Hidden gem sparkles
Ben Summer enjoys a filling meal and surprising dessert at the restaurant getting top reviews that you’ve probably never heard of...
SOMETIMES, a restaurant will inexplicably slip under your radar. You’re spoilt for choice on Cardiff ’s City Road (if you don’t believe me, look at all the amazing places to eat here) and walking past Turkish, Syrian, Japanese, Thai and Lebanese restaurants it’s easy enough to forget about one or two.
But when writing an article on the best-reviewed restaurants on City Road, I realised there was one we hadn’t given enough attention to: Casablanca, a Lebanese and Moroccan restaurant which ranks seventh in Cardiff on Tripadvisor (albeit among a smaller pool of reviewers).
Not to be confused with Casablanca Club in Butetown, this one was formerly known as Mezza Luna before it closed in 2021 and – after brief stints as a pizza place and Middle-Eastern street food spot, reopened in 2022.
We visited on a very drizzly day in Cardiff and immediately felt warmed by the decor, with ornate hanging lamps and detailed, patterned cushions making for a cosy atmosphere in a decently-sized room, and a roaring fire in the oven at the back.
A nice buzz built up throughout the evening with staff laughing and joking with regular customers as the room started to fill out.
Service was smiley and welcoming from the start, with our waiter recommending dishes, checking in on us throughout the meal and bringing water without us having to ask.
We started with some homemade lemonade (£3.50 a glass) – not too sharp or overly sweetened, and really pleasantly fruity. For starters, we opted for a dish of hummus and a plate of batata hara (Lebanese spiced potatoes).
The hummus (£5) was fresh and creamy but, despite the dusting of spices on top, not particularly strongly-flavoured. The accompanying bread was nothing to write home about but generously portioned.
The potatoes (£5) were really the dish we found ourselves fighting over for the last bite: a real kick and properly garlicky but not too strong in either respect, they were amazingly moreish and came with a cool dip.
Straddling the two main cuisines of the menu, we ordered tagine bil Hu’t (Moroccan salmon tagine, £15) and Lebanese lamb kofta (£13).
The salmon was flaky, flavourful and subtle and, as with the best tagines, the flavours spoke for themselves.
Piled underneath the salmon were an abundance of potatoes, sweet potatoes, aubergine, beans and peas and a stack of lemon (the flavour of which was steamed into the salmon).
The veg was all fall-apart-tender and each tasted rich, sweet and distinct from the rest without a great deal being done or added to them. The kofta was the more muted of the two dishes; you know what you’re going to get, and the lamb was nicely spiced and herby, with fresh red onions cutting through and a side salad with cucumbers, beetroot and tomato. An ordinary but tasty dish, it was lifted by a subtle cardamom-y bed of rice (there was almost too much rice to get through). The mains also arrived with a lovely, warm homemade bread which was a nice bonus but almost surplus to requirements by this point.
Crucially – and a personal bugbear when not achieved – the mains arrived piping hot.
Thinking we had found the winning dish of the night in the tagine, and impressively well-fed for £22.50 per head, we were determined to find room for dessert for the sake of a complete review.
The unexpected surprise of the night arrived in the form of knafeh, a caramely-cheesy delight that (a theme of the evening) was more than enough to share at a reasonable price (£5).
If you haven’t had it, knafeh is made with a spin pastry – effectively, little shreds of it clumped together – soaked in a sweet syrup and layered with stringy mozzarella inside. Not as cheesy as it sounds and not as sickly as you’d imagine, it was good enough to find that extra bit of space for.
All in all this was a well-priced and hugely satisfying meal with the basics done right.
If you’re familiar with Moroccan and Lebanese food you won’t see the wheel being reinvented, but for those of us who haven’t ventured far beyond tagine and couscous there are plenty of new things to try.
The service with a smile and homemade bread and lemonade were nice touches and on a return visit we’d venture deeper into the list of Moroccan starters and mains.
You can find Casablanca at 159 City Rd, Cardiff CF24 3BQ. For anyone observing Ramadan, there is currently an Iftar set menu including soup (with dates) and a starter, main and dessert for £24.99.