On Friday night, Leah, Jayna and I decided to have dinner at the Red Fez in the South End. I was excited to try out this Moroccan restaurant which has been a part of the South End dining scene even before the area became gentrified and famous as a dining destination. And I was hoping for the Moroccan dining experience that I had had in college at the Moroccan restaurants in Philadelphia- with the darkened rooms, seating on cushions, eating with your hands and experiencing amazing food. (Sadly, I haven't been able to find the same thing anywhere else.)
Upon driving up to the Red Fez (and yes, the awning on the restaurant is supposed to be a red fez), I was happy to find free parking in the South End, in the parking lot behind the restaurant. When we entered the restaurant, the bar area was totally packed. Perhaps because there was a Red Sox game on or because this place just has a bar scene. But it was quite lively and noisy. We put in our names for a table and told it'd be a 20 minute wait, so we decided to wander outside and take a look at some of the neighboring stores. I finally got a look at Brix, the wine store on Washington St. that opened last year. And it was very pretty. Then we walked over to Seven Eleven where we bought ourselves a bag of chips to share cause we were all pretty hungry.
When we walked back to the restaurant, our table was ready, so we got seated in the dining room. The cool thing about the Red Fez is that it is a stand alone building, so it has lots of space. The entire place is divided in two sides by a curtain- the left side is the dining area and the right is the bar. The restaurant part is actually quite spacious with really nice 20 foot ceilings, but of course, this increases the volume level of the restaurant immensely and it's hard to have a quiet conversation. They really could have fitted more tables in, but it was kinda nice that they didn't.
Our waitress showed up quickly to take our drink orders, but upon discovering that we weren't about to order drinks, as Leah put it, the light in her eyes went out. And we would see her very little for the rest of the night. It's suprising considering the number of people they actually have working that service would be so poor, but it was. Not hostile and terrible, but very neglectful. She did take our orders, though. I got chicken kabobs, while Leah and Jayna both ordered lamb kabobs.
As an appetizer, we share the humus with crudite. I found it very yummy, though a little oily. But it was a generous portion and even the three of us couldn't finish it all.
They also give each table a giant bread basket which is great! And a little white bean dipping sauce on the side, which i also found very yummy.
Then our entrees arrived. Here's my chicken kabob. I got a side of couscous with it, and was surprised that they used the big couscous. However, it was drenched in butter and tasted great. And everything else was very tasty.
Here's Jayna's lamb kabob. She got a side of potatoes. Both Jayna and Leah enjoyed their entrees. And we all had food left over to take home. Was the food fantastic and amazing? No, but it was very good. And I think it was pretty reasonably priced for dinner in the South End. All our entrees were in the mid-hi teens. So you won't break the bank eating here.
We perused the dessert menu, but didn't find anything particularly desirable. So we decided to get ice cream elsewhere. We ended up at Toscanini's in Central Square were we all order micro-sundaes (unfortunately I forgot to photograph them, but they were googy and great).
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