Marakesh

Love the new location in a new shopping center by Lowes on Steck in north Austin. It is chic and casual.... more

Love the new location in a new shopping center by Lowes on Steck in north Austin. It is chic and casual. The foot is amazing! Love the hummus, do... more

Being from the middle east, falafel is an important part of my diet, just to smell the aroma lures me to eat at least a sandwish.\r For the past twenty one years, living in Austin, I used to wait for the Mediteranian Festival on 11th street for my Falafel and boy I enjoyed them, UNTIL now when I walked into MRAKESH, that I found my new and beloved place for my Falafel.\r The food is great, the atmosphere is wonderfull and the service was just right, not to mention the owner who was extremely friendly and courteous. more

I eat there at least twice a week, I drive down from north Austin by passing all the Mediterranean restaurants on the way, just can't get enough of that hummus and babaghanouj they make. You must try the chicken couscous simply delicious. the atmosphere is pleasant, it has the back home neighborhood restaurant feel, informal and casual and the service is good and friendly, always filling, satisfying. Pros: the best chicken couscous I have had Cons: not too crazy about the turkish coffee more

i love marakesh. they have amazing fallafels and salads, and always play interesting music. very relaxed atmosphere in the middle of downtown. good spot for reading a book, and drinking some mediterranean coffee. more

I'm glad I didn't read the reviews of this place before going here, I may have never gone. But it turned out to be a very tasty, pleasant meal for lunch on a weekday. We were there around 1:30 with a few other customers. It took just a tad longer than comfortable, but we will be going back soon. The lady serving us did forget my tea - which after reading the reviews I guess this happens too often. I hope (if she is the owner) she realizes she needs help and gets a seasoned manager. They don't even have a web site! Pros: Tasty, healthy food. Ambiance. Price reasonable for location Cons: Little slow on service more

I and my husband were there yesterday , and we were coming from college station,Texas and was looking for Mediterranean restaurant and we just found this, we waste our time in waiting and were so surprised from the quality of food, I really regret the time and the money we spent there..furthermore the restaurant was not clean and the restroom are not in convenient place and not clean too.. we said that ""it seems that the one who cooks this food has no experience in cooking""... the food was not tasty at all. I will never go back to this restaurant neither advice any one to go there. I can't imagine that a chef can cook this badly.. it is awfully bad...and you have to give a tip for the unpleasant experience!!!!! don't go there. Pros: Example: best croissants in town Cons: What are the drawbacks? more

Great for quick lunch, and awesome dinner dine in. Authentic setting with great food and arabic music.\r BELLY DANCING is great on saturday nights. Valentine's day of 2009 will be great. Can't wait for that event. Pros: Food, Setting. Cons: Needs More Locations more

The food at Marakesh is consistently average, not worth the long wait, lack-luster service or the elevated prices. Today, I spent 25 minutes waiting for a take-out sandwich. Chips were not listed on the menu, were not included with the sandwich and the person taking my order didn't ask if I wanted any. I only found out later from observing the order window during my long wait that chips were available. When my sandwich was ready, the server just pointed to the order window where the sandwich was. He did even attempt to hand it to me. I paid $6.50 and added a tip for this? For just an average sandwich with no chips or drink that I had to wait almost half an hour to receive and finally no service either? I won't be back. There are plenty of other places downtown to get a tastier, faster and/or less expensive lunch. This place comes in low on all three counts. Pros: convenient for downtown, nice decor Cons: long wait, lack-luster service, not a good value for what you pay more

How can anyone call this a Restaurant? I complained about the Falafal the waitress told me not to order'em again because that is how Falafel are prepared; when i told her tha i was a North-African and i know what Flafel should be; she responded the cooks were Mexicans and they know Falafel (meanwhile my Mexican wife trying not to V0#%@T). Cons: where to start more

I decided to go have lunch there with two co-workers. Well, I should have known somthing would go wrong because when we walked in the lady cooking the food seemed very overwhelmed by more than a few customers coming in for lunch. It took 30 minutes for my co-workers to get their food, which were the daily specials, but I never go my food, which was a daily special as well. After sitting there for one hour, I went up and told the cashier, who didn't seem very bright, that I would just take a refund and leave since my co-workers already finished eating. The lady who was bringing out the food knew I didn't have my order yet but didn't seem to care. We noticed that other people in the restaurant weren't getting their food either, or their orders were wrong. Don't go there! It's time for them to close the doors permanently. Pros: Food Ok Cons: Way too long to get your food. Poor Service. Unattentive employees. more

I ordered a ""kabob plate"" (or a similar name) during lunch... Yes, i know mediterranean. I can cook it, I have been to the middle east various times, and have various middle eastern friends. I also cook a good deal of Greek. It tasted like Mexican food. The kabob was some poorly cooked meat, it was not kabob (which is typically ground lamb or goat in some parts of the world, for you clueless people) - but instead tasted like fajita meat. Look, just open a mexican restaurant like everyone else in town. PLEASE CLOSE DOWN and stop taking up valuable real estate on Congress which is in dire need of some good restaurants. Where the heck is Athenian grill??? why do i have to eat Mexican everyday?? Pros: its pretty cheap at lunch Cons: horrid. just horrid. more

