Kous Kous Moroccan Bistro

The owner is Great ! The food amazing !
The restaurant is cute !
Si vous avez faim c’est bien dans ce restaurant quil faut aller, les portions sont généreuses et la nourriture est juste trop bonne. Les enfants se sont régalés.
Nous avons très bien mangé !
Merci beaucoup

Fabulous good, great service, nice ambiance. A unique place to bring out of town guests.

Overall great food here, very attentive service and Amazing lamp chops! The place is nicely appointed inside but could use some updating.

This place was amazing for my first experience being there. Desiree was very nice and helped me out very fast at the table and got everything on the table at a timely manner. I was very impressed with their food. I order lamb shank with kous kous and tasted amazing. I will be back and refer friends

Never really had Moroccan food before. My friend and I were just wondering what to get for dinner, and we circled the area with PLENTY of splendid restaurants. The idea of trying out exotic cuisine neither of us had ever had kinda appealed to us.
Walking into the dim place with somewhat a mysterious air was fascinating on its own. The menu was, as expected, full of unfamiliar dishes that hardly any name rang a bell. The servers were nice and helpful in recommending us specialties to try, though.
Eventually we each chose one of the vegetarian dishes. If vegetarian food sounds grassy to you, think again. These are flavorful as well as fulfilling. The bell pepper and tomato went really well with the rice, and the sauces topped it off with a unique touch.
I’m half joking when I say that the place was so dark that I didn’t even know what I put into my mouth. Every bite of the unknown was wonderful though.

We found this place to be delightful. The décor was charming, the service good, and food interesting. It is below ground level but the owner has done a lot to dress it up, complete with playing the full version of Casablanca on a loop. Several reviewers commented on it being dark; it is dimly lit but not excessively so. We ordered all appitizers which were interesting and tasty. The pita bread is served toasted with some scortched areas which I found delicious. We tried one of their house drinks which was good, refreshing, but a little thin. We shifted to a gin martini which was well prepared. One reviewer had a bad experience with the manager. We stopped on the way out to comment on Casablanca and his face really lit up and we found him quite engaging. We would return again.

I took my bestie here for his birthday last night and I’m so glad I did! Immediately we were struck by how great the ambiance is. Gorgeous middle eastern décor in a cozy, intimate setting.
On arriving, the host and server both wished my friend a happy birthday. Really nice genuine people who work here.
It took a minute to decide on what to order from the menu and our server was incredibly patient with us, helpful, and accommodating.
We ordered the Feast II. It came with a variety of dishes served family style so we got to try a bit of everything. Let me tell you that everything was amazingly delicious! I can’t remember the name of a single thing I ate but it was ALL good. To top it off we ordered the Moroccan mint tea which made it all so perfect. There was more than enough food in the feast and we ended up having left overs. At the end our server even put a little candle in our fruit plate so my friend could make a wish. Such a nice touch!
I’ll definitely recommend this place to my friends. It was a little on the pricey side but it was such a treat!

This was my first time having Moroccan food, and I have to say I was extremely impressed. I came here on a Thursday night with a friend (who had also never had Moroccan food) and it wasn’t too busy so we got seated right away. The whole atmosphere is super cool and the décor is incredible — especially the TV screen on one of the walls that was playing Casablanca! Anyway, our waitress was super welcoming and gave us a few recommendations from the menu. I ended up choosing the Veggie Berber Tagine, despite the fact that I had absolutely no idea what «tagine» was — I guess I was trying to be adventurous?
After we ordered, we were brought a complementary appetizer of cooked carrots, which also came with a spicy sauce. Carrots were bomb, but sauce was a little too spicy for my non-​existent spice tolerance. Our main courses came out soon afterward, and I was honestly blown away. The tagine (which turned out to be a stew-​type of thing) was AMAZING. The flavor was incredible, the rice was fantastic, and the bread (+sauce) was absolutely delicious. I ended up clearing out the tagine because it was so dang good, although I was unfortunately too full to finish the rice (really generous portion sizes!), which was also really good.
Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this place to anyone who’s open to trying something different from the traditional Italian, French, American, etc. food that’s typically found in downtown. The food is PHENOMENAL (with reasonable prices), the service is fast and friendly, and the ambience is awesome. I loved everything about my experience here and will definitely be coming back!

Hmmmm !!!
I have not been to this restaurant yet, but must say, the photos and great reviews make this place a must visit. Additionally, the Moroccan cooking classes and unique cocktails appear to be quite special!
I did notice, however, that the Unilocal description of this restaurant has a special navigation button for happy hour specials that simply links to their regular menu. This should be removed or actually navigate to a complete description of such specials. I would have visited sooner had this been in place!
This functionality could also collect emails and real time texting information to further promote specials or possibly generate immediate customers during a slow period.
Looking forward to our first visit !

