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1504 King St., Alexandria, Va.
(703) 549-6464
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-F 11:30-2; Entrees: $6-$9
Dinner: Sun-Th 5:30-11, F-Sat 5:30-11:30; Entrees: $18-$22 (5-course meal)
Other Information
• All major cerdit cards
• Reservations recommended
• Free parking lot
• Nerest Metro: King Street
• Handicapped accessible
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Casablanca is the suburban version of downtown's Moroccan restaurant, Marrakesh, though it's a little less elaborate and somewhat less expensive. Still, the dining room is unrestrainedly ornate, with carpet-covered sofas, satin pillows and nearly private niches. And the belly dancer puts on an energetic show. Diners have a choice of fixed-price dinners, but prices can climb higher if you want to sample more than two entrees per table. In any case, the meal is plentiful and interesting, eaten with your hands from a communal platter.
You start with tomato-lentil soup and/or salads of cucumber, eggplant, potato and the like. Mild and fresh, they deserve better bread. Bastilla comes next, the luscious chicken-nut-egg pie wrapped in phyllo and dusted with powdered sugar. Entrees are chicken or lamb flavored with hot sauce, onions and chickpeas, lemon and olives or such sweet combinations as honey and almonds or prunes and sesame seeds. There is also couscous, with or without meat. The sauces seem to be poured on the meats after cooking, since the flavors don't permeate, and the chicken with lemon and olives suffers from the bitter aftertaste of excess pith. But in the midst of all the other courses, the music and the belly dancing, the flaws take on less importance. For dessert there are mint tea and house-made cookies.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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