Taste of Morocco

We (group of 4) went there with Groupon ($ 40). The food is not bad. On the other hand, it is not so great! The decoration is kind of cheap (but OK). The thing I did not like this place is about the price and discount:
1). They have %15 off on weekday, which is about the same as we purchase groupon.
2). All dishes are about $ 15+ (even it is just chicken and rice). The food quality is about the same as some good places in the food court at mall. So, it is overprice (shold be $ 10).
3). The worse part is they charge 20% (not 15%) tips on our bill by themselves. Which we did not like it at all.
So, with group ($ 40), the bill come up $ 100 for 4. Not a great deal at all unless you really want to try Morocoo food.

great service!
Food was good, but not the best.
Got the Royal feast for 2 and substituted one of the tagines for lamb couscous and got the lamb tagine. Like everyone has said, the chicken bastilla is like a dessert for an appetizer which is why its so good! Royal salad was good, but thought it would come out with veggies as well as the pita bread but no such luck. I think I was spoiled by previous experiences elsewhere. The lamb was oh so tender, but not quite as much flavor as I would have liked. Mint tea is awesome.

There are many unique experiences in the DC metro area, and if you’re looking for one of those, I suggest you go elsewhere.
The evening started out well. We had one of those $ 50
certificates, which we showed to the very nice and friendly waitress. She acknowledged this and told us to save it for when the bill comes out. She was super friendly and went through the menu with us. We ended up getting the seafood bastilla, which was great, but it all went downhill from there.
When the main courses (lamb with veggies and lamb with raisins/​almonds) came out, we were surprised by the small portions for the price. The food was ok, but nothing special.
Then came the horror. We waited, and waited, and waited for the waitress to come back to ask for check. I swear we waited ~25 min, during which she effectively avoided all eye contact and even waving at her. Eventually, the husband went up to the front to ask for the check, where he was chewed out by the hostess/​manager (?) for not giving the certificate at the beginning of the order. w.t.f. Having both worked in the service industry, I think we are both understanding when a restaurant is in the weeds or have a bad day, but the restaurant was half empty! This behavior was inexcusable.

We had dinner there last night and enjoyed the dinner for two.
We chose the royal salad to start — a tasty collection of 5 salads. Next the chicken bastilla — delicious. Our tangines were the chicken with preserved lemons and olives and the lamb with sweet potato, both very good and served with saffron rice. To end we were given biscuits and mint tea. The tea was good — the biscuits, not so much. I thought we were getting baklava but it wasn’t a big deal so I didn’t complain.
The service was a bit slow, but very friendly. All in all a great experience and we’d go back.

I felt so adventurous eating here! We went for a special dinner, my husband and I, on a Saturday night. The food was a-​maz-​ing. The bellydancer was amusing, but made us feel a bit awkward at times.
I would go back, yum!

Excellent, excellent, excellent!
My girlfriend and I went on a Thursday night (in part due to the loss of power in Silver Spring) around 6:30 PM. The food was excellent and the service was great.
We decided to go here after seeing a coupon for this place on
. In due course, we bought a $ 25 coupon which necessitated that we spend $ 50. We thus got the Royal Dinner for 2. The dinner came with a choice of soup or salad for each (but, strangely enough, they only offered the choice of soup for both or salad for both, not one salad, one soup). We both got the Harrira, a national Moroccan soup composed of lentils and chickpeas with a tomato base– a very good soup (served with big wooden spoons, too).
We then got a bastilla, a pastry with chicken inside and Moroccan spices fried and then served with cinnamon and powdered sugar. The pastry was delicious and we scarfed it down quickly– the dough was crispy, the insides were delicious, overall an excellent appetizer.
Then came the piece de resistance– the chicken and lamb tagines (which I pronounced incorrectly, much to the humor and chagrin of my girlfriend). The chicken was good, but the lamb… the lamb was HEAVENLY. The meat literally melted off the bone! It was perhaps one of the, if not THE BEST, lamb I had ever had in my life. Definitely made the night.
The meal ended with Moroccan Mint Tea and (what we expected to be) baklava. What we ended up with, strangely enough, was an excellent Mint Tea with… sesame seed candy? We received little blocks of this candy instead of the baklava, despite what it said on the menu. It was ok but my gf and I were really looking forward to some crispy, honey-​drenched deliciousness. Alas…
Regardless, the restaurant was a great place to go and was very cheap with the coupon. The décor was alright (falling a bit on the side of kitschy, Middle Eastern theme), the service was alright despite the fact that two parties were in the restaurant, but the food itself (outside of the baklava snafu) was out of this world. Highly recommended.

