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"Just delicious! The menu was inventive and unique. My husband and I were promptly seated outside on a beautiful evening. The wine was…" read more »
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Grabbed lunch here a few weeks ago and let's just say I wont be coming back.
For $8 of a gyro I expect more than two thinly slices of meat, one slice of tomato and a dollop of Tzatziki sauce. It did not fill me up at all and it was dry.
I would definitely pay more and go to Athenian Grill.
I like this place's location and interior, they have nice tables and chairs and the staff are helpful but the food is lacking. I've been here several times and it's just sub-par flavor. Your safest bet is probably just ordering a gyro sandwich. At night the place is packed with people from out of town who don't know any better places to get Mediterranean food.
I really want to give this place a better rating, but it's just not in the cards.
The food is "ok" - not great by any means. The service is SLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW. Why can't this woman give up and hire an eager beaver to work the register?
She seems overwhelmed with 4 orders she just gave to the dreaded student-guy slinging the line grill. I know she's been thru some tough times, but that has a way in coming out in the food and service.
Sorry, but I've eaten in smaller, crappier, MUCH busier Mediterranean shops in Astoria that put out a much better product, lickety split.
And the pitas were a little stale.
I've been here a few times, and I haven't been disappointed with the food. We went for my roommate's birthday one year, and the bellydancer made the whole table of like 12 of us get up and dance with her in the tiny space. Needless to say, a bit awkward, but the good food still outweighed the awkwardness. The spanikopita was delicious, and I think I remember the falafels were pretty good, too.
Was tempted to rate it 1 star, but the gyro meat was good and I liked the decor - very rustic and artistic. The prices were great - it made it worth trying the food.
Bad service, bad food. Really. As I sat and ate (barely), I felt myself praying for the passersby who would pause to look at the Marakesh menu on the outside window, hoping that they didn't take the plunge. I worried they may be sorry.
I really had an affection for the people, and would love to see the service and food improve. They could really have something there. Nice decor.
i went there and the atmosphere looked good but it was quiet and the waitress seemed nice. However, the food was disappointing. The falafel was okay but the salad was way too salty. The rice was decent at best but the meat wasn't too bad. Baklava tasted stale.
Full disclosure: I've only been here once. But it was recently, so nobody can say I only liked it because I went six months ago and now they've gone downhill. In fact, I can tell you the exact date I was there: March 6th.
Anyway, enough ridiculousness. On to the actual content. We went at night before heading out to a show. Jimmy John's had closed earlier than we thought they did, and all I wanted was something cheap and no-fuss. Boyfriend suggested Marakesh because he'd been wanting to try them out.
We both got falafel; we're not adventurous eaters. But my boyfriend is Israeli and he liked it quite a lot, so... maybe ethnic eating experience counts for something there? I liked it too, but the only falafel I've had previously is what he's cooked for me, so me liking it isn't all that indicative of it being good compared to other restaurants.
Nevertheless. It was warm, tasted good, and there was more food than I could eat even though we only paid about five bucks each. Service was a little cool but not bad - she kept our water glasses full, which is a big OCD fixation of mine when dining out. And it was relaxed and casual inside. I've always thought it was a fancy place and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't.
We plan to go back, so I'll edit this if they suck the next time we're there. But we were both really pleased with our first visit.
So, I'm not saying it's bad.. i'm giving it a 3 stars. But I just went there today and got a chicken shawerma (no lamb option, btw.. only beef. boo). I was whelmed by the taste. I can sum it up with this little story...
When I ordered, I asked for them to make it spicy. Specifically asked for the hot stuff. It came back bland (boo)... so i went up to the front to ask for some spicy. She said 'oh we don't have any more' (boo). She then begrudgingly handed me the littlest plastic cup of salsa I'd ever seen.
Salsa! Come on!
I'll go back to Marakesh but only because it's different and if that's where my friend's are going, but the food could be much, much better with very little effort.
