Delicious authentic Moroccan cuisine! I can understand maybe it's a new place and people have issues with service as they work out the kinks, but the food is stellar. Go see my man Ahmed for some killer home cooking. My wife and I had perfect tagine and couscous plus excellent service. Give this new AdMo spot a try you won't be let down.
update -Closed
Haiku #12:
Can't speak to the food
Didn't try the drinks either
But the hookah...bliss!
So I've only been here to hookah, and hookah we did. Â For the price (~$15) this hookah is great. Â I would even pay more for it. Â It was packed nice and smooth and lasted forever. Â The waiter was attentive, but not overbearing. Â The couple tables out front offer a nice chill spot at a welcome distance away from 18th Street's main drag. I'm a fan.
I was a lil sketchy based off some of the past reviews about this place. One thing I've learned with reviews is that everyone's taste and quality in things are not necessarily the same as yours.  I went on Thursday night where they have karaoke. WHAT A BLAST!!!! If  you are looking for inexpensive fun with decent drinks, go Thursday night. I had the hummus plate, pretty freaking good. I consider myself a hummus connoisseur, among many other things. The drinks were strong and wine was cheap in price. The service was average, the bartender wasn't that friendly, i'd have to admit. The place needs some work, but I was pleased. The hookah was fun too! Very inexpensive, as well!!!
Review Source:At first glance, you may not seem to notice this quaint little place stuffed between a vacant store front and another popluar hotspot in Adam's Morgan.But for those of you who want delicious Morrocan cuisine and hooka and host of delicious treats then you should try Marrakech Lounge. Â And check out the karaoke on Thursday nights, it's a hoot!
Review Source:Visited here last Friday night when we were in town because we had an expired Groupon that was still worth the value we paid for it; we thought we'd be in DC earlier, but life happens...
There were a couple of people in the place and since it was still early for dinner we were quickly seated and served. Â The waitress was nice and the service was good; we didn't experience the lack of urgency experienced by a few of previous reviewers. Â Hopefully, they've learned from reading the other reviews.
To start, we ordered the hummus and grape-leaves - both excellent. Â For the main course, we ordered the chicken marrakech tangine and couscous royal... also very good. Â
We also had a couple of glasses of wine each. Â We were charged $6 glass for $24 total and discovered on the street board when leaving that we had been there during Happy Hour and could have had wine at $3/glass... was mildly perturbed because I didn't remember seeing that board on the way in and I wasn't made aware of it when ordering.
Apparently, it does have hookah/shisha, which is always an attractive smell along with moroccan cuisine. Â They also set up outdoor comfy seating during the course of our visit.
It was a decent meal, but I think it really needs to do something to stand out from all the other international venues in the area or it will become lost or irrelevant.
Paltry size portions and I'm a small eater. A $14 fish meal was one small fish filet with some peas the width of a fork. With 4 people, we shared two dishes, 3 appetizers and each had a glass of wine, which came out to over $80 dollars. We all left hungry and got falafel sandwiches down the street. Without a groupon to cut down the cost, I would have been livid paying that amount. The service was also incredibly slow: 40 minutes to get the first appetizer.
Review Source:Meh.
I was only in for a little bit while waiting for a reservation next door, but I wasn't deeply impressed. This is probably an ok local bar, but it doesn't offer anything distinctive (though having no beers on tap would cause me to never use it personally). The food was ok, I have had far better in locations closer to home. (and of course they were out of the one item that initially ordered).
This is the worst restaurant I've been to in a long time. Â I went there to use a groupon. Â First, I couldn't find anyone to seat me. Â I finally found someone, who rather rudely told me he didn't have time for me. Â Ultimately, we found someone who showed us upstairs. Â After waiting some time, we finally took our place at a dirty table. Â We place our order for 4 appetizers and 3 entrees. Â Two of the appetizers showed up after 45 minutes. Â They were ok, but not good. Â The waiter came up 20 minutes later to ask if we needed anything. Â We informed him that we would like the other two appetizers, which he, somehow, was able to bring immediately. Â One of those was reasonably good. Â One was inedible. Â The manager had our waiter working as the bartender and taking care of three tables downstairs, two upstairs, so I don't hold him responsible for any of it. Â After two hours, our entrees still had not appeared, and we decided to leave. Â We asked for the manager on our way out and told him we were going. Â Half the tables were empty by then. Â He told us the kitchen was backed up. Â He did not once apologize. Â This is a terrible restaurant.
