order. Our waitress explained there was an unexpected early dinner rush due to a nearby show. Anywho, they were out of chicken everything (tagine, kebob, etc), burgers, and a few other things. Most of what we did end up ordering was great (eggplant napoleon=YUM), but I tried the daily special salmon which was almost inedible. It tasted like it was marinated in battery acid. I didn’t send it back, though I probably should have. Also, the batch of sangria we had wasn’t sweet at all. It tasted like watered down, bitter red wine. There wasn’t any fruitiness or slight sweetness about it. Disappointing.
First impressions mean a lot, and they didn’t do enough to make up for the fact that half their menu was unavailable so I probably wont be back any time soon. There’s just too many other options available in the city.

Meh, generally bland food, bland and inattentive staff, unimpressive menu, and overpriced for what you get. Not going back.
— obviously processed, canned, and boxed food prepared by less-​than-​able back of the house staff. The fig sauce for the fried Gouda was clearly a fig jam mixed with Cattleman’s BBQ Sauce; the Chicken Kebab was dry, lacking in flavour (not marinated at all), on a bed of underseasoned and boring couscous (kinda ironic); the hummus must have been bought from Sysco or Krogers; the «pita» bread was old and store-​bought … I could go on. I don’t recommend it. Save your money!

I have been here many times for shows. FREE shows, and always a meal before. Soooo good. The fries are amazing served with a mouth watering Curry aoli. I also had a pasta dish with sautéed onions and garlic wilted spinach and pork with a white wine butter reduction. Served over perfectly cooked spiral pasta.
I have and always have a great time at Cous Cous.

I had a late lunch in the middle of the week, and the service and meal was great. The only front staff was the bartender, who doubled as the server, and probably the owner, was friendly and provided good service. I would definitely order the fries. I was a little hesitant because of the interesting spice, but they were pretty delicious.

Hmm… for a place named Cous Cous, you’d think their couscous would at least be good. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case when I went. Their couscous was very bland and unexciting, and the other dishes I tried I remember being just okay. The only reason why this place gets 3 stars is because of their absolutely to-​die-​for panna cotta! I would definitely come back just to get that. The balsamic vinegar reduction with strawberries and currants atop the perfect custard put me in enough of a happy daze to forget about the… well, forgetful meal itself. So stop by, skip out on the entrees and treat yourself to this incredible dessert!

Not a great place for those who eat regular portions.
My mom, my sister, and I ate here because my mom got a coupon. I got the shrimp and grits. It looked like a decent sized meal, but it was all soupy. My mom got the smoked salmon and eggplant. The eggplant was delicious, but she didn’t like the salmon too much. My sister also got the smoked salmon and cous cous. She wasn’t happy at all. We were still very hungry at the end of our meal.

First time. There was a lot on the menu that looked appealing, but when I asked for their signature dish, they told me the tagines were the way to go. I ordered the chicken tagines with Mediterranean cous cous. It was delicious, and I ate every bite. Portion size is a tad small, so for dinner especially it might be good to go with an appetizer, too. Service was a bit on the slow side, but they were very nice. Ambiance is great. Location is in the heart of VCU on Franklin Street at Shafer.

Not a great choice for Med-​food lovers.
I ordered a falafel sandwich with a side of fries, and a small order of baba gannoush. The sandwich was mostly lettuce and cherry tomatoes with a few small falafel thrown in. The tahini dressing was pretty standard. The pita was warm and soft, which was nice. So; not awful, but not worth going out of your way to order.
The fries were oily, limp, and barely warm. The curry sauce served with them was probably the tastiest thing on the plate. I eventually wound up putting some on my sandwich.
Sadly — the baba gannoush was surprisingly dull. Now, I don’t want to piss anyone off. This may be someone’s grandmother’s classic family recipe — but I like mine to be smoky, creamy, and redolent of cumin and other lovely spices. This was more of an American eggplant salad. It was chunky, oily, and just kind of bland. No smoke or spice at all.
To be fair; the service was prompt and reasonably attentive.
But even being from Las Vegas — where *everything* is overpriced; I couldn’t get over the $ 5 for a cup of tea. YEOW. Brutal.
It as worth a shot, but I wouldn’t go back.

Very good restaurant, not great but good. Tapas for two, nice. I like Med. food. Nice for a small group and for two. This a a place to share food.

A variety of tapas dishes at reasonable prices.
Chill atmosphere for dates or for small groups.
FUN DJs for theme nights.
Always great customer service with the bartenders and waitresses.

