alessio20 wrote:Let's all be friends and not jump to conclusions.

That is an excellent plan.

Hammond

I went to check on google on what kind of reviews Tagine restaurant got, and I end up on LTH Forum, and I have to say that I was very impressed by all the comments about tagine, as a Moroccan, I always hoped for a good Moroccan restaurant and I think my wish finally came true, I was at the restaurnat on Wednesday around 8:30pm and it was packed, I was very happy to see that. the food was very good, and the people were very warm and welcoming. I honestly hope that it will stay open. For all the negative comments that were made, I think that they're legitimate, and the owners should take them in consideration and use them to better their operation. Good Luck

Karima-- welcome to LTHForum, what do you think of other Moroccan restaurants in town? E.g., Marrakech Express (N. Damen), the other placed called Marrakech something (Cuisine?) on Ashland, Cafe Fez (possibly closed now), etc. Any likes or dislikes?

Just wanted to add a direct link to their website on this thread:

http://chicagotagine.com

It loads very slowly, for some reason.

I'm heading there tonight, I'll report afterwards.

geli wrote:It loads very slowly, for some reason.

Maybe to provide a consistent brand message.

I had lunch at Tagine today. Arriving about 12:40 I was the only customer the whole time I was there. I had the lentil soup and a merguez sandwich. The sandwich arrived as I was lifting the last spoon of soup to my mouth.

The lentil soup, vegetarian, had a spicy tomatoey broth with a good deal of cumin and enough hot pepper to give it a bit of a bite but yet not very hot. There were not as many lentils as in many renditions of lentil soup. The lentils appeared to be a yellow variety and were whole. There were a few pieces of celery and onion as well. The cumin level was more than at Semiramis but not as high as in some other Middle Eastern restaurants.

Since this was the first merguez sausage I have had, I don't have any basis for comparison. Four slender sausages in the sandwich pretty well filled the pita. There was moderate amount of a thick sauce containing tomato and pepper puree along with spices. The sausages seemed a little dry for my taste, but that may be normal. Someone with more experience with merguez should comment. Sandwiches come with a starch side. I had some nice fluffy cous cous.

After lunch I chatted with the partner handling the front of the house. He said they have been running quite full on weekends with a good business on week nights. Volume has exceeded their expectations, hugely so on the first weekend. Their pricing is aimed at getting repeat business from the neighborhood. Neither partner has run a restaurant before, and they are still learning. This strikes me as a great addition to the neighborhood that will only get better.

They have had a help wanted sign in the window as long as they have been open, so I suspect that they aren't staffed as well as they should be at peak times. Give them a shot for lunch.

If the merguez were lamb, a little dryness is not surprising. I used to think all merguez were lamb but apparently some are beef as well, at least according to the staff at Tassili.

I'm pretty sure the merguez sold at Sahar II is also beef. It's pretty good, too.

The merguez sausage was served to me as part of the "Fantasia" kabob sampler on Saturday night.

The sausage was quite juicy, and based on my experience with this type, I thought that it was quite good too.

It sounds like ekreider did not fare as well.

E.M.

The menu says the merguez is lamb and beef. I will probably try it again as part of the fantasia kabob sampler.

I always want to try Moroccan food so I went Yesterday for dinner with my friends. It's the best Hummus I ever had and the Lamb was delicious. In top of that I love BYOB. Thank you Sue for recommending Tagine.

Why is this thread attracting so much drive-by posting?

I'm guessing that Tagine requires a LTH rave before they let you exit the restaurant.

Can anyone who has been verify that there's not a laptop positioned at the door?

Simon wrote:Why is this thread attracting so much drive-by posting?

I'm guessing that Tagine requires a LTH rave before they let you exit the restaurant.

Can anyone who has been verify that there's not a laptop positioned at the door?

I'm not sure how Tagine is any different than Spacca Napoli, Honey 1, or Matsumoto.

Every now and then, a place opens or is discovered and it captures the interest of the board. People hear positive things about a place that they haven't been before, it piques their interest, they go, and they return here share their experiences.

This is what we do.

Best,
Michael

I can verify that there is not a laptop near the door. Several LTH posters live within a few blocks of Tagine and often pass by the location going to places like HarvesTime or the post office, so we observed the progression. There were some menu fliers early on as well as a menu on their slow web site. Compare the pricing and promise with some of the trixie/chad traps on Lincoln Avenue and you can understand the interest.