Marakesh is an insult upon an affront upon an insult to North African cuisine so I'll start off by their misleading name. Marakesh is a Moroccan city where North African people like me traditionally neither eat nor prepare grape leaves, kibbeh, hummus, mujadara, tabouli, fattoush...you name it. And the one thing we do eat, our national/regional dish - couscous - is so grotesque at Marakesh that I am surprised they had a picture of the former king hanging and he hadn't grimaced or cursed the place to high hell since. To give you an idea, the execution of couscous there is the equivalent of me throwing a lump of rice on a piece of fish and calling it sushi.
Now onto the other reviews I've read. People, I know geography is challenging and the little understood Middle East and the cultural melting pot of the Mediterranean are hard to keep track of but PLEASE do not confuse Arab cuisine with Persian, Turkish, Greek...etc. Yes, most of these cultures have heavily influenced each other but they have also remained distinct in ways that are clear to anyone who bothers to find out more about them. I also understand you have been mislead by many myths out there.
The owner is from an Arab country in the Eastern Mediterranean and given the political clusterf#$k that region is in, he is unwilling to name it Gaza Strip, Baghdad or Damascus because these cities carry too many preconceived notions here. I don't mind that the owner chose "Marakesh" as the name but good God, at least make a semi-decent couscous to represent the namesake! And maybe try adding some true North African classics such as our tajines, merguez, bastilla, hrira...etc. But please do not pawn off classic Arab cuisine under a North African guise - especially when you are neither capable of correctly preparing our food nor are you sincere in your attempts of presenting what should be Arab Cuisine and not Mediterranean/Greek/Moroccan/ enter [ any euphemism here to mislead customer ].
Having said this, your falafel entree is good. I like your hummus, and I like your mujadara. And I hope you have taken down the king's picture since I have last been there. The only reason they hang the king's portrait in Morocco is because it is required by draconian law and any shop owner without one gets a hefty fine and in some cases, a fine beating.
To your health, or Sahtain (in true Arabic form).
Signed,
A disgruntled and disappointed Couscous Lover
Despite the neat-oh Persian decor (there are gold chandeliers!) and the satisfactory-plus food, the employees here act like you just killed their buzz. Sorry I'm giving you money for a near-burnt spinach pie!
I came here because I heard Marakesh served great chicken shwarmas - something I miss from living overseas. The chicken was not great, it was sorta chewy, and the bread was hard enough to crack a tooth. The hummus and saffron rice, however, was worth the 15 to 20 minute wait. Actually, the wait wouldn've been better if I didn't have this man, also waiting on his food, yapping to me about how he hated Austin and how he didn't understand why people didn't talk to each other more. It wasn't a conversation, he was talking at me.
Well, this place gets a lot of regulars - mostly lawyers - so it must be good sometimes.
I actually like the staff here. The man behind the counter at least. He always gives me a wink and a smile. The women though - they always seem either resentful or annoyed that I chose to dine at their restaurant. I know it's not just me, it's probably 51% of the people that walk through the door so there's no reason to take offense. I'd probably be pissy too if I had to cook and serve. Wow. I am wasting a lot of words on my neurosis.
At any rate, you do have to wait forever if you're not a regular and it takes at least a year to be recognized as such unless you go everyday. Not the best place to go if you only have 30 minutes for lunch. I also am not very fond of some of the food I've had here. As Clarisa said, the chicken's nothing to write home about and the gyros and fries are satisfying but not spectacular or anything. Everytime I order a lunch special they're either out or it's grilled veggies heaped on rice no matter what the board outside says. Gee, I could bitch all day.
I love their salads though. They make one that I can't recall the name of that's chicken with veggies and a nice dressing with toasted pita. I really don't understand the HUGE lunchtime popularity of Marakesh, but it does have a certain pull that's hard to ignore anytime I'm downtown and my tummy rumbles for gyros and fries.
Bad news, Samir died. :'( He was always a friendly guy to me and he will be missed.
I had dinner here several months ago and could not finish my food, which is a BAD sign. I second Lumiere M's comment how it is an insult to North African cuisine. Beyond that, it's an insult to any country remotely serving any variation of that food in the eastern hemisphere.
