Mamounia Lounge Knightsbridge

Our visit last night to the Knightstbridge branch of Mamounia Lounge started off well. It was a surprisingly warm evening and the restaurant front was wide open, on to the street, with many guests sitting outside enjoying a shisha pipe.

Inside, the decor is stylish Arabic – all very appealing and comfortable. The restaurant wasn’t particularly busy but service degenerated from slow to terrible (the second bottle of Vernaccia di San Gimignano Castellani – a white wine @ £24.00 a bottle – was served warm, with barely an apology that they’d run out of chilled bottles of this particular wine, and no suggestion of a chilled alternative).

For starters, our party had a selection of briouat (deep fried filo pastry cases filled with cheese and potato, lamb, chicken + vegetables) @ £6.50, a chicken pastilla (chicken baked in a thin pastry with almond + cinnamon) @ £8.00, a fish pastilla @ £6.50 and a kallaje (cheese with bread) @ £6.50.

Kallaje starter – not particularly exciting

For mains, two of us had a mixed grill and two had a lamb tagine. The tagines were excellent and seem to be the house speciality, while the mixed grill was good but some of the meat was very tough and chewy.

Lamb tagine – beautifully prepared and extremely tasty with varied, deep flavours

Mixed grill

We finished with a mint tea (probably the best mint tea I’ve had) which was served quite ceremoniously in Arabic glassware from a large pot, and a selection of baklawa @ £7.50 which was also very good, perfectly moist and honeyed.

I’m glad I’ve tried this restaurant but I won’t rush back. It has a nice feel and the food’s not bad but service is a let-down.

Restaurant info:
~ Lardbutty rating: 3 / 5
~ Type: Lebanese, Moroccan
~ Address: 136 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London
~ Postcode: SW3 1HY
~ Tel: 020 7581 7777
~ Nearest tube stations: Knightsbridge, South Kensington
~ Website: Mamounia Lounge Knightsbridge website
~ Location: Mamounia Lounge Knightsbridge map

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