Has anyone eaten at both Tagine and Andalous? If so, how do they compare? I just got back from Morocco, and headed for Andalous, which I already knew. It was great, of course, but it's not a bad thing having another option. Especially because one review I read on the Internet shows that Tagine has some items I had in Morocco that aren't on the Andalous menu. (Of course, having covered much of the country, indulging in a wide range of regional dishes, I don't really expect to find a restaurant that lists everything I had.)

And for folks who like Moroccan food -- have you seen the Eat Smart series for travelers? The friend with whom I went to Morocco had a book (I now have it, too -- thanks, Amazon) titled Eat Smart in Morocco. It lists all the different foods, the ingredients, the regions, the specialties, how to find stuff in the markets, how to order in the restaurants, how to make a few dozen dishes yourself, the history of the foods in the country, and heaps more. It's a great resource -- and I think it would be great even if you were simply interested in a region, and not necessarily traveling there. The series covers several other areas, and I imagine it will continue to grow.

Cynthia

Two of us tried Tagine last Thursday. We shared a Sahara vegetarian platter, a house salad, a bowl of harira soup, a couscous royale and a kasbah tagine.

On the plus side:
- we were seated immediately
- a dish of olives and one of moroccan carrots were brought to the table shortly thereafter, along with a basket of pita bread
- the presentation of the food was very nice (I am thinking of attentive plating touches like a dusting of paprika on the rim of a plate or a very pretty, symetrical display of ingredients on the appetizer plater and the tagine)
- entrees come with soup or salad
- the lamb shank in the Kasbah tagine was very meaty and good, as was this entree in general, though if you're like me you will want to order a side of plain couscous to accompany what is essentially a plate of meat adorned with a few other ingredients (hard boiled egg, prunes, onions, almonds)
- the service was prompt and good.
- it's byob, which you know if you have been reading the postings

On the neutral side:
- the food: aside from the Kasbah tagine, everything esle was only OK.

On the negative side:
- most of the meat in the couscous royale (with the exception of the merguez) was dry
- the couscous in general was kind of dry. In France, restaurants will typically serve this dish with a big bowl of vegetables in broth to ladle on the couscous, along with grilled meats. I found myself longing for that.

In the end, we were not completely won over. I imagine we'll try this place again in several months to see how it progresses with time.

I stopped Yesterday for a quick dinner and I saw a lot of improvement the service is getting better and better the Lamb with green peas was fantastic I never had Couscous Royal but I will try it next time.

"In the end, we were not completely won over. I imagine we'll try this place again in several months to see how it progresses with time."

I have to agree with points made by French Baguette. Went for dinner last night at 630pm, made reservations based on all the postings about crowds
and long waits. We were the only diners there until 8pm. Wait staff very
frendly and efficient. Owner spoke to us and asked us our opinion about the lighting- no dimmer switch, so it's either too bright or a little too dark.


Imressive-the Moroccan Harira soup-mildly spiced,thick and delicious.
Quite a large bowl of soup comes with entrees-almost too much imo,
a cup would be enough.

Needs work -- the Sultan's Tagine- menu said beef shank, I think it was in fact chuck roast . Looked and tasted very much like American-stlye pot roast. I love a good pot roast, but expected to taste some complex spices and flavors here, but there were none. Let's just say I've had Morroccan-inspired dishes at non-Morrocan restaurants that tasted more exotic.
My companion had the Fantasia /mixed kabobs- all were tasty but
so disappointingly dry as to cause a abd case of diner's remorse.
Overall, I was impessed with their efforts and will go back again on
hunch that things will continue to improve as they gain experience.

After Dinner Side note- walked a block South on Rockwell for a drink at Time Out, which is only identifiable by an Old Style sign from the outside.
The Thursday night special is Miller Lite (bottle) for $1.75. A real deal in a real Chicago bar, these are a dying breed. Check it out while they still
exist. Warning- nonsmokers beware-you will reek when you leave here.

I haven't tried Tagine yet, but I plan to because I've visited Morocco and I have family who previously lived there. I'm a big fan of the cuisine and its flavors. So I'm disappointed to hear French Baguette mention that they're serving pita bread. To the best of my recollection, pita bread is *not* native to Morocco. When I was there (and I've spent time in many parts of the country), none of the bread resembled pita. The bread was fantastic, but most of it's very dense, not too yeasty, usually no more than an inch or two high, but would never be confused with pita bread.

