Casablanca

Regarding the dance recital buffet: what ebeth said. The service was abysmal, the food was inedible, and the “reserved table for eight” fit seven of us, and I ended up sitting on the floor half the time.

I had been there once before, and while the service was no better, the price-fixe meals that one normally can order were edible. The bastilla is probably the best item on the menu.

If you’re looking for a large set menu middle eastern food event, however, Memsahib in Rockville offers the best I’ve had in the area- and I’ve been to casablanca, taste of morocco, and marrakesh.

This so-called restaurant looks like a 50’s-era notion of a Moroccan cocktail lounge, by way of Hollywood. Worse, it smells like one.

I had the pleasure of attending a middle-Eastern dance recital here, but we were charged fifteen bucks, not including drinks, tax, or mandatory gratuity, for one of the most insipid buffet dinners I’ve ever had the misfortune of gagging on.

Said buffet contained stale pita, some sort of roll, a half-decent hummus, a cucumber salad, rice, terribly overcooked peas and carrots, stewed chicken, and turnip couscous. I shudder at the memory of it. The weird thing is, the only spice I could taste was cumin in the hummus. Isn’t Moroccan food supposed to be renowned for its complexity of spices and contrasting textures?

Okay, so what I had was not the standard menu, but really — on this night they had the opportunity to shine, to roll out the red carpet, to put their best foot forward and win a new audience by doing the best that they could. But they blew it.

I will not be giving Casablanca a second chance.