I’ll echo another reviewer– I am almost always skeptical about Mall-​attached restaurants. This might be my biggest exception ever.
We loved it. We went a little early on a Sunday, so the dancing hadn’t begun yet (if it even happens on a Sunday. I dunno). The lady who was taking care of us asked if it was our first time, and helped us sort out what was what. We went with one of the special «feasts» for two. A great idea.
The Royal Salad is a fantastic option. Don’t think lettuce and sliced carrots with some dressing. No no no. This was 5 or 6 things (hummus, for example) with fresh pita bread to scoop it onto. My favorite, if you ever order just 1 salad, was the red pepper one. That was out of this world.
Second, we got the Bastilla. They push these hard on the menu. They’re a little pricy, but if you’re getting the combo you get one. It was also outstanding. I personally love food with some spices involved (spices, mind you. I’m not saying this was spicy: P). The chicken Bastilla was worth the hype.
Dinner was awesome. We got to pick fwo tagnines (entrees). I had lamb shank with almonds and raisins. My wife got chicken with vegetables. Both were really, really good dishes and I’ll have a hard time picking something new next time I go because that lamb was so tasty.
To finish, you get some dessert with a hot mint tea, which both went well together. I think there’s a different dessert every once in awhile. This time I cannot remember the name, but it was quite good and went nicely with the tea.
Be sure to get some of the unsweetened mint tea. This is important… it’s unsweetened! I love iced tea with mint that’s not sweet, so this was up my alley 100%. Free refills, too.
Overall it was a great experience. The lady who served our table was great about explaining each dish, checking on us, and making sure the visit was a good one. It certainly was. We’ll be back.

Our first experience at Taste of Morocco was a success!
I have a bias towards restaurants located inside shopping malls, as this one is, but once you get over that, you’ll have a good time. What it lacks in location, Taste of Morocco makes up for in quality of food and service.
For drinks we ordered the mint ice tea, which, if you like unsweetened ice tea, as I do, you’ll love this. Also — bottomless refills. Two of my favorite words.
As an appetizer we were given some Moroccan olives, served with seasoned olive oil, along with some fresh baked bread. Both were excellent!
For entrees we ordered two lamb dishes — the Spicy Lamb and the Lamb with Prunes (expertly recommended by our helpful server). Both cost us $ 16.99 and included a nice (though small portion) of yellow rice. Both of our lamb shanks were perfectly cooked, with meat falling off the bone. My Spicy Lamb was wonderfully spicy, with some excellent flavor — somewhat salty, but very very good in the end. My fiancé enjoyed her Lamb with Prunes so much that I didn’t even get offered a bite; a very good sign.
According to our server, who had a great attitude, though she seemed to be working alone that night, there is belly dancing on Saturday and Sunday nights. We left looking forward to returning on a weekend night for more excellent food and some authentic Moroccan entertainment.
Definitely a winner!

Taste of Morocco is a solid restaurant that just doesn’t quite make it to being great. The service on our visit was polite and reasonably prompt. And, unlike many inexpensive ethnic restaurants, they have made a concerted effort to have an interesting décor.
On my most recent visit, the baba ghanoush was somewhat flavorless, lacking the pronounced smokiness that usually makes it one of my favorites. The merguez tagine I ordered had delicious merguez sausages, but lacked anything else, like say vegetable matter. While it was plenty of food for me, I think some people might have been disappointed by portion size. The other dish we got, chicken with olives and lemon was very good (the roasted lemon is a treat), but again it was basically just a big piece of meat with no vegetables or anything else besides olives and the rice that accompanied both dishes. A lot these things may not be problems per se but just the way that Moroccan cuisine is; I don’t know.
Basically, both dishes had good flavor, but neither really wowed me. I’d probably rank this more like a 3.5, really. I think it also gets downgraded somewhat in my mind just because Silver Spring has so many excellent restaurants. Elsewhere this would probably be a strong choice.

