Sidi Maarouf

For my girlfriends birthday I decided it would be a nice idea to go out to a lavish restaurant. We had a craving for a tagine so stumbled upon this place - what a mistake!

From the moment I walked in, the place wasn't even busy and were being forced to sit in seats we didn't want to until I actually made a stand of where my girlfriend and I felt comfortable. The staff constantly seemed pre-ocupied and we were even totally blanked by a couple of the waiters and waitresses a couple of times when trying to order.

The music was loud too. I know its the weekend and they do live music but how anyone is supposed to eat, order and talk to people, including the staff is beyond me - its just way too loud! I couldn't even order my food properly due to the noise.

And the food itself, well I ordered a £7 dish for a starter, the lamb sausages. i was expecting a generous portion but all i recieved was 3 measly sausages. I was shocked to say the least. I ordered a tagine for the main course and when it arrived i was shocked to realise it didnt come with rrice even though it cost more than £10! Not only that, the staff upon ordering didnt even let us know it didnt come with rice and so we had to sit an additional 10minutes while rice arrived.

Needless to say, I never finished my meal. My girlfriend was so upset she didnt even bother touching her tagine and we left with haste. To be charged £50 for such a poor meal and service was disappointing. What made things worse was that I couldnt even console her during the meal due to the bloody noise. The waiter even came over to ask what was wrong and due to the noise he couldnt hear me neither could I hear him!!

To put service charge of £4 onto the bill was also very cheeky, considering the fact I felt they did not deserve a tip.

DO NOT GO TO THIS RESTAURANT - there are plenty of better, tastier, more value for money choices on Edgware Road!!
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Jagdeep Singh
1 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, September 12, 2011

Awful, bland food. Reasonable service. Please don't waste your money.
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Phil
2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Saturday, August 06, 2011

New Year, so why not try and dine in a new restaurant...

Biggest mistake I made along with not making a New Years resolution.

The welcome we received extended no further than the door man who opened the door. My girlfriend and I were ushered to a table exempt of cutlery, glasses and the usual utensils you'd expect for a diner. As we discussed what we would eat and drink of an imaginary menu which failed to materialise for about 10mins we noticed that our plight was shared by 2 fellow 'patrons' who had seemingly less patience than us and left after 5mins of waiting.

After a hurried order and succumbing to our hunger and spotting the premiership footballer Maroune Chamakh we were under the impression that if it was good enough for him then it must be an excellent establishment with brilliant food. Was not wrong, the food was amazing, beautifully cooked lamb and chicken.

However, the service was extremely poor, when we requested a waiter we were motioned "1 min" assuming the waitress was busy, she promptly continued in deep conversation and signalled for her colleague to attend to us, 5mins later. The belly dancer was a highlight, even though a smile would not of gone a miss. Once the music had started playing at loud decibels mirroring that of a club it made communicating with my girlfriend difficult, we could simply lip read and text each other to communicate.

Overall, the staff were unfriendly, poor service and ambiance which is key to a dinning experience. I will not be dining there again. If they offer a take away service I will as i mentioned before the food is actually very nice, colourful, flavourful everything that the waiters & waitresses weren't.
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1 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, January 08, 2011

I went on a busy saturday evening with my sister so the service was slow for obvious reasons, but the service was friendly to cover this. The decor was rather mysterious and dark which also suits the entertainment-belly dancers! they are beautiful and dance around the whole restaurant, highlight of the evening! The food was lovely, although a meat was a little dry, but overall tasted fresh and healthy however it was overpriced quite a bit. Woudnt mind coming here again with a host of friends, then i'll take full advantage of the service and the dancers!
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EMILY
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, November 18, 2009