Vikas Sharma

About 15 years ago, I attended a work event at a Moroccan joint in Gastown – there were probably 10 of us or so at the table, and as luck would have it, the belly dancer who was entertaining the diners selected me from my table of colleagues to embarrass myself in front of the entire establishment.

I can barely dance, but belly dance? What a disaster.

Thankfully, this time around, my partner picked a Moroccan joint that was way more chilled and gave off a very authentic feel for being in a North African city. Very retro chic, with tchotchkes around … a shisha here, a Fez hat there, and our server was covered in Christmas lights. It was a lot of fun, down-to-earth, and warm.

The music reminded me of a 70’s era fusion of Arabic mixed with funky guitar fuzz tones.

So far, so good.

The online menu could have been a little easier to navigate; especially the bar menu. Hey, it’s the COVID era of dining.

There wasn’t a need to put photos of the labels of all of the wines, or even photos of all of the food items. The restaurant Published, has a great option to click open any item to get a photo.

That said – this is definitely a first-world problem.

Let’s talk food now.

For beverages, my partner had the Mint Tea, and I had an Alhambra Reserva Strong Lager from Spain. Both were perfect accompaniments to the meal.

To get things going, we ordered the Vegetable Pastilla and the Roasted Carrot Salad.

The best way to describe a pastilla is that it’s like a puff pastry with sautéed veggies inside. While they offer a vegan option, I couldn’t tell if there was any cheese inside of ours. However, it was nice and light and tasty. The pastry was made from phyllo, but I wasn’t sure at first, as the outer layer was very smooth. There is a photo below beside the roasted carrot salad. Ours was served with a very basic chopped veggie salad (just the way I like it).

The Carrot Salad was simple, flavourful, and balanced, as it was served with some cured lemons and a bit of feta (as well as a bit of spice and cilantro).

I should also mention that the Sundried Black Olives that come, complimentary, as you sit are super delicious.

For our main courses, my partner had the Saffron and Lemon Halal Temana Lamb Shank Tagine and I had the Prawns and Chickpea Tagine.

We ordered the cute little pita to go with our meals, listed on the menu as Homemade Moroccan Semolina Bread. I also ordered the Harissa Hot Sauce (which was not hot, but tasty) on the side.

We both enjoyed our meals, and while I can only speak for my tagine, I found it to be very light and flavourful. I was only able to eat half of my tagine, as well, we only finished half of the carrot salad, so it worked its way into one of my lunches.

This place has a lot going for it; a great atmosphere, music, great service, and light tasty food.

Return: Absolutely, we had no complaints about any aspect of our evening at Moltaqa. I would recommend you head in for a night of something different!

Rating: 7.5/10