Review Source:WOW. If I could give 0 stars to this dump I would. I have NEVER been to a worse place in my life. First off, the size of the establishment is that of a closet. The cupboard that Harry Potter lived in was probably bigger. But that's a moot point because if the food and the service was actually good, I wouldn't care.
Let's get to the root of the problem. The service, or the lack thereof. Incompetent. Lazy. Useless. Brain dead. Comatose. Vegetables. All words that come to mind when I think of the waiters who served us tonight. And when I say served, I mean they sat around and took up space, and the little oxygen that was left in the room. After our order was placed, the waiter came back several times to check our order to make sure he got it right. Honestly, what's the point of inventing paper and pen? OH RIGHT. SO WE CAN RECORD THINGS AND RECALL THEM LATER. LIKE WHEN YOU PLACE AN ORDER. VEGETABLES. On top of that, they STILL got the order wrong. My ten year old son knew the entire table's order the third time the waiter came around, and he's RETARDED.
Second, I wasn't aware of a recent water shortage in DC. Getting water served at a table shouldn't be a chore. If the place was any drier we probably all would've spontaneously combusted, which actually would've been preferable and a thousand times more enjoyable than waiting in that hellhole for an hour and a half for food we didn't order.
Speaking of the food, if I wanted tasteless mush I would've gone to a Russian gulag. I feel sorry for the children of the chef who would probably die from overstimulating their taste buds if they ate some real food.
The reviewers who gave anything more than 1 star, were probably high as kites and had no idea what was going on around them.
All in all, a miserable experience. The only enjoyable part of my experience was writing this review.
If Yelp allowed it, I would leave zero stars for this review. Marrakech is by far one of the worst dining experiences I have ever undergone, and I would not subject my worst enemy to this joke of a restaurant. This is my 1st Yelp review, and there have been many instances in the past where I have wanted to leave a review (and I've been to a place that had cockroaches on the walls). However, none have been so thoroughly awful as Marrakech that merited me signing up and leaving this review.
We arrived at 7:40pm on a Sunday evening, and was told to come back in an hour. That was a red flag already, but we had bought a Groupon, so decided to wait it out. Upon our return an hour later, we had to wait another 20 minutes before we  seated ourselves at a table that was empty the whole time! The table was never cleaned, and used glasses were left on the wall adjacent to us.
After waiting for about another hour and several instances of flagging down staff, someone finally came to take our order. 20 minutes later and still not even glasses of water, the server came back and asked for our order again because he had lost it! We were only a group of 4, and two people ordered the exact same thing. Also, I ordered a lamb tagine, but they gave me a kebab on a plate (which is what 2 others at my table ordered). The food itself is not even worth commenting on except for the fact that it was thoroughly bland, overcooked, and the portion sizes were ridiculously small. We never received cutlery even after we got our food, and then we had to chase down the server for it.
The worst part was that ours was not a unique experience. Everyone else in the restaurant was voicing their complaints about the service, and a guy at the table next to us never even received his food after 2 hours. Lucky for us, the servers remained so calm amid all this chaos that they all took a long smoke break in the back. Thank god the bartender remained a beacon of composure by kicking back and downing several glasses of wine as he looked on the countless furious patrons.
The best part about this whole experience is that, thankfully, I will never return.
i am currently sitting in the restaurant. I've been waiting for an hour and half. There are 3 other people here, so it's not so hectic. The waiter has lost our order twice. We have to ask for water because the bartender is not authorized to serve us and the waiters are on a smoke break. While I've been waiting, I've seen two tables argue for a refund for their livingsocial or groupon purchase. Long story short, worst f***ing restaurant experience ever. The only thing keeping me here is because I already sunk money into the groupon deal. They have to be peddling drugs out of the back or something, I can't understand how they're still in business.
I don't write reviews, but I have a lot of time to kill before I get my order and I'm pretty angry. I wonder if the waiter knows what 15% of 0 is.
I went there with a group of 4 last night. Â The service was slow and inattentive. Â The food was extremely disappointing. Â I love Moroccan food and this does not do it justice. Â As another reviewer said, it says it is tangine, but it is not cooked in a tangine, which is obvious. Â The best way I can describe the chicken is "mushy." Â We could've eaten it with a spoon. Â I had the chicken Marrakech. Â It came and was just chicken, that's it, no sides. Â I guess you could get those if you want to pay an extra $8-$10 on top of the $14 for the mushy chicken. Â It was expensive and tasteless. Â My boyfriend got the chicken kebab and it was not mushy but I have had better from a street vendor. Â The rice was just plain rice with nothing. Â Also, the mediterranean olives are cocktail olives. Â
Also - one of our "servers" was also the DJ, and came over to give us our silverware dressed in a hat, jeans, and chains all over the place. Â It was surreal. Â Then he told us we should stay to hear the club music that plays until 4:00am. Â We asked when it started and he said "as soon as we can get everyone out of here." Â No joke.