Pros: In downtown congress district, cute decor
Cons: Food is disgusting and inedible, i.e. overcooked shawarma meat in tiny pieces, undercooked really pink chicken, mushy overcooked rice.
Will definitely NOT return. Blegh.
Go for the mezze, that is, the sampler plates of hummus, taboule, baba ganoush, falafel, dolmas, fatouche. The cold green bean salad is great too. This is great comfort food. Keep the pita coming.
I miss Samir. He wrote the green bean salad recipe for us on the top of a styrofoam "to go" container. We shall always treasure it.
(recent update) It seems to us that Marakesh is going downhill in the last few years - losing their focus? The food quality is not what it used to be.
I have not eaten at Marakesh in a while, and I was hoping it had changed but Lumiere M.'s review showed me that it hasn't, and that's sad. One, the menu is more Greek-oriented than I expected from a place called Marakesh. Two, everything about it seemed to go wayyyy downhill in a very short time.
The first time I ate at Marakesh was for dinner, and it was marvelous. Good atmosphere and music, prompt service. I asked for mint tea, which wasn't on the menu, and the waiter (who appeared to be Middle Eastern or North African but I have no idea from which country) was very happy that I'd asked for it & went back to the kitchen, made me a pot, and brought it to the table. It was one of the best things I've ever tasted, ever. The food was also quite good, but as I am a tea freak, the mint tea is the thing that really stayed on my mind.
The next time I went there was for dinner again, and the service wasn't quite as good. I asked for mint tea and the waitress acted like it was a bit of a hassle & then brought me out a pot of tea decidedly inferior to that which the waiter had made for me last time. The waiter's tea actually had mint leaves in it and was already sweetened when I got it, whereas this was hot water with a mint-tea teabag in it. If I wanted inauthentic mint tea made by a grumpy chick, I would've had tea at home.
The third time I went there was for lunch. The atmosphere and service were both really bad. I felt like I was in the Mediterranean equivalent of Mel's Diner. I haven't been back since.
(And by the way, Lumiere M., I have to agree -- the couscous there is just nasty. My Dad makes better couscous at home & the only experience he has with it was being stationed in Morocco for a year.)
As far as Greek food goes, I think I'm admittedly a little more partial to the Athenian Grill (over near 8th & Colorado). But it's kinda pricey, and Marakesh is a nice alternative. The decor is appropriate and intriguing -- lots of paintings featuring Middle Eastern bazaars and labyrinthine alleyways amid old buildings, as well as a few wall-hangings and those neat Arabian-style lamps. They're always playing Middle Eastern music, too, which I dig, so the atmosphere is very fitting for the menu.
The food's pretty decent, but not always amazing. The first time I ever went, my reaction was ecstatic (I got the chicken shawerma sandwich), but since then, the tastiness has fluctuated. I typically went for lunch, having worked downtown at the time, and it's definitely a nice change from the delis and burrito chains.
Not generally too crowded, though there were days when we'd have to wait in line -- just depended on what time you went. They've typically got a few specials, and one standby is a gyro with fries and a drink -- that was one of my favorites.
In the evenings on Fridays (and I think Saturdays), they feature bellydancers. Or at least they did -- I'm not sure if they still do or not, but if so, it'd be a fun place to take a date or out-of-towners looking for something new and exotic.
I've usually enjoyed this restaurant when I need some decent Mediterranean food, but a visit last week soured my overall impression.
While I usually get Gyros or Shwarma, on this visit I decided to try something non-standard and suggest the same for my date. I don't remember the dish names, but one was chicken with garbanzos and the other was chicken with turkish spices and citrus (and came with zuccini and squash slices). The chicken with garbanzos was bland. The other chicken dish was barely edible. The combination of flavors was just off in left field somewhere. We ate a few bites and tried to deal with a bad menu selection on our part, but then it was making my belly rumble and I started having fears of food poisoning... We did not eat very much of this dish.
On the plus side - when we were mostly done the waitress came by and asked if we needed a box and we confessed that the second chicken dish was Not Good. She said we should have said something earlier and she could have replaced the dish with something else. We were actually unsure if this qualified as "our problem" since we didn't like the dish - or if it was something where we could send it back (which I've never done).
