http://www.moroccosrestaurant.com/Well, Alicia and I ordered a groupon for this restaurant a while ago and it was time to cash it in and check the place out. Not surprisingly Morocco's restaurant serves Moroccan food. We made a reservation for 6:30pm today and arrived a few minutes early. It took a five to 10 minutes for us to get seated. I mean literally no one came to the front until five to ten minutes had elapsed. Not a good start but I could tell by only one server hustling around on the tables they were short staff for the shift. We were seated in the very colorful and small dining room (see picture) at a table for two. They had a lot of interesting items on the menu but as we were two people we had to limit our selections to three things.
For our appetizer we ordered Briwatts, which are phyllo-dough turnovers. We got the sampler which contained a vegetarian, a crab, and a chicken version. All three were very different and very good. They were fried and spiced very well. I just wish there were more of them, they were a little small. I washed this down with a Morrocan lager called "Casablanca". It was a good beer that reminded of the beer I had in North Cyprus, light and refreshing (good for those hot climates I guess). Alicia had a Chilean Pinot Noir which she described as "spicy" and enjoyed it very much. We shared to main dishes, one a Tagine dish and the other a couscous. The Tagine was the Chicken M'Rouiza, which was a combination of 25 spices, honey, almonds and raisins. Being cooked in the Tagine made the meat extremely tender and it fell off the bone with the gentle tug of my fork. It was came with a side of rice spiced with oregano and saffron. This was good for soaking up the sauce and the loose raisins on the plate. This is truly the ultimate comfort food. As you may imagine this dish was a little sweet (as our server had told us) with honey and raisins so we made sure to make our other main dish more savory. That was the lamb & vegetable couscous. This lamb shank was very tender and like the chicken easily came off the bone. It was supposedly spiced with ginger, white pepper, and garlic. I really only tasted the pepper however that was fine with me, it was a great tasting piece of lamb. The couscous had garbanzo beans in it and the zucchini and carrots that came with it were fork tender.
Even though this was plenty of food I always have to try desert. We got some phyllo-dough turnovers. The flavor combination were white chocolate & strawberry and apricot & almond. They were both enjoyable but nothing special. We also got a warm chocolate cake that came with their seasonal ice cream (mint tea). The same could be said for the cake, we liked it but it was nothing special. The bill for two drinks, the appetizers, two entrees and two desserts was 76$ plus the tax and tip. Certainly worth it in both Alicia and my opinions. The host apologized for the delays in service and explained they were short staff for the night. Funny thing was besides waiting to be seated I thought the service was excellent. The staff was friendly and helpful with the menu being that it was our first time there and first time at a Moroccan place. I would definitely recommend this place to just about anyone. The menu is diverse enough with proteins and vegetables and levels of spice that you should be able to find something you like. I have a feeling I would like most everything there and plan on going back. The did have a special family style menu for groups of 4 or more (the table next to us got that) and that seemed very cool so we'll have to convince a couple of people to come along with us next time. If you are in San Jose, check this place out.