After much anticipation, Loriaki and I finally sampled Tagine on Friday night. All things considered, the experience could best be described as uneven, from both a food and service standpoint.

As a brief disclaimer, I have never been to Morocco (nor to any Chicago Moroccan restaurants), but did eat at a Moroccan friend's house in my youth. Therefore, I am certainly no expert on the cuisine.

Service:
We arrived on time for our 830P reservation on a Friday night, and the restaurant was full but not overcrowded. We were greeted in a friendly manner and seated very promptly. From this point on, however, our experience with the server was inconsistent, and in some ways, puzzling.
Apparently, the server had been having some issues with a woman at the large party seated next to us, and the server did not hesitate to complain to us about her. He basically rolled his eyes and muttered something about how ridiculous the other patron was being (some kind of "soup incident"). While his candor was initially amusing, and gave us a sense that he was almost bonding with us, it was nonetheless inappropriate to rip on another customer, particularly when she was just about within earshot. On top of that, he ended up using this "crazy woman" as an excuse for every service shortcoming we experienced, such as:

-waiting over a half hour to be given a corkscrew for our wine--and when I say given, I mean that he just dropped it on our table and left us to our own devices. We opened the bottle ourselves and waited another 10-15 minutes for him to bring glasses (sheesh--"crazy woman and her soup")

--enduring a solid 35 minutes between finishing appetizers and receiving main courses.

On the positive side, the appetizers had been delivered quickly, and the server was warm and friendly with us overall.

Food

For starters we had:
--Hummus, which was outstanding. I realize decent hummus is commonplace, but this version had a fresh and velvety quality to it that would place it in the very upper echelon.
-- Briwats, or "traditional Moroccan appetizers". We didn't actually order these. The waiter misheard us when we ordered the Harira soup, and brought these out instead. given the wrath that was laid upon the "soup woman" at the adjacent table, we decided we might as well keep these rather than send them back. Couldn't stand the thought of our server telling everyone else that we had "claimed to order soup and thrown off the whole operation". As with most things fried, they were quite enjoyable, but not particularly exotic or memorable. And I swear that one of the rolled appetizers tasted strikingly similar to those frozen LaChoy eggrolls that one could get in the supermarket in the 70's (anyone remember?)
--Harira soup: we ordered the soup again anyway, and were not disappointed. Nice thickness, semi-pureed, almost a hybrid of tomato/vegetable/lentil soups. As mentioned upthread, the bowl-sized portion was quite generous.

Now for the entrees:
--Garden Vegetable Couscous. Must say, this was the most disappointing offereing of the night. The assortment of vegetables was limited to carrots, and perhaps turnips, and little else. The result was a bland affair that was also quite unappealing from a presentation standpoint. Again, to echo upthread comments, some sauce and/or spices would have been nice. It should also be noted that this is the only truly vegetarion option on the entire non-appetizer menu. Bear this in mind if you or dining companions are vegetarians (we're not, but like to have the option)

--Rabat Tagine. This dish consisted of about 8 meatballs (about 1.5 in diameter) encircling a rather small egg that was still in the process of frying when delivered (good thing, not bad in my book). The meatballs rested in a brownish/red tomato-based sauce. We ordered a side of couscous to accompany this dish, which turned out to be a good idea; the Rabat Tagine itself was very tasty, but it suffers from a lack of variety of flavors and ingredients. You start to feel gluttonous (and bored) eating meatball after meatball with nothing to break the gastronomical monotony. I will say that the couscous itself had an excellent consistency. Nice, fine grain. The sauce from this tagine also came in handy as it provided something to liven up the abundant but bland heap of vegetable couscous.

The verdict
Despite what might appear to be a lukewarm review at best, I have a feeling I will return at least a couple times. For one, it is in the neighborhood, and secondly, I feel like we were unlucky in our ordering choices. I would definitely go back to try the merguez and 1-2 of the other tagines. Plus, it was quite reasonably priced, and who doesn't love a byob?

The bread was fantastic, but most of it's very dense, not too yeasty, usually no more than an inch or two high, but would never be confused with pita bread.