I’ve been here a few times. It’s fairly good fare and fun to go with friends if they happen to have bellydancing that particular evening.
I usually opt for the too-​much-​food dinner-​for-​two plans. I will have to say as an unrepentant meat-​eater that I prefer the vegetarian option much better. The vegetables are cooked really well, and when put in the bastilla, it is amazingly tasty. The chicken bastilla I’ve had in comparison was dry and not nearly as flavorful.
I also really like the olive oil, olives, & bread they bring at the beginning, which are very tasty. The other dish I have liked was the tagine with chicken and preserved lemon & olives. I love the salty-​sweet combination, and the chicken in this dish is typically less dried out & overcooked than some of the other dishes.
Overall, I’ve been pretty happy with the service and the food. The belly dancing is a nice extra to make the meal an event.

I went here with about 6 family members, I do not remember the occasion, maybe just the fact that we were together…
I will keep this brief, the server seemed like a swindler, sick man… I got some chicken and couscous, I usually love the pairing… However on this miserable night I was left extremely disappointed by chicken exhibiting no flavor, it was severely overcooked… There is not much left to say about the food… Baklava for desert was good, but its not the hardest thing to get right… pardon me if I offended any Baklava producers…
I really have nothing left to say about this place, save your money and dont bother, unless you enjoy bad food and sick hairy Morrocain servers.

I’ve eaten at Taste of Morocco a number of times, and each time has been somewhat of an adventure.
I’m a sucker for tastings, and their «Moroccan Feasts» for two let you eat your way through a few different courses. I’ve gotten the Walima a couple of times, and it’s always way too much food! I don’t learn, though, because it’s delicious — and, like I said, I’m a sucker!
I don’t think we’ve ever gotten a truly disappointing dish here. I love the flaky-​crusted bastilla, especially the vegetarian one. I once ordered the seafood bastilla and didn’t finish it — and the waiter wouldn’t let me take home the leftovers because it was seafood and apparently «dangerous» to eat as leftovers. It’s cooked seafood, so I’m not convinced that there’s any more danger the next day than there was at dinner! My favorite entrée is the chicken tagine with olives and lemon. The stewed lemon is a complete surprise — it’s savory and sweet and completely edible (even the peel!). And even when I’m stuffed, I make room for the mint tea and pastries at the end. I’ve never had tastier mint tea!
The restaurant has tables along the wall with benches that are covered in pillows, and the restaurant is draped with wallhangings and curtains and whatnot. On some nights, there’s bellydancing, and the place can get really noisy and packed. The staff can be friendly, sometimes overbearingly so. On one visit with a female friend, the waiter spent the entire meal flirting and offered that if we came back the following night, we’d eat for free. Uh, no thanks. I don’t put out for mint tea and bastilla.

Lovely Unilocaler Maya gave me a gift cert to here, so I met my mom and a friend for dinner.
I opted for the royal salad which was a five salad combo — hommos, baba ghanoush, tomato-​cucumber, etc. It looked fantastic on paper, but was just ok in execution.
My mother order the vegetable tangine with eggplant. Meh. Chunks of vegetables and a side of eggplant and saffron rice. When I say chunks I mean chunks. Didn’t look appetizing at all. My mother said the chunky thing is very African, and I’ll take her word for it. I’ve only been to Morocco in Africa. She has me beat by a few countries.
Onto our friend. She hit the home run w/​the T’faya coucous, and gosh darn it didn’t my mother and I wish we had ordered that! It was coucous with some sweet concoction. Not exactly sure what, but it did have raisins. Very tasty.
I had the baklava dessert. For $ 5, I should have just walked around the corner and gotten better baklava from Lebanese Taverna. The waiter told me they make the baklava at Taste of Morocco. If that is so, they may want to reconsider. Wasn’t horrible, just not memorable.
The décor is not too cheesy, the belly dancer performance quite long.
I would say the key to eating here is knowing what to order. It is clearly hit or miss.
Thanks again, Maya!

