Marrakesh Express

Our family stopped in for lunch before driving back to Virginia from our vacation at Topsail.  Last year, I was super impressed with Marrakesh in Jacksonville, so we decided to give this location a try.

We were not disappointed!  We all went for the lunch buffet, since we couldn't decide what to order from the menu - it all sounded so good.  So, here's the drill...  

Once you order, the staff starts cooking the meat that you ordered as part of your buffet.  Then you get a plate full of appetizers from the buffet: hummus, tahini salad (cucumber & tomato with tahini), baba ganoush (eggplant dip), tabouleh, faoul (fava beans with tomatos & spices), salad, and stuffed grape leaves, served with homemade pita (yes, homemade).  All of them are drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with spices.  Go back to your table and start nibbling on your appetizers and sipping your mint iced tea.  Yes, Virginia, the mint tea is amazing!

Then, your plates arrive with meat and rice.  Now you can really dig in.  I loaded up some pita with meat and a few of the appetizers.  Flavor explosion!  The marinated chicken is really tender and flavorful; the beef was tender and juicy, and the shwarma (beef & lam) was really tasty, but a little on the dry side.

Then, I tried the baklava.  OMG - so good.  This was honestly the best baklava I've had in a long, long time.  There are many middle-eastern restaurants near my home in Virginia, and they could all take lessons here on how to make this dessert.  The small sprig of mint added just the right amount of zing.  I'm definitely returning on our next visit to Topsail.

If not for the dry shwarma, this place would get 5 stars!

The staff was super friendly and helpful.

Very friendly staff, amazing food, awesome Turkish coffee, and yummy fresh pita to take home for later. A bit pricey for lunch, but worth the splurge every now and then.

Good food fast, staff actually good for jacksonville