The bread in Morocco was good -- and I, too, covered a lot of regions in the country. I'm just guessing that the restaurants here must not have the facilities for baking fresh every day the traditional bread of Morocco (much of which is baked in large community ovens -- in the medinah, you see the kids arriving to drop off the uncooked loaves, each marked with some symbol of the family, then coming back to pay the few centimes it cost to get the bread baked, rushing home while it's still warm). I ate at Andalous only a few days after coming home from Morocco, and while the flavors were now those that I had come to love while traveling, they, too, served pita bread -- though a thicker pita bread than you'd find in most Middle Eastern places. So clearly there is no one baking this bread, and these small restaurants don't have the facilities to crank out the endless supply of bread you'd need to truly recreate the Moroccan experience.

I'm just hoping the someday there is someone who serves meshoui -- pit roasted lamb basted with herbs and butter -- you just tear off chunks and dip it in a mixture of coarse salt and freshly ground cumin (and the cumin is both ubiquitous and incredibly fragrant in Morocco), then either put it into a pocket torn in your fresh bread or straight into your mouth.

And for those wondering why the food isn't exotic at these restaurants, while I can't guess exactly what you mean by exotic, based on what I mean by exotic, I'd say that Moroccan food is NOT hugely exotic -- the most unusual element to Western tastes is the combination of sweet and savory, as in bestila, the pigeon pie dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon, or the tagines that combine fruit with meat, as in lamb tagine with prunes or dates. That and the tagine itself, the earthenware pot in which foods are cooked. The almost required preserved lemons are sharp and distinctive, but not exotic. The spices are great and flavorful, but not in-your-face, like in India. Cumin is the most ubiquitous spice, and because it is also in everything from German sauerkraut to Mexican chili, it doesn't taste all that exotic to us. So Moroccan food is not BIG exotic, like Thai or Indonesian. It's more a "hmm, I detect a hint of something like curry in this" exotic -- and that not very often. Oh, and then there is rosewater. I'd say that is more ethereal than exotic, but I adored it whenever I encountered it (the orange salad with cinnamon and rosewater was so good that I could only imagine that that was what they meant by "ambrosia" in all those tales of the gods of Olympus).

So if you're looking for big exotic, Moroccan is probably not it.

And clearly I don't konw how to use the quote function, because it looks like the quote is the post and the post is the quote. Sigh. I figured you'd have to put the quote and both the beginning and the end of what you were picking up. Any guidelines for how that works?

I fixed your quote (I think that's how it should look). You had a missing / before the bracketed "quote" tag at the end of the quotation.

Cynthia wrote:The bread in Morocco was good -- and I, too, covered a lot of regions in the country. I'm just guessing that the restaurants here must not have the facilities for baking fresh every day the traditional bread of Morocco (much of which is baked in large community ovens -- in the medinah, you see the kids arriving to drop off the uncooked loaves, each marked with some symbol of the family, then coming back to pay the few centimes it cost to get the bread baked, rushing home while it's still warm).

My Mom's family moved to Morocco after WW2, and for the first year they were in Tangier, they lived in an apartment without a full kitchen, so they relied on the public ovens, too. (I've actually seen "their" public oven when I've been in Tangier.)

As Cynthia mentions--and you'll often see on travel shows--people drop off their uncooked loaves of bread at the ovens, the bakers cook them up, and someone then comes to retrieve them once their finished. But it makes me laugh to think of my Grandmother's cook showing up at the ovens with the Thanksgiving turkey or an uncooked birthday cake... I suspect the bakers had to learn some additional baking techniques when the foreigners flooded into Tangier.

Tagine is discontinuing weekday lunch effective April 11 according to a sign in the window. They will open at 4 PM Tuesday through Friday. On Saturday and Sunday they will open at noon rather than the current 11 AM.

I wondered how long they would be open for lunch given the lack of business I have noted both while walking past and the time I had lunch there. Now I know. Even with more mainstream locations lunch on weekdays has been tough for many restaurants in Lincoln Square, some trying it and then dropping due to lack of business. I don't see a correlation between quality of food and ability to maintain a lunch business. Garcia's and Selmarie, for example.

Petit pois and I had plans with my mother for dinner last night and mom requested a place that serves a good braised lamb shank. Knowing that she also loves cous cous, this seemed like a perfect opportunity for my first trip to Tagine.

The food at Tagine is comforting and pleasing in that "weeknight-simple-BYOB" kinda way. We started with a vegetarian appetizer sampler, served with warm pita and a bowl of seasoned olives and carrots. The sampler consisted of bakkoula (essentially sauteed spinach), zaalouk (roasted eggplant mashed with tomatoes), and taktouka (grilled peppers in a tomato sauce). While I enjoyed the flavor of these items, they were served from a very cold fridge and would have tasted much better at room temperature.