I had high hopes for Cous Cous because it seemed to be a very cool restaurant in a grungy apartment building on VCU campus. Those hopes were shattered upon one visit trying four dishes and getting lackluster results.
Now for an appropriate review.
Lamb Tagine: That was the only thing that was a both substantial in portion, and tolerable.
Second: Crispy Eggplant with Marmelade. This was horrible. Basically just that: Deep fried, oily, oily eggplant, breaded and served with marmelade. I suggest you stay far away from this one.
Acorn Squash. Plain, no care or concern about quality. Mediocre at best.
Shrimp and Grits. Holy wow was this terrible. Basically, plain shrimp, and polenta drowning in what seemed to be movie theatre butter. I can only imagine the amount of hydrogenated oil used to create what must have been one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten.
Sangria (Red): ok but absolutely not worth the money. I’ve had much, much better for a lesser or the similar price.
Bells Two hearted. Thank you for something that not even you, Cous Cous, could mess up.
I complained about our experience to a friend he said «you have to know what to order, they only do a couple things right.» I guess if you want hummus for dinner that is supposed to be ok. But it’s hummus, for dinner.
I wouldn’t go back. There are so many great restaurants in Richmond that will cost you about the same or maybe a little bit more but are absolutely wonderful. This is not one of them.

Now I’ve been here numerous times and always had great experiences — but feel inclined to update after a very lackluster experience this past weekend. Food was still fine, but the service was pretty bad.
Our server was very flustered by having two big parties to contend with, which was understandable but he still seemend extremely scattered and inexperienced. The difference between an «OK» place and a 4 or 5 star place is a server who can handle stress gracefully, just saying. Also, I asked him if we could have the candle on our table lighted and he said he forgot his lighter at home. I asked another server who ran a drink out to our table for him, and she said she couldn’t do it either because it was our server’s job. Later she did come over and light it (by then I felt bad for even asking).
Other cons — being charged a nominal fee ($ 2) for more pita bread to go with the Mediterannean platter. Come on, we are spending about $ 200 on dinner and drinks and you really need that extra $ 2? how about you provide more than 6 or 8 tiny slices of pita for a giant plate of hummus and babaghanoush? Finally — they were out of cherries at the bar. For a place that boasts their specialty cocktails and hand made infusions, this just seemed like poor planning. Kroger is not too far away, go get some more cherries!
/​end rant. I’ll probably go back — but I might need time to recover. This was my birthday dinner after all (boo hoo for me)! ;)

I absolutely love this restaurant. I live about an hour and a half away and I will make up any excuse to come down to Richmond just to eat here.
The restaurant is usually very chill in the afternoon and is a good place to grab a bite and have a conversation. There never appears to be a rushed feeling, staff is friendly, and, overall, it’s a pretty relaxing place.
My favorite dish is the harira soup with lamb and rice. I think it’s just divine and the flavors all mesh well. It’s a good comfort food. My other favorites include the manchego fritters and the spinach and manchego salad.
I read that some of the people who’ve reviewed find the prices to be a bit high, but coming from the DC area, this restaurant is considered insanely cheap. I’m a bit of a frugal gal though, so I usually get the
gift certificate when I come here so I get more food for my buck (doggie bags!).

Cous Cous for me was like my very first date at the tender age of 16. Now, I was a bit of a late bloomer. It seemed like all my friends were doing it and raving about it, and I wanted to know what I was missing! But I quickly thought to myself, «That’s it? That’s the mystery? Well, damn.»
I’ve lived literally down the street from Cous Cous for three years now and last night was the first time I’d ever ventured in. It’s a decent sized space. The décor is cool, about what you’d expect from a Mediterranean/​Moroccan restaurant in a college town, but the lighting is AWFUL. I had to squint to see my dining companion, which of course made me look like a pirate. And the service was just weird. I mean, I get that certain dishes take longer to prepare than others, but this was probably like 15, 20 minutes between dishes.
Anyway, the food was a hit or miss. We ordered four small plates to share:
–Manchego cheese fritters: It was like fried mozzarella’s hot older sister you’ve always had a secret crush on. Delicious, with or without the mango coulis.
–Ricotta basil gnocchi: Tell me what gnocchi, of all things, is doing on a Moroccan restaurant’s menu? Please, tell me! And I shall tell you they were oddly shaped and definitely too doughy.
–Artichoke spinach hummus: Looked like baby food, but tasted pretty good.
–Saganaki: It’s sheep cheese served en flambé over spiced apples with toasted pita. Sound good? It’s not. If Manchego cheese is mozzarella’s hot older sister, sheep cheese is Swiss cheese’s younger brother your mom always made you be nice to, even though he was smelly and disagreeable.
As if we weren’t stuffed with our meh food, the meal also came with a starch (we picked Mediterranean cous cous, with feta and olive) and a veggie (DELICIOUS sugar snap peas with tomato and garlic shallots).
Cous Cous was, like my first date, not a particularly extraordinary experience. Sure, parts of it were good, even great, but I don’t think I’ll be spending Saturday night with Cous Cous anytime soon.

Delicious Mediterranean food next to VCU’s Monroe Park campus!
Lunch: Surprisingly cheaper than dinner, especially when ordering wraps or tagines. Veggie-​friendly falafel and mock chicken dishes as well as an assortment of vegetable or cheese-​based tapas.
Dinner: I’ve only tried the vegetarian-​friendly tagines and tapas. They are all delicious, but the price can climb fairly high if you plan to get very full! The wilted spinach with apple is a particular tapas favorite!
Also, there is a back room which can be reserved for large groups. Staff will work with you to plan a group menu in advance or negotiate drink specials.
I’ve never been there for karaōke or live music, but the outside marquee regularly advertises such events suggesting an entertaining bar atmosphere.