End result - the waitress took the second entree off our bill - without us even asking. Bonus points for customer service on the part of this waitress. However, next visit I'm gonna stick with the Shwarma.
A couple of other notes:
- The Labne dip appetizer is a bit of a rip off. For $3.50 they give you a plate of Labne Yogurt with some lemon and chives on top. Nothing special here. Mostly just greek style yogurt.
- These guys do have tasty hummus.
- They appear to get pita bread from Phoenicia Bakery & Deli. I find this pita to be too thin and chewy for my tastes. It also dries out and gets hard very quickly.
Marakesh is a handy-dandy 10-minute walk from work, and something about eating there is a nice escape from a rather tepid office environment. I do slightly feel like I've stepped into a Turkish sidewalk cafe - maybe those murals on the wall are very convincing.
One quiet Saturday afternoon, my boyfriend and I ate there - the lunch specials were under $6 and it was really quite delicious, especially the tender kibbeh. But when I returned there during a busy weekday lunch hour, it took 20 minutes to get my food, and the kibbeh was dry and hard.
I managed to get one table obscured by a large plant, and an older couple asked if they could share my table. That doesn't happen often in the United States, so that added to my pleasant "foreign" cafe experience.
You should come for the LENTIL SOUP. It's amazing. And you should STAY for the rose petal ice cream.... Guys, I cannot properly express just how amazing this ice cream is. Get it. Now.
I remember also having some sort of really good iced tea... But basically, as other people have already mentioned, it's great food, yet only mediocre service. The waiters really did act like I was doing them a disservice by just being there. Ordering their food. Eating their food. Giving them money. Sheesh, what a hassle I am.
I had lunch here, and had the Traditional Falafel plate. IMO the falafel was a little over cooked/dry. The side salad was average, would have been better with some kalamata olives(but thats because i love them!). Humus was great.
I got the impression that the kitchen was in chaos. at one point while waiting on the line, the cashier was delivering dishes to the tables. Clearly a waiter/bus boy is needed.
Overall average middle eastern cuisine.
Meh.
Maybe it was just because it was around lunch and the place was crowded, but my food was mediocre (as was the rest of my friends' food). Service was slow, even after the place had emptied out (1:30ish). The decor is pretty nice and I'd like to grab lunch on a less crowded day, eat outside, and people watch.
Hopefully the food and service will be better when they're not in the middle of their busy lunch rush.
This is a good downtown lunch option to quickly grab a gyro or similar. I've been going to this place pretty consistently for the past two years. A lot of people seem to have issues with this place, but I find their gyros to be pretty solid and like most of the other stuff I've had there too. Never been there for dinner.
Mediocre food combined with lackadaisical service. I wound up here by being a hungry out-of-towner reading a menu in the window; what's your excuse?
I used to eat lunch here on a weekly basis (more than once a week sometimes). I left town for awhile and I have been back for about 8 months. I have been back to this place three times. The first few times were mediocre, at best, but I though maybe I was just ordering the wrong thing (even though it was the same stuff I used to get). Last week, I paid $13 for stale bread, rancid hummus and a shwerma sandwich that had about two pieces of chicken in it. They used to have a tasty, homemade special everyday and now, when I ask, no one knows what the special is (and maybe there isn't one). Never again.
I too am suprised at how many so-so reviews there are, Marakesh is a perfectly good establishment. I have been here more than a few times and have always thought the food was good. I would like to see more on the menu, but then again I haven't even tried everything they currently offer. Not super quick or long, the wait is average (~4min.) and usually contestant. For around $6 you can get a plate with a few items on it, the option I usually opt for.
