Meknes

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 5
Price: 350 AED
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: 3 lamb tajine dishes, 1 chicken tajine dishes, 1 vegetable couscous tajine dish, 3 harira soups, moroccan tea
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

For our last dinner in the UAE we decided on Moroccan cuisine, as we hadn't had it yet and it is also one of those quite hard to come by in Japan.  My wife located a Moroccan restaurant in the older section of Abu Dhabi called Mina.  We stopped by earlier in the day to check it out and it seemed to me likely to turn out to be quite good.

Bread, potatoes and olives

I was correct!  3 of us ordered lamb tajine dishes, one person had a chicken tajine dish, and my dad had the vegetable couscous tajine.  Of the lamb tajine dish, everyone agreed my son's was the best as it came with prunes which sweetened the sauce a bit and elevated it just that much more.  My tajine was similar to his but with a boiled egg and almonds, lacking the sweetness, but still very delicious. The last two meat tajines were lamb and chicken, but otherwise the same, coming with a generous helping of somewhat mushy vegetables including potatoes, carrots and peas.  The vegetable couscous consisted of the same vegetables with a plate full of couscous and some quite tasty sauce to dribble over the couscous. A basket of bread came with everything, and the freshly baked Moroccan bread was quite dense and tasty, different from the other types of bread we'd eaten so far, and great for dipping in the 3 harira soups.  Finally the moroccan tea arrived, along with the showy pouring and an  unasked for but appreciated selection of morroccan sweets.

harira soup

Overall everyone agreed it was very good and while not the best Moroccan we've ever had, definitely up there.

Lamb tajine with prunes

Vegetable couscous tajine

Lamb tajine with vegetables

Chicken tajine with vegetables

Lamb tajine with egg and almonds

Fancy pouring!

Moroccan tea and sweets