In The Press

The food at The Marhaba Bistro has attracted attention from the press in Bristol. Below is a recent review by Mark Taylor at the Evening Post.

A fine taste of Moroccan magic

An intriguing email pinged into my inbox a couple of weeks ago. It came from Fishponds residents Martin and Christine Jefferd, avid readers of Seven, regular "eater-outers" and therefore people of considerable taste whose opinion on such matters should be taken seriously. "Do you know about a new restaurant which opened very recently without much publicity on the Fishponds road? It's called Marhaba and it specialises in Moroccan cuisine"

Marhaba had, in fact, already appeared on the Seven radar and a review was already pencilled in but the Jefferd's email prompted me to put it to the top of the list. In fact, hang the expense. I invited them to join me for dinner there.

Despite occasional pleas and begging letters, I hadn't taken up past requests to accompany readers to restaurants. For a start, I didn't want them to witness my appalling eating habits and embarrass myself by drinking too much and letting out too many trade secrets. Well, you never know, they could have been undercover restaurateurs looking for tips on how to impress restaurant critics. Worse still, they could have been rival restaurant critics from other publications looking for tips on how to write a decent review! But still, it was worth a gamble and I duly booked a table for three at Marhaba.

I have to admit I was slightly nervous when I arrived at Marhaba. The place was busy - certainly busier and buzzier than a new restaurant on Fishponds road deserves to be early on a Thursday evening - and for a split second, I did wonder whether I'd fallen into a carefully planned trap. Were Christine and Martin simply pseudonyms for the Moroccan owners of the place and had I been sewn up like a kipper? As soon as I spotted the Jeffords, however, all thoughts of conspiracy theories went out the window. Martin turned out to be a retired policeman, Christine was a nurse and they had never eaten Moroccan food before.

I knew I'd hit it off with Christine before we'd even ordered our food because the first thing she said was "How do you keep so slim?" "I walk everywhere," I said breathing in and trying to hide my bus ticket. "Shall we order?" As newcomers to the delights of Moroccan food, Martin and Christine looked to me for a bit of guidance when it came to menu choices. Christine doesn't like spicy food so I assured her that the great thing about this particular type of cuisine was the use of mild spices, such as cinnamon, cumin and fruit. Martin looked like a man who would eat anything and he already had his eye on one of the lamb dishes.

Marhaba is a small, one room restaurant on the corner of Fishponds Road and Grove Road - directly opposite Lodge Causeway. In a former life, I dare say it was a Victorian shop and in more recent times it was used as some sort of finance business. The room has been given the full Moroccan makeover with lanterns, wood carvings, earthenware dishes and a row of hookahs in the window - which makes a change from the rows of "hookers" at the other end of Fishponds Road.

Owner and head chef Hassan Ben -messaoud used to run the Taste of Morocco on Gloucester Road when it first opened in the Nineties. He sold that business a while back while trying to find the right site to open a new neighbourhood Moroccan and up-and-coming Fishponds seemed like as good a place as any. It's certainly good news for people like the Jefferds, who seem typical of Seven readers who appreciate good food, but prefer not to travel into the city centre or Clifton unless they have to. The rise of the neighbourhood restaurant seems to make perfect sense. Between the three of us, we ordered a broad section from the menu and there wasn't a sub-standard dish among them. Christine was more than satisfied with her starter of aubergine salad, a room temperature, ratatouille-style mixture of roasted aubergine spiked with garlic, coriander and a dab of harissa to give it a mild kick. Martin, meanwhile, was attacking his harrera vegetable soup with gusto although the mild spicing resulted in a "no-jacket-required" scenario. My tiger prawns also had a slightly fiery kick to them due to the addition of harissa, but they were very good indeed.

By now, we were involved in an in-depth conversation about the state of Bristol restaurants, holidays in Cornwall and, once the very drinkable Medallion sauvignon blanc had slipped down, even the abomination that is fortnightly bin collections. We broke off for main courses. Christine loved her vegetarian tagine bel khodra and capsicum peppers, which consisted of a yellow pepper stuffed with spicy cous cous and a selection of vegetables (courgette, peas, potato) cooked slowly in a tagine. Martine was very impressed with his tagine marakchi, an aromatic stew of "very tender" lamb, whole prunes and apricots infused with cinnamon - and I was rendered speechless by the superb lamb maghdour - again the most tender pieces of lamb (I would guess either shoulder or neck fillet) cooked in olive oil with tomatoes, parsley and mixed peppers.

We ordered some perfectly cooked fluffy cous cous separately to soak up the copious juices. It was a gentle reminder why I love Moroccan food so much. To finish a plate of baklava - a selection of traditional sweet, nutty treats - a very good raspberry cheesecake and an utterly fabulous orange blossom water and almond cake made on the premises, all washed down with fresh mint tea poured from silver pots. This was some of the best Moroccan food I've experienced. It was cooked beautifully, served by one of the friendliest and most enthusiastic waiters I've seen for a long time and excellent value for money. Martin and Christine had chosen well and admitted they were already converts to Moroccan food. By the end of the meal, they were so impressed by their new local restaurant that they were planning a return visit. And there's no better recommendation than that.

Ratings

»  Food 4/5
»  Service 4/5
»  Ambience 3/5
»  Value 5/5
»  Overall 4/5
»  Review by Mark Taylor.