I visited this restaurant/lounge for a fun event. It is a place more known for night life, with belly dancers and good drinks. It was decorated inside and out for the Holiday season, very festive!
Our event was upstairs, so I didn’t get to see the main floor. There was a small middle-level floor with a handful of seating, which was odd but interesting. It had a more of a quiet atmosphere, compared to the font lobby area and the upstairs. Not much colors or lights, only some painting. I liked the artwork at the end of the wall.
The higher level was all fancy and fun. I liked the light fixtures that were more like glass lanterns, lit in red and green. This restaurant is Moroccan and Mediterranean theme, and I totally got that vibe. The color, decor, lanterns, and they even had hookah! I didn’t get to try to hookah, maybe next time…
Under the cool ceiling full of beautiful lanterns, they had a full bar. The bartenders were not the most friendly types, but they were efficient, and they know how to pour a good dink!
We had their specialty cocktails, Platinum Paloma and Platinum Pina. The Paloma is made with Deleon Platinum Tequila, grapefruit juice, lime, and came syrup. It had a pretty color red grapefruit color, and a really nice flavor to it. It was good and strong, not sweet like I thought it would be, but a tasty drink. The Pina is made with Deleon Platinum Tequila, Lime, Pineapple, and jalapeño syrup. This one was more clear, and had good but subtle pineapple flavor. It also had that hot spicy-ness that came up from the back of the throat after each sip from the jalapeño syrup. Both pretty good drinks, strong and high quality.
Then the happy parade of yummy food began to flow. I don’t know if I have ever tried food that are Moroccan, so I was excited to try them all. The first thing they brought out was a tray full of fried balls, it is called Croquette aux Epinards, basically a spinach croquette. It is made with spinach, walnuts, bechamel, and romesco. It was pretty darn tasty. They also had seafood filled puff pastry, which was a total delight.
Then there was this item that was totally intriguing. It is called Pastilla au Poulet, and is made with braised chicken, raisins, almonds, pepper, yogurt, stuffed in fillo, and dressed with powdered sugar. I was told it is a typical Moroccan snack, and it was really good! It was mix of savory and sweet at the same time, I never quite really had anything like this.
Another super yummy treat was mini crab cakes called cake de Crab. It is made with cornflakes crust, crab, saffron reduction, and sea beans . It was filled with lots of crab meat, not like some kind of mix with tiny amount of crab meat, but lots and lots of crab meat! It was really delicious! They know how to do good, quality food!
Another item was called Pissaladiere a la Truffle, made with flatbread, champignons de Paris, shitaki, truffle goat cheese, caramelized onions, and arugula. It had a nice flavor, good goat cheese taste and everything worked really good together.
Towards the end, they brought out Tartare au Thon, which was tuna on cucumber, with espelette aioli, seaweed, ginger, and soy. It was a very refreshing item, perfect item after all the other rich food.
Around the same time the cucumbers, they also gave us a nice red wine. They were giving out red and white wines, but we got the red. I asked the waiter for the bottle just to take the photo, and he was nice enough to let me take a photo. It was Lacrimus Rioja, Crianza 2011 from Spain. It was rich and velvety, with flavors of cherry, oak, and some spice. The waiters filled it almost to the top, and even gave us a refill. What a generous service!
Speaking of the service, the manager on duty, Arial was really awesome. He was watching everyone (staffs) like a hawk. He made sure all the food made it to everyone, which was not easy to do in a long, narrow space. He even took some trays of food himself to make sure it was reaching everyone. When there was some mess on the floor, a staff came immediately to clean it up. The food and drinks were checked throughout to ensure everything at the event was happy.
They also had spectacular entertainment for us, a belly dancer! This was a total surprise, I didn’t expect them to be giving us a show on top of all the great food and drinks! The “stage” was more towards the end of the room, and sine we were sitting a bit far from there, we didn’t get to have a good view, but I could see everyone around there were totally entertained.
Overall, it was a great event. The food was amazing, staffs were all efficient and nice, drinks were strong, and the manager had real skills to keep everything running smoothly. I would want to go back again for more of their great food and maybe get to see more of the belly dancer action as well. Thank you for the great night!
Le Souk – 510 LaGuardia Pl, New York, NY 10012