No lie, the food here is not acceptable. It came out lukewarm. The curry taste was alright, but the uncooked chicken (which was the top waitstaff recommendation) tasted worse than the pepto bismol we had to drink later. The salad was good, hummous and babaganouj were fine. The shewarma (which was waitstaff recommended) was tepid, overseasoned, and was clearly the throwaway remains of a cut of meat that evidently went to a restaurant that actually valued their customer patronage. I could almost hear the management laughing "stupid americans" as they dug that dish out of the rubbish bin. A complaint to the waitstaff caused them to offer us more food that we didn't like, but no discount off the $40 bill. I'm only giving a 1 because the atmosphere was quite nice (and I can't give less). It's just hard to enjoy it as it's rushing by me on the way back to the bathroom... I won't be back.
Another meh review for an Austin restaurant. Sorry locals...
We were hungry and the other restaurants on the block were pricey. So Marakesh it was. When we walked in, it was unclear whether we were supposed to seat ourselves or not. We stood in the lobby looking helpless and were ignored by the waitstaff. We finally decided to take a seat at a table that had not been cleared and we asked an employee walking by if it was okay for us to seat ourselves and he rolled his eyes and sighed and removed the dirty dishes. He took his sweet time. B commented that he'd never seen anyone looked so pained to do their job. No menus arrived so I went and grabbed one off another table. We ordered. We waited. We read the free weekly papers. The food took an extra long time to arrive. The veggies were pretty good. The meat and fish seemed dry/overcooked. The pita bread was warm, but thin and dry. Bad bread has been the theme of this trip. The hummus was bland. Kind of a forgettable dining experience.
Actually, I think Joe P.'s review actually sums it all up pretty well!
I've been twice, and the second visit will be my last. Restaurant feels run down and scuzzy, not enough staff running the place, food was meh -and- some of it microwaved. So disappointing. Ruff.
I had lunch here one afternoon when I was in town for SXSW. I had a veggie platter (or something like that) - it had hummus, tabouli, falafel, and pita bread. Everything I had was pretty good, fresh, and authentic. I think their portions were pretty small given the prices. Also, their service was terrible. It took them forever to get my order and when it came out the young woman who took my order was like, "Is this what you ordered? I couldn't remember!"
The menu is definitely more Greek than Moroccan. It used to be pretty tasty, but they seem to be going through some hard times. I miss their Spanakopita, which doesn't seem to be on the lunch menu anymore. Their plates are decent, and decently priced, but the wait at lunch is really really long. Considering the Pita Pit also has hummus and pita and is cheaper, they probably need to pull it together. Their venue is cuter and more upscale than Pita Pit, and has so much more potential, they really could make something of it.
Erm, after reading Lumiere's review, I hardly feel qualified to write anything at all, but since I wasn't exactly going to post raves about this place, I'll push on. I've been here several times and tried various things on their menu and have never been particularly impressed. It tastes fine, but if you take a particular item - say, the gyro meat - and compare it apples-to-apples to, say, Athenian Grill (which, after reading Lumiere's review, I now realize isn't meant to be the same genre of cuisine, but they do have gyro meat), it just doesn't stack up. Was that last sentence long and confusing enough for you? Good. Back to the food. The gyro meat here is dry and hardish, the cucumber/yogurt sauce they serve with it isn't thick or garlicky enough for my taste, and the pita bread - oh, the humanity! - dry and thin and just not worth eating. The hummus isn't bad, but I needed more of it, mostly so I could dip all the dry items on the table into it to give them more flavor and moisture.
During the day, you order at the counter, but at night, they have table service. The atmosphere is fine, kind of quirky and relaxed - not a bad place to gather with friends. I think it's a little on the pricey side for the quality of the food, but at least their portions are pretty big . Also, it's one of the few places on Congress Ave that has somewhat reasonably-priced entrees (my comment about it being pricey given the quality notwithstanding) and is open at dinner time, so that's a mark in its favor. If only the food were better.
I went to Marakesh for lunch yesterday with my parents. I wanted them to try the grilled chicken+couscous dish that I had last time I was there. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the service...or lack thereof. We had to seat ourselves. Only after other patrons ordered did we gather that orders were to be placed at the counter. The second thing I noticed, as pointed out by my dad, was a strange smell. That's all I'll say about that. Our waiter repeated every word I said as if he was desperately trying to remember our order...which would have been alright if he wasn't obviously stoned. i'm just glad my parents found it entertaining. Maybe it was just the Bob Marley playing overhead that caused me to come to such a conclusion, i don't know. The appetizers we ordered were served in a way that was anything but appetizing....just kind of dropped on the table like salt packets. However, they were quite tasty. The grilled chicken dish that I was so looking forward to was unfortunately a disappointment. I won't say it was cold, but it was well on its way. The experience overall was okay because of the company, rather than the environment itself. I'll probably be back because i'm a sucker for Mediterranean food, but not anytime soon...