Do yourself a favor and go to the Ethiopian place down the street if you are looking for African food. Â I will not be returning here.
I think the best way to sum up the experience that my girlfriend and I just had at this restaurant is that after our meal was over, we left and had another, second meal at a different restaurant in the same general vicinity. Here's what happened in chronological order:
1)We are immediately told that the Groupon we purchased is no longer valid for the amount we paid because the restaurant has decreased the amount each meal costs. Basically, we paid more money for less savings and the restaurant didn't compensate us for this change in any way.
2) We started with an appetizer of meatballs and they came raw in the center, which is maybe the most egregiously unacceptable thing that happened this evening. After sending them back they returned the exact same meatballs to us, on the same plate no less, instead of just replacing the order with one that was correctly prepared.
3) Three couples came in after we did and all of them received their entrees before us. We ended up waiting an hour for our entrees to come out.
4) We each ordered a tagine and our food was clearly not actually cooked in the tagine crockery that it was served in. Guess what idiots: if it's not cooked in a tagine, you can't call it a fucking tagine. Assholes.
5) The tagines arrived without any type of accompaniment, meaning no rice or couscous. This is absolutely unacceptable given the small portion size and the price of 14 dollars per entree. Also, the lamb I ordered was overcooked and dry and the chicken my girlfriend was served was two sinewy chicken legs which were basically flavorless. Also, the "mediterranean olives" that was supposed to be one of the center points of the dish were cocktail olives, from a can or bottle.
Basically we've decided to contact groupon and ask them to refund us for what we spent, since the restaurant didn't give us the value we paid for. This was an unmitigated disaster and if you happen to be the owner of this establishment, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Overall not a bad local spot with authentic, tasty food and a cozy vibe. Â To start, I had the soup which was a very light veggie soup with chick peas and veggies - very good. Â For dinner I had the lamb tagine with prunes which was really delicious. My only complaint was that it is literally a plate with just lamb and prunes. Â I would have like some veggies or couscous with it. Â
The service wasn't great and we ended up being sat at a table on a platform that turns into a stage. Â Once the band arrived, the service was suddenly better as they needed us to move our table!
VERY disappointed in this place. We had the lamb with sweet prunes - the prunes were delicious, but the lamb was tough and flavorless. We also had the "couscous royal" with chicken, lamb, and sausage, but again the lamb was bad, the chicken was TERRIBLE, and the whole dish lacked flavor. The portions were also tiny. The eggplant appetizer was ok but nothing special. The experience was especially frustrating because we had a Groupon which was sold as $22 for two entrees and two glasses of wine, "a $53 value," but even by ordering the most expensive entrees we still only came to $40. We asked why the Groupon was supposed to be worth $53 when that amount was impossible to reach and the waiter said that the owner had recently lowered prices a couple of dollars because he had complaints about prices. But a couple of dollars more on each item still wouldn't have made up for the difference between the $40 worth that we got and the $53 we were expecting when we bought the Groupon. The staff and owner didn't care about our complaint. If you want good Moroccan, go to Marrakesh on New York Ave instead.
Review Source:Wouldn't be surprised if they are out of business before the end of the year. The only thing going for them are their drink specials and maybe their hummus. Service was just ok, food not so much. We had their lamb and prunes (the prunes were delicious, but lamb not), lamb kabob (lamb was ok, but the rice tasted like somebody spilled lighter fluid on it), chicken bastilla (tasted like overcooked chicken with cinnamon), and hummus (pretty good). Â Had a Groupon, but wish we hadn't.
Review Source:I would give this place "no stars" but you don't have that option. We placed an order online via living social n the order wasn't even started when we got there to pick it up. Food is horrible, no flavor, and the chicken kabob was very dry. Save your money and eat at McDonald's instead!!!
Review Source:Apps: Chicken bastilla was good, but hummus was overly runny and bland.
Entrees: Lamb w/ savory vegetables and chicken marrakech were both very delicious. Â
Dessert: Baklava quite good.
Service: Average; our waiter was polite but his conversational voice unnecessarily loud and he interrupted our conversations when checking up on us.
