Morocco House – 876 Brown’s Line, Etobicoke, ON M8W 3W2
Country: Morocco 
Seating: Only indoor seating. 
Must-try dish: Beef Vegetable Tagine 
Dinner guests: Loud Lucy, Pornstar Sam, RP, The Ballerina & Uncle Yusuf 
The high: Discovering Moroccan style mint tea. 
The low: The service was confusing to say the least. It was friendly, but felt as though we were managing our own table and dishes, which wasn’t meant to be the case. 

You can find Morocco House in an average plaza off the QEW highway in Etobicoke, but once you enter the restaurant, it takes you straight to the Medinas of Marrakech or Fez. The walls are dressed in a wallpaper of Moroccan-style buildings, giving the impression of being in the middle of the action, while the sofas are adorned with traditional fabric that you would see in most of the eateries in the country. The icing on the cake was the Moroccan music playing from the speakers during the course of the meal. 

In true Moroccan nature, we started off with a pot of mint tea that came sweetened, and even the least likely tea drinkers at the table were impressed with it. It’s served in an antique silver teapot with small glasses on a large tray that was accessible to all in the centre of the table. Once the tea arrived, we got down to business in deciding which dips, tagines and couscous to order for dinner. 

We started off with two orders of the Zaalook Warm Salad, which is cooked eggplant and spices in a tomato base, and the Kenitra Hummus, which is a ground chickpea base with tomatoes, onions and turnip topped with sesame seeds. Both came with warm pita bread for dipping. 

The tagine course is where things got a little tricky. The meat is slow-cooked, and easily falls off the bone, but the problem is that there are still bones in the dishes, so don’t say we didn’t warn you! A tagine is cookware native to North Africa that’s used to slow cook stews in either an oven or over the fire. It’s usually made with ceramic and has a lid that covers it that looks like a pointy hat for your head. The shape of the cookware allows for additional moisture to be brought back into the dish as the stew evaporates and then slides back down into the dish via the cone shaped lid.

Tagines are the star of the show in Moroccan cuisine, and we ordered three of the four on the menu to share. The Lemon Chicken Tagine is fresh from the citrus and is aromatic from the Moroccan herbs, spices and preserved lemon pieces. It’s strongly advised not to eat the preserved lemons because they aren’t meant to be enjoyed, but instead to add flavour to a dish. If you’re feeling adventurous, go at your own risk. 

There was a tight competition between the next two tagines for the award of the “must-try dish” of the evening. The runner-up was the Kofta Tagine, which is made up of minced beef rolled into meatballs in a tomato sauce with spices topped with a poached egg. It was a favourite because it was cooked with savoury spices and the meat was tender to bite into. The winner was the Beef Vegetable Tagine, which is a stew made with braised beef and a variety of vegetables. The meat literally falls off the bone as you touch it, but there are bones nonetheless. 

The last dish was the Royal Couscous with Chicken and Lamb. This is a classic Moroccan dish, which is their version of a minuscule grain (but made with wheat) that’s cooked with meat, vegetables, and spices. This one had both chicken and lamb (with bones), onions and raisins to add sweetness to counterbalance the other dishes. Despite being rich, it diversified the rest of the meal. 

Before paying, we were gifted a plate of desserts made up of fried pieces of dough coated in honey and sesame seeds. This led us to the big question of the night – is Mandrea Bike so famous that we’re getting freebies? It certainly looks that way! 

Eat with you soon, 

Mandrea Bike
(Mat & Andrea)