We had an enjoyable evening here for a friend’s bday. There must have been about a dozen of us, so of course, they tried to first sell us on the ‘Package Menu’. This happens to be a special offer for groups of 8 and up that costs $ 26 but includes salad, chicken bastilla, couscous, lamb & chicken tangine, mint tea and dessert. At first we were confused because the waiter made it sound as though if we were in a group of 8 or up, we had to order this deal. Nice try, servers, nice try. However, we figured out their pitch quickly.
I got the lamb couscous, which was delicious. The lamb was tender, it fell off the bone, the couscous was tasty and the side of vegetables were well-​steamed and complimented the dish nicely. The portion was so big that I had enough for lunch the next day too.
The restaurant was quite accommodating toward us. The belly dancer came, put on her show, and even got the birthday girl up to do a special little dance with her. At the end they brought out the cake we had brought in (without charging us a plate fee!), and piped in their own version of Happy Birthday over the loudspeakers. Fun times!

We stumbled on this place after a movie at the AFI. I had no expectations. I was surprised how much I loved the food. The service was friendly but really disjointed. My only complaint is the waiter kept forgetting things. We were really not impressed with their special dish — the seafood bastilla, but we were crazy about everything else —
hummos and black olives to start —
Then I had Chicken w/​preserved lemon and Olives — It just fell of the bone. The same was true of the spicy chicken. My Companions raved about the tagine lamb and the lamb w/​raisins.
The traditional mint tea is seriously wonderful the waiter also did a big show w/​the presentation of the tea pouring it from way high in the air to tiny little tea glasses.
There was not a spot of food left on any of the plates when we walked out!

Perhaps it’s livelier on a weekend night, with the bellydancing. But on a weekday night, it was dead quiet, with just a handful of tables taken. It was a sign.
Our server was friendly but gave me the uncomfortable and irritated feeling that her function was more of a salesman than a guide. First off, she tried to get us to order the «feast» option for $ 26 per person before we even really looked at the menu. The menu says it’s for larger groups but based on the previous reviews, I’m guessing they often make this available to anyone who’s willing to pay up. When we decided against that, then she tried to get us to order the (most expensive) appetizer sampler instead of going with just one appetizer or another.
The upselling was tiring. I actually feel that a lot of the offerings were overpriced to begin with, so the audacity to try to get us to spend more was incredulous. And I wasn’t even paying! So here goes my curmudgeonly cheapskate grampa rant.
We ended up going with the recommended «Royal Salad» to start, the $ 12.99 appetizer sampler comprised of small dollops of hummus, cucumber salad, eggplant salad and baba gannouge on a dinner plate. Generally fresh and bland, but these things usually taste bland to me. I was mostly just surprised at how small the dollops were.
The appetizer plate came out with a bowl of bread and what looked and tasted like store-​bought pita. The bread was warm and fluffy but besides that, it was whatever with a bit of dryness, which is sad because I love bread. The olive oil with salty cured black olives that came out for dipping, however, was awesome and very flavorful with spices sunken at the bottom. When we ran out of bread, we asked for some more — only to have it come out about 10 minutes later. We were also charged for the extra bread– $ 2.50. Harumph.
My kid got the «Taste of Morocco juice» which was supposed to be a blend of different freshly juiced tropical fruits, but was definitely sweetened to the point that it tasted like it had come from a kid’s juice box. $ 4.99 for a juice box. Harumph.
For my dinner, I had the «Sweetness Under the Sea» which was a huge log of red snapper (it was a filet but it looked like a log) doused in a sweet dark sauce with plumped up raisins and the noticeable grit of sugar. The first few bites were tasty, but by the end, it was just too much fish and too much sweetness. And that is saying something, because typically, I love sweetness and I can easily eat a lumberjack’s portion of food. I couldn’t even entertain the thought of getting ice cream after, because my dinner was so sugary. If they had cut the portion and cut the $ 17.99 price tag, it probably would have been perfectly suitable. My husband got the chicken and dates tagine. I tasted a bite and thought it tasted OK. $ 15 salted mushy stewed chicken.
The one interesting thing they did was that at the bottom of the check, they included a «$ 20 gift certificate» for any return visit on a weekday within two weeks. Unfortunately, I just didn’t find the place worth it to return to, even with the $ 20 off. While the décor is colorful and interesting, and the olive oil with black olives is awesome, it’s just not enough to make me want to go back.