Found this Morracan/​Mediterranean spot on Unilocal.It’s has a funky vibe that I really enjoyed. A nice casual date place indeed. I was conflicted between ordering the lamb tagine vice the gambas. My server offered that the gambas were «amazing». I was sold. I also had the garlic hummus and harrira soup. All were tasty.
The only problem was that my server disappeared after taking my order. I had to travel to the bar area twice for drink refills, etc.
Not the best Morracan/​Meiterranean food I’ve had, but if you’re in the area and want to try something different, give this place a try.

I’ve been to Cous Cous several times for dinner, and it’s my favorite spot for casual date night with my boyfriend. Unfortunately, we are boring every time we come, because we can’t order anything but our favorite dishes!
We always get the same appetizer, which is just the best. The Smoked Salmon… It’s delicious smoked salmon, served over soft, savory potato cakes, and topped with a creamy caper dill horseradish sauce… Getting all three of these components in the same bite is just heavenly. It’s just a perfectly put together dish.
For entrees, I always get the lamb tagine with the mediterranean cous cous. It’s not the most exciting dish, but it’s like comfort food for me. The lamb is perfectly tender, and I always crave their Mediterranean cous cous with kalamata olives and feta cheese. My boyfriend always gets the Moroccan Bouillabaisse, which if you’re a seafood lover, it’s the dish to get. You get so much seafood (shrimp, scallops, and calamari) which is tossed with linguine and served in a Moroccan spiced seafood broth. Just the broth itself makes my mouth water, perfectly seasoned; and it’s a large size portion, great to finish when you get home.
Our favorite dessert is the warm chocolate bread pudding… it’s served with a warm bourbon glaze, and it’s absolutely decadent! Bread pudding is my favorite dessert in general, and Cous Cous does NOT disappoint!
The dark interior, with candles makes perfect for date night, or a small get together with friends. It’s a great atmosphere, and the service is great; very nice servers open to answer any questions.
Last time we were here, we had fun with their specialty cocktail list; our server was very accommodating and answered all of our questions about the cocktails. My boyfriend got the Moroccan, and I got the Cous Cous Old Fashioned, and they were delicious! The cinnamon and clove simple syrup was a great spin on the classic Old Fashioned.

Cous Cous is also a hoppin bar at night as well; great to hang out and have fun. I have a lot of friends who love going to Tuesday Trivia nights. All around, I would definitely recommend this spot!

My boyfriend and I had an amazing experience here. One random weekend we had decided to just drive down to Richmond and try out AS MANY restaurants as possible. This was supposed to be a «cheap eats hop/​marathon» and I had compiled an entire list of wonderful restaurants from where? of course, Unilocal.=)
This was our FIRST stop. note that this place is so cute because it’s part of a VCU building and we walk in, it is PACKED! we did not have reservations because we were going through our «spontaneity phase» for the day and also because we left many hours later than we had intended. Instead of leaving in the morning, we didn’t get to Richmond until 630pm!
Although they were booked for the night, we were lucky enough to have two seats at the bar where we had a wonderful experience. The bartender/​server was SUPER sweet and very helpful. We started out with an Ayinger beer — this tasted wonderful, dark and had a slight hint of almost candy/​rootbeer/​caramel flavor.
Now, because we had full intention of going to multiple places, we were supposed to «snack» at each spot, but everything on the menu looked SO good we couldn’t decide! We decided to gather some handydandy tips from the bartender. he recommended the Morrocan Spiced Cornish Hen and the Mediterranean Platter because we wanted to try both the hummus and the babaghanoush. He recommended a ton of other dishes too, but it took ALL of our willpower not to order them too (we were starving b/​c this was our first meal of the day)!
Everything was AMAZING. The roasted red pepper hummus (made in house) was so fresh, perfect texture, flavors were just perfect with the pita bread and the color was gorgeous. The side salad that came with it had a light vinaigrette dressing and all of the greens were fresh, as well as the tomatoes, cauliflower, carrots, cucumbers… pretty much my veggie heaven! The babaghanoush was very light, seasoned well, and delicious (it was my first experience with this!). The cornish hen was So wonderful because it was spicy and so tender and moist! The jasmine rice was cooked perfectly– not too mushy and not too hard!
The sweetest part — our server was just always so onpoint and recommended some delicious restaurants to try in the area because we had told him of our eating marathon. Then, while we were munching on our «snacks» (these portions were HUGE), he brought us a plate of the sweet corn fritters on the house. These were deeeeelicious! Now, I’m just wishing I ordered more food, but we had faith we could make it to other restaurants!
Even when we were getting up to leave, he made sure to write down all the restaurants to go to for us AND made sure to tell us one of the restaurants on our list had JUSt recently closed due to tax reasons (poooooo!) So friendly, delicious food, amazing experience!