I’ve been going back and forth, whether or not to write this review. I have experienced a something I have never encountered before. A negative review for a restaurant that prepares amazing food.
It comes down to whether or not I should support a business that is ran by someone that is completely rude. This past Saturday I went with my family and my in-​laws. We were a big group, 6 adults, a 10 year old, and two toddlers. I brought them here, ironically, to show them that this was my favorite restaurant. We ordered the Feast Option 2, which is $ 39 per person, we ordered for 6 adults. Mind you my 10 year old is vegetarian, and the other two were not in the mood to eat, instead were glued to my phone.
When the food was first served, I immediately felt like something was off. I have come to this restaurant too many times to not understand portion size. Everyone kept telling me to wait for the rest of the food, they were sure portion size would be much larger as the meal went on. By the time we hit dessert, I was upset. But, trying to offer my favorite place another chance, I politely and discretely went over to ask whom I can speak with in regard to my concern. I did not want to make a scene, and I definitely did not want other customers to notice my complaint. (It was all based on my emotional attachment to this place.)
When I started speaking to the owner, he just started blowing me off. I was patient and respectful the whole time. I tried to explain to him that I have been there many times, and I knew what the portion size was for one person, two… etc. But he just kept ignoring what I had to say and cutting me off. It was getting really frustrating, and I kept trying to voice my opinion. Once he was finished talking he didn’t let me talk, neither did he care to hear of it, he told me he had customers to attend and he would be right back. I felt completely belittled to the point of tears. I was actually about to cry so I decided to head back to our table and just pay the check. The owner saw me a few more times, and made no effort to talk to me. Instead he avoided eye contact. I was so hurt and upset. As soon as my husband realized what had happened, he believed that the owner disregarded my opinion because I was a woman. As I looked back, he never actually looked at me, and when he came over at the beginning, he only spoke to the men at the table. It made sense, it has been a while since I have felt so belittled in such a way, where my voice didn’t count.
My husband told me to write this review, but I just could not decide whether or not my experience affected the rating of this restaurant, since the food is great. Obviously, I decided to review, because a restaurant is not only about the food but about the experience. After watching the movie Burnt, I realized that classy restaurants treat their guests with the utmost respect and choose not to ignore them, be rude to them, or belittle them, (because they happen to believe they are right). I guess at this restaurant, it is not about us. It is about him.
It is ironic that a restaurant in Hillcrest could be managed by someone whom appears to be discriminative in an area where people are suppose to be open minded and respected regardless of race, sex or orientation.

This place is great for a date night! The lighting and environment is really intimate and the food is really good! Ordered the chicken kebab. Was tasty and came with rice and side veggies. But I would recommend getting the kefta kabob. Definitely tastier and not as dry as the chicken. Price is a tad high but for the quality and the environment, it’s worth the price. I’d come here again for another special occasion!

Food — ⁵⁄₅. Exceptionally flavorful and different.
Service — ⁵⁄₅. Swift.
Variety — ³⁄₅ for vegetarians.
Ambience — ⁴⁄₅. A little too dark but cosy and comfy.
Price — ⁴⁄₅. A little on the higher end, but worth every dime.
4.5 ideally. Delicious vegetarian options. Of my fav. restaurants in SD.
Try the appetizer vegetarian platter, potato side, stuffed bell pepper tagine. You’ll not regret!

Gotta love this Gem of a place! We got the tomato cucumber salad that was very refreshing and amazing! My friends and I all got kebobs (chicken and ground beef) was very good! We all did not have anything left on our plates! That says a lot of how good the food is.

Checked out this place with some friends last night and we were pleasantly surprised. Downstairs in this hidden gem of a locale, we ventured to try some staple Moroccan dishes. Our server was more than accommodating and friendly, as he told us which of their dishes were halal/​zabiha friendly (kosher for religious/​dietary purposes). We ended up choosing the lamb chops as an appetizer, chicken tagine, and kefta tagine. Everything was so so good. Although I have to admit, my favorite part was the round pitas with the cinnamon almond yogurt sauce– those were amazing! We definitely loved the service and food here and can recommend kous kous without any reservations… Well make a reservation to ensure seating, but you get the gist

The last time I was here was like a year ago, coming back yeh place looks totally different! It looks more «Moroccan» now. You’ll see with the décor.
Food is heavy, so don’t think you’ll be able to finish the feast for 2! We didn’t get that this time because we always have left overs, so we decided to go light and order a plate each and no apps. We ordered the lamb tangine and grilled shrimp skewers. I never had seafood here but it was a bit salty… They did give you like a good amount of jumbo shrimp though. The lamb tangine wasn’t as good as I remembered… The flavors were very light… Kinda tasteless in my opinion… The couscous was still really good though.
Since I’ve been almost everywhere, I’m slowly doing updates to all the places I’ve been too and realize that places aren’t as good as they used to be. Kous kous as one of them, but there’s nothing around here like it, so it’s still good but not as good as before.