Bathroom: FILTHY! Â Maybe that was a function of having dinner on the night following NYE, but unacceptably dirty.
Prices: Reasonable.
They give you lots of food for the main dishes, but it was bland and under seasoned and overcooked. The beef cigars were frozen inside which lead me to believe they were pre made from a box. The lamb sausages came out as 3 tiny links that were also most likely  pre made from a box and very overcooked. This place was way overpriced for what it was.
Review Source:The food was decent, though a pretty limited menu and few entree options for vegeterians (Vegetarian Couscous and a couple Starters). Â We ate outside on a nice November night. Â The entire restaurant was empty and the server seemed quite lonely and happy to have company. Â It's understandable that some folks are extroverted and like to chat with strangers, but when I'm with my girlfriend and trying to enjoy some alone time, it's nice to have a server to just take our order and bring us food.
Review Source:All of these positive reviews make me skeptical about the people posting them. This is a new place in the neighborhood (I live nearby). Hummus appetizer was good - simple hummus, room temp pita. Both our dinner entrees came out cold. Not warm, not lukewarm, but cold. Our waitress was very nice, but she was the only waitress working and the service was terrible. She even, presumably by mistake, tried to bilk me for $10 when I paid the check. The food was astoundingly over priced.
Overpriced, poor service (apparently because of bad management...the waitress seemed to be as attentive as she could be), cold entrees, uninspired appetizers. You would literally have to pay me to eat again at Marrakech Lounge.
Fantastic food, great service, cozy atmosphere and 4-foot hukas. This gem of a lounge in Adams Morgan is a top choice in the area. The Chicken Marrakech and Chicken Kali are prepared with a great combination of flavor and spices and taste absolutely phenomenal. It is without a doubt the best Morrocan you will find in the metro DC area. There is a full bar, a very nice lounge area upstairs and on a nice night you can sit outside and fire up any of the assorted flavors of huka. I will warn you that the portion sizes are not huge so if you are really hungry, order a few dishes. The wait staff were attentive, the service prompt and the owner a gentleman. This place is a great experience all around and highly recommended. Enjoy!
Review Source:Great little spot in Adams Morgan. Â Parking can be a pain. Â Place is small with limited seating and can be loud when they have their DJ nights. Â It's a hybrid place that fluctuates between restaurant and club/bar/lounge.
The service starts off a little rocky because they don't seem to have a host/hostess so you just have to seat yourself. Â Once you settle in and engage a server, it's all good from there. Â Servers are very engaging and knowledgeable about the food.
Speaking of the food......REAL DEAL. Â The hummus is decent but nothing spectacular. Â I had the Couscous Royale.....WOW, Â Couscous infused with spices and mixed with lamb, chicken and lamb sausage. Â It was perfect. Â The couscous was properly cooked and the meats were soooo tender. Â Seasoning was great, which is a complaint I've had at other Morrocan restaurants that choose to serve unseasoned food.
For those on the conservative side, you may wanna go on a day when there is no DJ because the clientele is very eclectic and they certainly put on a show!
The food is very good. The wait staff (Dana) is super sweet, enthusiastic and helpful without being overbearing. I agree with Yelper Michael P. who says that this place is having trouble figuring out what it is - lounge/bar or restaurant/bar. If they want to be more of a restaurant, then I think it would serve them well to take away so many of the high-top tables and insert more cozy tables with room for more than two people. The ladasse is excellent, as is the eggplant appetizer (we ordered it hot since it was a cool, blustery evening). The olives are delicious, but I wasn't impressed with the bread offering. The lamb tagine was very good, although I wish I had ordered the lamb kabobs so I could have tasted some of the vegetable couscous. I wouldn't mind trying this place again, although it's not in my neighborhood so I might be more inclined to try something closer to home.
Review Source:Drinks were okay. Hummus and lamb sausage were good. Place was empty so we thought it would be a good place to relax and hang out. Unfortunately a huge rat ran into the place and people were scurrying around. The bartender didn't even flinch or apologize for the rat running up my pant leg either. Â Seemed like a good place until that happened. I know it's Adams Morgan but the bartender could've at least said something...We paid our check and left.
Review Source:Happened to walk by and checked out this great little restaurant. Â Authentic Moroccan cuisine and a really nice interior shows great promise and is a wonderful addition to the hustle and bustle of the typical Adams Morgan bar scene. Â Some of the best kabobs in the city and a really good happy hour! Definitely worth checking out if you are in the neighborhood.
Review Source:
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,607 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,970 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,306 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,904 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,983 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
