Couscous Darna, London

After much pondering about where to eat for our cousin reunion we, or I, decided that we should have a go at morroccan cuisine. That lucky restaurant chosen was Couscous Darna situated in South Kensington. I missed the long and ‘funny’ introduction at the beginning on how they made couscous due to the fact that I was late……by 30 minutes.

Let me begin with the review, the decor was dim and it was how I had imagined it to be. I loved the candle lit feel, the mosaic patterned tables and the fact that this was all sharing food. The latter I think makes it great for a reunion! We ordered starters, which I didn’t manage to get any photos off, but the bread they made was lovely. Crsipy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. The bread was hot too, very hot, which is nice because it makes dipping so much easier and compliments the cold starters we had!

For mains we ordered their signiture dish: Couscous Darna. This consisted of lamb, chicken and grilled lamb sausages (merguez) served with couscous, sauce&vegetable, chickpeas, sultanas and harissa sauce (which is a very very hot sauce!). Couscous Djaje, which has all the above but instead of having lamb, chicken and grilled lamb this only had chicken. Another dish we ordered was Couscous Merguez, again consisted all the above but with a lamb stew. We also decided to try their Tangine dishes, we opted for the Tagine Djaje ba Zitoun, this was chicken tangine with preserved lemon confit and olives. Lastly my dish was Brochettes Lahem which was marinated lamb skewers (similar to kebabs). As you can see I only have one picture of my dish, since I was not prepared to have evil glares from cousins waiting for me to take pictures of every dish.

The Couscous Darna, because I tried some, was really fantastic! The couscous was like they had said “Our couscous is like powder” and it was absolutely delicious coupled with the vegetable stew (I think it resemble more of a stew than sauce). The I had was mediocre, I wish it had more flavour than it did although the whole skewer was tasty and moist, which is a big plus! Has anyone tried a dry skewer………the meat becomes rough.

Drinks wise, ordered the Morroccan flavoured milk, some liked it some didn’t! But at £4.50 for a cup it was pretty expensive! Mint tea with orange blossom at £2.95 for a small cup was quite expensive but it was made with real mint leaves and the way they poure it with the cup/pot was worth the money, I thought.

Overall whole experience was wonderful because of the people, ambience of the restaurant and couscous! I would definately recommend to order Couscous Darna when you visit this place………but don’t let them order for you like we did, it lead to over-ordering! Drinks are very expensive here. Be prepared to pay in the region of £2.50-£5 for non-alcoholic drinks.

Price per person: £30 (including service, no alcohol was ordered)

91 Old Brompton Road,
South Kensington,
London, SW7 3LD

Advise: Book if visitng at dinner time, gets busy. And belly dancer only during weekends, but we had one on the Monday we went……not sure if it’s because of the big party we had. (11 people)

By Vivi

Tags: morroccan