A good friend of mine spent last year in Morocco and sparked my interest in trying Moroccan food. Unfortunately, A Taste of Morocco in Silver Spring has given me a less than stellar impression.
The bread was not what I was expecting; it looked more like the kind served at Subway than what I’d get in a restaurant. As an appetizer, this was paired with ice-​cold baba ghanoush — so cold that any taste of my normally favorite eggplant dish was lost. I ended up enjoying the complimentary oil and olives to dip the bread in far more than the appetizer itself.
Although the portion sizes are certainly generous, none of the food seemed seasoned with anything other than saffron. Without any detectable spice or salt in my lamb with vegetables, I ended up leaving almost half of it still on my plate. The waiter seemed pleasant and attentive, but then proceeded to start busing the table after taking our plates — not just clearing our dishes, I mean. He actually pulled out a dishrag with an overpowering industrial-​strength cleanser and wiped down our table, as though no one was even sitting there!
The evening belly-​dancing, which seemed like it had the most potential to redeem the experience, wasn’t so much belly-​dancing as hip-​and-​arm dancing. Very little of the belly seemed involved, although she was definitely friendly and not shy about interacting with a customer.
I guess my quest for good Moroccan food will have to be pursued elsewhere. In my opinion, it’s not going to be found anywhere in this place.

Oh dear. This is not the place to taste the glories of Moroccan food.
The harrira [soup of tomato base with rice, lentils, and chickpeas] is better than Taverna’s, and the staple salad of cucumber and tomato has some flavor that is often lost, but the bread is just gross. The b’stella is less than mediocre and I would never ever suggest ordering it. My chicken, olive, and lemon tanjine was fine, but all of the food just lacked the life and luster that I find so appealing about Moroccan food.
Two kisses for the nice tea and Ramadan cookies.

This was the first time I had ever had Moroccan food and boy was I surprised. I’m not usually the adventurous type when it comes to trying new styles of food, but the other weekend was an exception. My friend Evan suggested we try going here and I’m really glad we did.
Even though the restaurant is located in a mall, it has an unique atmosphere generated by the various colors on the wall, décor and architecture. Our waiter was extremely nice as he started us out with the some of the best bread I’ve eaten. I don’t say that lightly because I love bread. It was warm with a nice, crispy crust. It’s almost as if they had a brick oven in the back and they had someone making home-​made bread all day long.
We decided to get the feast (it’s the one for eight people at $ 25 a person). Our waiter let us order that because they were a little slow and I’m sure it helps them drum up sales. With the bread, we had an appetizer plate of hummus, sweet rice with raisins, eggplant and another option I didn’t get a chance to try. I loved the sweet rice. It provided a great, contrasting flavor to the warm bread. Next, we were brought a chicken bastilla. This, by far, was the most unique dish we had. This almost looked like something you could get at a carnival. It had pulled chicken in it and it was sandwiched between two fried tortillas topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar.
The main entrees were vegetarian couscous, lamb with almonds and raisins and alpine chicken. The meat here is so juicy. Everything almost seemed to melt in your mouth. It was incredible. I especially like the alpine chicken. Even though I was getting the meat straight from the bone, it tasted like it was pulled chicken. Come to think of it, I’m not even sure if the bastilla wasn’t just normal chicken. At the end of the feast, we had some fresh fruit and some mint tea.
If you are looking to get in and get out and you have someplace to be, this is not the restaurant that will make that happen for you. Be prepared to sit for a good while and just digest after each course. This almost validated the atmosphere as authentic and genuine. They also have a belly dancer who performs on Saturday nights. She was very entertaining and will come up close to your table and get everyone involved.
I’ll definitely be back to taste more of their menu.

If you can get past the location (in a ghettofabulous mall, but not so fabulous) this place is great. After the unfortunate Moroccan experience in Dupont I was pleasantly surprised to discover this one. My boyfriend and I decided to get the Walima for two. It was a ridiculous amount of food. Actually we thought the bastila was one of our entrees instead of another appetizer. The lamb tagine was a bit too fatty, but had great flavors. The server was so friendly and the belly dancer added a fun little flare. I was a bit thrown off by the fruit bowl at the end. It is a bowl with a whole banana, apple, and orange. It was a little quirky… like the place.