4 Staunton Street, SoHo
Tel: 2522 2128
Open: 6pm-late
Cuisine: North African and Middle Eastern
Price: about HK$220 without drinks and the service charge.
Ambience: the small restaurant has tiny tables, some of which are forced into spaces that can barely accommodate them. It was full on the weeknight that we visited.
Pros: the menu is tempting, offering some dishes rarely seen in Hong Kong.
Cons: there's room for improvement on the service. We had to ask for our water glasses to be refilled and for plates to be cleared, request the dessert list, and a side dish we ordered was never served. The plates were changed between appetisers and mains, but not the cutlery. It can be difficult to hear a conversation when the music level gets too high. Of the offerings on the Egyptian mezze platter (HK$150), the Moroccan cigars (filo pastry filled with feta cheese and fresh mint) were lukewarm, heavy and oily, and the falafel was unmemorable. The seven small dishes included mixed olives (another dish of them was served gratis while we looked at the menu) and green salad, so I'm not convinced it's worth the price. We were told the baklava pastries (HK$40) were imported from Lebanon, and they were obviously of good quality, but we suspect they had been reheated in the microwave (the centres were hot, the exteriors were not) then drizzled with unnecessary fruit sauces.
Recommended dishes: the star of the evening was the pastilla (HK$57). This famous Moroccan dish of fine pastry sheets wrapped around a complex, sweet-savoury filling of pigeon, eggs, almonds and spices, primarily cinnamon, is wonderful when done right - as it is here. From the mezze platter we liked the kefta (minced beef patties) and Lebanese baba ganoush, as well as the small, puffy Sahara bread served with the appetisers. We shared one main course - the chicken tagine with preserved lemon, artichokes and green olives (HK$145) and a dish of Arabic rice (HK$40). The sauce for the tagine was richly flavoured and complex, and the meat was tender and moist.