I ordered the rabat tagine, a plate of little meatballs in sauce with egg that would work much better as a family-style dish. Like alessio20, I found the act of eating a big plate of meatballs to be montonous. My mother enjoyed her lamb cous cous and petit pois had a nice kasbah tagine (lamb with marcona almonds, prunes, onions, and boiled egg). The lamb was as tender and juicy as you'd expect a lamb shank to be.

As we finished our food, I found myself wishing that there was more punch to the dishes. Everything was seasoned well, but lacked that certain level of agressiveness that you want to push a plate of meat, starch, and veggies over the top. (petit pois summed up the same statement with one word: "bland"). Part of this feeling may be due to the monotony factor.

If you plan on eating at Tagine, insist on family-style so everyone can have a couple meatballs, a little lamb, some grilled meats, and some cous cous--a much more interesting meal than having a big hot plate of meatballs in sauce.

Tagine is a nice place with warm hosts and it certainly met the requirement for simple and easy, but interesting, weeknight dining*.

Best,
Michael

*As an aside, I find myself unlikely to return to Tagine anytime soon due to what I call the Chopal Syndrome: Horribly uncomfortable chairs that prevent me from wanting to sit there and enjoy myself for more than 30 minutes.

eatchicago wrote:If you plan on eating at Tagine, insist on family-style so everyone can have a couple meatballs, a little lamb, some grilled meats, and some cous cous--a much more interesting meal than having a big hot plate of meatballs in sauce.

Unless the menu's changed since I was there last, a few dishes, such as the "fantasia kebab" and the "couscous royal," are actually combinations that help with this. (Of course, it occurs to me that I hardly ever go anywhere without sharing all the food with everybody else I'm eating with, so I don't notice this phenomenon as often as I otherwise might. I'm so accustomed to eating this way that I'm taken aback by anyone who doesn't find sharing normal.)

eatchicago wrote:As an aside, I find myself unlikely to return to Tagine anytime soon due to what I call the Chopal Syndrome: Horribly uncomfortable chairs that prevent me from wanting to sit there and enjoy myself for more than 30 minutes.

I think the chairs must vary, or else they've gotten some new ones in the past few months, since I don't recall noticing this at all, and I'm normally fairly annoyed by uncomfortable seating.

Tagine
773/989-4340
www.chicagotagine.com
4749 N. Rockwell St.
Chicago

Has anyone been to Tagine lately? Was thinking of going with a small group, but walked by last night (Sunday at about 7:30) and it appeared open but was completely empty. We were hoping to get the cute table in the window--where you sit on pillows--and had been assuming a reservation would be needed, but now I'm feeling uneasy about the whole thing....

Thanks!

Cupcake:

Welcome to LTH!

The GF and I were at Tagine about a month ago and I've probably been there about 5 times since they opened last year and will go back. We've been there I think 3 times during the week and twice during the weekend for dinner every time. It's a nice Moroccan BYOB which makes for an economical dining experience. It seems they have a later dining crowd there.

We consistenly have loved the hugely-portioned, tasty Hummus: a blend of chickpeas, tahini, crushed garlic & lemon juice, sprinkled with paprika & olive oil.

Our favorite dish is the Oasis tagine: half chicken roasted and cooked in ginger saffron sauce, garnished with lemon confit & olives and served with French fries. The chicken is very flavorful with the olvies. And the fries are just sickeningly awesome dreanched in the chicken juices.

The GF likes the Chicken kebab: seasoned cubes of chicken breast specially marinated, skewered & grilled to perfection. Really a nice dish and a good grilled/healthier option to the fabulous Oasis tagine.

I would recommend a visit. I must warn thought that I tried a lamb dish once that I did not care for - not horrible but just not good.

Regarding the chairs, at least on two or three of our visits I do remember specifically having to change my would-be chair due to it being too "wobbly". The backs are fairly uncomfortable but the seats of the chair are fine. I am myself also somewhat sensitive to wobbly or uncomfortable chairs and Tangine really needs to change their chairs soon.

But, I would not let the chair issue prevent at least one visit to try their good food. And, if you are planning on sitting in the window-front section opf the restaurant then the chair issue won't come into play.

Bster