I almost never give 5 stars.
But this place has my heart and soul :)
Our server was Paul (the owner’s brother), and I was so excited to practice my (limited) Arabic with him! The table next to us ordered B’stilla, & it caught my boyfriend’s eye. Paul said it was a traditional Moroccan dish, and since he is from Marrakech, we got it and loved it so much. It has chicken and saffron tucked into this crispy pastry that says hello to your mouth in every bite. I then remembered I had this before in Fes, two years ago in Morocco, but they make it there with pigeon, honey, and walnuts.
We also savored the Vegetarian Sampler platter; my boyfriend has been here before & asked to substitute out the Moroccan potato salad. The kefta kebab and the shrimp kebab were also delicious.
And don’t forget the drinks. I had the Spice Merchant which has rum, vanilla bitters, lime, & almond. It is almost a dessert w/​just the right amount of sweetness, and I had a second round. My boyfriend had the Moroccan Tea drink, and he would have had another but for driving. We rounded out the meal w/​the Vanilla Custard which comes in a Martini Glass.
The environment is intimate and friendly, and the service was impeccable. «Shu-​Ka-​Raun» (Arabic for Thank you) to the staff for a lovely dining experience.

I missed Montréal so I looked for fanatical Morrocon food.
I definitely found it.
The ambiance is dim, mint scented with wafes of lamb floating through the air.
I ordered four dishes to taste. Lamb chops. Kefta. Merguez. And spicy carrots with Morrocon bread. The lamb chops were out of this world on a delicious bed of orange rice.
I stuffed the Merguez and the kefta until I could eat no more. The meat was quality and left no aftertaste.
No room got dessert
Thanks Memoun!!!

Best friend brought me to this place as a belated birthday dinner and man is this place good. The food is so unique for the San Diego scene. Coming in with daylight out, the restaurant is actually a bit dark inside. The décor is very unique and each table has real candles to give an authentic experience. It was a tad hard to read the menus though.
They have so many options here! While i was tempting to go for the full plates, we went for a large variety of tapas to try everything!
Cous Cous Salad — excellent. Very light and full of flavor. We used this as a palette cleanser for when things get too rich. I’m not sure why they spell Cous Cous here with C’s and the restaurants with K’s… I forgot to ask.
Zaalouk — roasted eggplant amazingess on top of some pita bread. A definitely must order but is quite filling so be careful!
Moroccan Salad — very light and extremely tasty. Must order.
Moraccan sliders — these sounded good but turned out to be meh. There’s too much going on and while there were generous portions of meat… it didn’t fit together very well
Lamb Chops — must order. these are grilled to perfection honestly. Some of the best lamb I ever had.
Merguez — delicious lamb sausage. The seasoning is practically on point.
Beef Kabob — excellent filet mignon.
Kefta Kabob — extremely filling and interesting seasoning.
All of the meat tapas were served on top of saffron rice which was AMAZING. I saved some togo and when I was microwaving it, I could smell the seasoning throughout the entire house. I need to come back some time and try their other offerings. They have so much more! Oh! And our waitress was excellent. She took care of us really well.

Came here for dinner on a Friday. I made reservations a couple weeks in advance since this restaurant seemed pretty popular!
We were immediately greeted when we walked in. I loved the décor! There’s even a movie playing in the back. I didn’t really like how dark it was in there though, kind of hard to see the menus but it’s cool that they light real candles for each table.
Started with some cocktails. I got the taxi tea which wasn’t bad. Not too sweet and you can still taste the tea. Friend got the mule, which he wasn’t fond of because he’s a mule snob lolol. His own fault, I’m sure it was delicious.
The menu gives lots of options. You can do tapas, main plates or set courses. We went with tapas since I can’t stomach what I think I can. We started with the cous cous salad, moraccan sliders, Moroccan salad, and zaalouk. Loved the zaalouk and Moroccan salad. Definitely recommend trying those two. The sliders were meh. Didn’t know what was going on there. Not really worth it.
For the kebabs we got the ketfta, beef, lamb chops and merguez. The merguez is a bit on the saltier side and had a lot going on but my favorite was the lamb chops. Well reasoned and tender!
Overall, a great experience here!

This place is SO good! It’s a little bit hard to find, but the «Kous Kous» sign is on the first story of the building and the restaurant is underneath.
I started off with the free carrot appetizer they gave and the carrots were seasoned very well. Then, I had the chicken tagine for $ 20 and it was absolutely amazing! The chicken was extremely tender (basically fell off the bone) and the sauce was super flavorful with a hint of lemon. I replaced the saffron rice side with cous cous for $ 2 extra and it was probably the best cous cous I have ever had in my life. It was extremely soft and the spices were mixed into the perfect flavor. It also comes with bread and an amazing dipping sauce.
The only con was the photo of the lady in the women’s bathroom. Both my friend and I felt like her eyes were following us and it still kinda freaks me out thinking about it.
Overall, I definitely want to come back soon and try their other dishes!