The hummus was blah and everything else from the meat to the pita was dry and hard. Even the spinach in the spinach pie was dried up inside the bread. It was like eating food that was sitting out all day.
This is it! a great place for lunch and dinner. The food is delicious and reasonably priced. They have traditional faves of "arabic" or morroccan cuisine and nice atmosphere. You can't lose I a never disappointed.
I hadn't been here in a couple of years, but I'd always considered it to be a competent, if uninspiring, downtown lunch option. Today's experience wasn't competent, and I would downgrade "uninspiring" to "bad."
My wife and I arrived at 11:30, and I was surprised to see that we were the only patrons, as I remembered it being quite lively the other times I'd been. Not a good sign, I thought, but it is a tad early.
Our order was taken and we sat down to wait. Ten minutes passed, and we started to wonder just how long it could take to cook some falafel and slice some shwarma. We waited some more, as did the dozen or so other patrons who had come in and ordered. There appeared to be only one person cooking, and she didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry.
Finally an order came out--not ours, but for a table that had come in a good 10 minutes after we did. Clearly, something was amiss in the kitchen. At this point, it had been half an hour, so I went up to the counter to see when--or whether--we might expect our order to come (as I had only an hour for lunch). The counter person called back to the cook (only 20 feet away and in plain sight, again in no hurry, it seemed, to get anything done), who, in a very UNapologetic tone, "explained" that they had been closed all weekend, and so she had to do all the prep work now, and she was the only one to do it. "There's nothing I can do about it," she said; the only thing polite about this exchange is that she didn't append the word "a$$hole" to the end of her sentence, even though she clearly thought it. The only thing that kept me from demanding a refund right then was that the girl working the counter truly was apologetic and promised it would be just a couple of minutes.
And it was just a couple of minutes, but that's about the only thing good I can say about the food. My beef shwarma was leathery and cold, and the portion was small, perhaps half a dozen scraps served on a bed of lukewarm, insipid saffron rice, which might have been yellow from food coloring rather than saffron. The hummus was OK but forgettable, and the green bean salad was ho-hum, and that's being generous (pretty sure they were canned beans). The plate came with a sad little piece of pita that was stale and tough. The only interesting thing about the meal was trying to figure out how to stretch that miserable little piece so that I would have enough so that I wouldn't have to eat the hummus by itself with my fork. I felt like I was in some miserable canteen in the Eastern Bloc, and there was a pita shortage on.
My wife's salad was nice, and her falafel was a cut above my shwarma, but that's not saying much. It was harder than it should have been, very bland, and, I'm sure, had been reheated in a microwave (like my beef shwarma).
It was truly miserable. The only reason it gets a star at all is that in the past it was OK. My wife, who had never been there before and who is a much more generous soul by nature than I, suggested that perhaps they were indeed just having a bad day. I think not. Judging from the lack of customers in the middle of the lunch hour DOWNTOWN (there were perhaps 15 people in there when we left at 12:30), I think they've had lots and lots of bad days, and the word is now out.
I don't think I'll bother ever going back.
i think i may be able to understand less than satisfactory reviews of this place, but i always order the same thing when i go and it's always good. it runs pricey, but when i'm feeling like eating hummus, tabbouli, turkish salad, and dolma not out of a can, this is where i go. it's not amazing, but it's good, and it's filling, and that's kinda all i ask for when wanting mediterranean foods in austin.
good stuff.. i particularly like the hummus...
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Greek
Neighborhood: 78704 (South Austin)
Category: Bakeries
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Tapas Bars
Austin, TX
Category: Mediterranean
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Moroccan
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