Casablanca Tea Room

The Casablanca Tea Room, in Soho, is kind of a weird little place. The decor is really beautiful...but it's all white, and the ceiling and walls are billowy, some of them even obviously just sheets hung to separate the place from a clothing store next door. It kind of made me feel like I was inside a tent. They screen Casablanca all the time on one of the walls.

When I was there the place was almost empty, which was kind of weird but did make for good service. They have some vegetarian couscous on the menu, and it sounded good, but the sample platter of tapas sounded really exciting, so that's what we had.

It included an eggplant spread and a roasted pepper spread, salads of chickpeas, carrots, and beets, and a spinach spread and some olives. And it came with bread. Each of the dishes was really delicious. They all had the right hints of cumin, coriander, lemon, and mint. It was plenty of food for dinner for two (without leaving us too full), and at $24 was a pretty good deal. The cocktails, while also good, were expensive at $12 each (and not very large). I had the "mon chi chi," which consisted of peach tea infused vodka with strawberries and sugar. It was really yummy. They had a cocktail on the list containing harissa, but I wasn't looking for that much of a Moroccan experience.

I would go back, but probably to get the same sample platter...it was really yummy and beautifully presented.