The food at Marakesh used to be consistently good, as was the service, before the owner passed away. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem to have ever gotten its bearings again. The food prices have gone up, portions have gone down and the quality really varies. The menu has been slashed for lunch time. Some days, getting a quick lunch there is an impossible feat, other days it seems deserted. Perhaps this is part of the downtown swing of things, but the staff here seem to be overwhelmed too quickly for a place that knows it's close to the capital and serves lunch! They have a constant flux in workers which is likely the cause of the inconsistencies in service and speed.\r \r The Chicken Shwerma plate, a former favorite, now features dark meat, whereas it used to be nice white meat. And there seems to be no option to request white meat, I guess. They used to have a small salad and now that 's gone from the menu completely. \r \r The lady that owns this place seems to be trying hard, but is often visibly stressed out. The former owner was a jovial man who had a handle on his staff and his kitchen. Just today, I went in there to give it yet another chance (so few places even serve meditteranean food after all). It took at least 30 minutes to get a to-go order. I got the falafel plate (4 small pieces of falafel, a cup worth of tomato/cucumber/pepper salad, a cup of hummus and half a square of pita bread). With a drink, this cost me $8.00 and I was still hungry. On the plus side, it tasted okay, but nothing stellar. Can't wait for the Athenian to open back up in 2008. Even if that place was on the pricey side, the food was good, so fresh and so quickly served in nice portions, much more worth it than Marakesh in its present state.\r \r \r \r Pros: Sometimes the food is good Cons: Rising prices, smaller portions, service inconsistencies more

I've been going to Marrakesh for years, even when it was called Longhorn Po Boys and Falafel (which still exists north of the UT law school, I think). The last bad review on Citysearch was at a bad time for the business. The long time owner of the restaurant died awhile back, and it took time for things to get back on track. From what I've seen recently, they are back and better than ever. Service recently was great, and the food very good. \r \r My favorite is the Chicken Shawarma plate. Expect a little wait, but not long unless its a really busy day. I really like the tabouli-they'll substitute that for the marinated green beans (which are also good) on plates if you want. There's Orangina in the case behind the counter for a change of pace drink, and hibiscus mint tea as a more exotic option with your lunch. Pros: Food Cons: Sometimes crowded at rush hour more

I was not impressed at all with the service, food, and atmosphere. There was only one waitress for the whole restaurant, and it was at least 75% full. She looked over worked while the blondie at the counter showed off her stomach to her coworkers in the back. The salad was wilted and tasted like they poured a gallon of lime juice over the whole bowl and were digging out for each serving - I obviously got the bottom, my tongue still tingles from the lime juice taste. Everything went downhill from there. more

Just went back recently and it was amazing as always! I had the veggie 3 dish this time and it was awesome, it had a little bit of everything, humus, grape leaves, salad, and falafel! the falafel is the best I've ever had! more

Our second time in marakesh, me and five friends sat down for another warm delicious meal. The food we had was just fabulous and the service was very good. I recommend this restaurant for both lunch and dinner. Pros: Thumbs up for the food and service Cons: Thumbs up for the perfect location more

i used to come here at least once a week three years ago. the ownership changed and things went to hell. the hummus and babganouche and pita is still good. so are there 'sandwhiches'. the entrees though are just not executed well. they have a wine that i really like so i still go for a glass or two and some hummus with a friend, but i will always crave what it used to be. Pros: good wine, good location, good hummus Cons: entrees more

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 is caused us 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 2 because the atmosphere was quite nice. It's just hard to enjoy it as it's rushing by me on the way back to the bathroom...\r I won't be back. Pros: Atmosphere Cons: Food more

I just ate here the other night for the first time & also just heard that the owner recently passed, my condolences. I wonder if since the owner's passing it has just gone downhill? Being a middle easterner familiar with mideast fare in america, my expectations already were not high, seeing as nothing compares to food overseas. However, this was BEYOND SUBPAR and an absolute DISGRACE to middle eastern food & culture.\r \r The atmosphere was very cute, wine ok, waiter was VERY nice. However, the chicken and beef shawarma dishes were DISGUSTING. The chicken was VISIBLY PINK and the meat was overcooked, overseasoned & in scrappy bits, not the long pieces expected from a shawarma meat. The rice was overcooked & mushy & everything else was barely edible. \r \r I nicely pointed this out to the waiter, very ""hey heads up, please correct this for next customers"". He even noted the pinkness of the chicken & apologized, acknowledging the infractions. He politely offered baklava, which I turned down because I couldnt see how they could get that right, seeing as they got simple CHICKEN wrong. And frankly, we had stomach issues already from the meats.\r \r We get the bill, and on top of bad food, they charged us for everything, even our dishes we couldn't eat. Not only was this an insult to middle eastern fare, it was an insult to the culture. No middle easterners I know would insult the customers in such a way. I will never ever return to Marakesh & tell others likewise. Pros: In cute area, congress district, cute decor Cons: Food is disgusting more