After a day of traveling, a comforting meal was in order, and the rich, exotic flavors of Morocco sounded like the perfect way to end that particular Sunday. I had been to Kous Kous years prior, but for whatever reason it tends to escape my radar. That may be largely due to the fact that my reason for being in that area is usually inspired by my fierce inclination to imbibe at Kous Kous’ upstairs neighbor, Martinis. Martinis gives me tunnel vision where I can’t see anything in my periphery.
The dining space at Kous Kous is just as I remembered. A tasteful rich color palette graces the spacious interior, touching on Moroccan motifs and patterns that are visibly present but not too obvious as if they’re playing to a theme. The space is quite beautiful. They also offer a lovely outdoor patio that I didn’t realize existed until this recent visit. I would love to come for happy hour sometime with a group of friends and readily take advantage of that feature.
Upon being seated, we were greeted by our waiter and he did a nice job of explaining the menu and how the tagines are served. We both started with glasses of their homemade sangria. They were a little light for my taste (I prefer sangrias to be a little heavier on the wine), but nevertheless refreshing. For appetizers, we decided on two items: the ZAALOUK and the SHAK-​SHOUKA. The Zaalouk is a roasted eggplant construction, and the Shak-​Shouka is composed of roasted bell pepper and tomatoes. Both were similar in texture and spices, served alongside a generous portion of pita bread. We absolutely adored these starters and won’t hesitate to ask for them again on future visits.
For my entrée, I decided on the BEEF TAGINE that is served with cous cous, carrots, peas and olives. The meat was delightfully tender and flavorful. The deep, rich spices permeated every bite. It’s clear that Kous Kous has mastered their tagine recipes and have them down to a delicious science. We also ordered a side of their Saffron Rice. I highly recommend this — it’s served with an aioli that I couldn’t get enough of. I was smearing the aioli on everything. Also served with our meal was their baked Moroccan Bread. I thought it was a little dry; the pita bread tasted much better.
A definite 5-​star experience as it pertains to the cuisine. So why 4-​starts? The service that night was painfully slow, unfortunately. We waited almost thirty minutes for our appetizers. The entrees came out almost thirty minutes after the appetizers. It appeared that they were just unfortunately understaffed that evening. We were not in a rush, so that was fortunate.
Kous Kous is a wonderful little gem in Hillcrest. A bit obscure on the block, so look carefully. You don’t want to miss visiting them and their wonderful menu.

I love the vibe of this place. It’s intimate, it’s sexy, and it’s subterranean. We got here at the beginning of dinner service, and basically had the place all to ourselves. There is a mood created here that feels musky and dusky, and it adds another layer to the dining experience.
We tried the:
Zaalouk: Roasted eggplant flavored with cumin, olive oil, and lemon preserve
’Shak-​Shouka: Roasted tomato and bell pepper, garlic, cumin and paprika. Served
with grilled pita
Fassi Lamb Shank Tagine: Ras el hanout honey sauce, caramelized dried fruit, toasted almonds, and sesame seeds.
There were a lot of wonderful flavors happening in our dishes that brought home the Moroccan flair; cumin, cinnamon, saffron rice, cardamon and paprika. Our dishes were well laid out and the bread they served was made in house, and was delicious!
Overall I feel that the Lamb Tagine fell a little flat for me– the lamb was more gamey than I would have liked, and the honey sauce, although perfect for dipping the bread in, didn’t have enough depth to really leave me wanting more. I actually thought the star of the show in that dish was the caramelized dried fruit– it was packed full of flavors in the sauce, and I would have ordered just that as a dish!
We also had the champagne kiss, which uses St Germains, and anything with a lychee flavor always is a winner for me.
Lastly, it said on the happy hour menu that vegetarian dishes were discounted, but what they didn’t say was that your ENTIRE order had to be vegetarian to get the discount. That is pretty shady, and I’m not really a big fan of that type of advertising. I guess I always need to confirm, but really?
Overall, we had a great dining experience, a fantastic server, and an altogether beautiful evening. I’m not convinced that the food is elevated enough to warrant a 5 star rating, but I would most definitely come back here and try again!
4 stars.

Intimate! Charming! Delicious! What more could you ask for?!
The mint tea is delicious. It is my go-​to when ever I go for Moroccan. It’s basically green tea, mint and honey. I make it at home sometimes.
The food was authentic and delicious. Service was top-​notch and ambiance was intimate and romantic.