BO ZIN – MOROCCO
Route de l’Ourika 3,5km Marakech 40000 Morocco
Rating: 7.3
Bo Zin was another universally recommended restaurant that we booked. While it is neither really Moroccan cuisine, nor is it located directly inside the city, it is definitely worth the short cab ride to visit this swanky spot.
I have to admit I was a little skeptical of their “Asia meets North Africa” theme, especially when thinking about ordering raw fish in a desert, but once we sat down at our table, it all started to come together. The ambiance is more of a chic lounge with both indoor and outdoor seating which is covered by interestingly draped partial tents surrounded by a mix of palm trees and bamboo clusters giving it a woodsy-yet-curated feel. The scattered crowd (it was a Monday night out-of season) was dressed sharply and it was apparent that many were tourists and a few hip Moroccans.
The food is also quite eclectic and includes influences from Thailand, France and Japan. We sipped a few special champagne cocktails with red berries and got to ordering.
We decided to start with another sampling plate which included a tuna tartare with spicy guacamole, a spider crab salad with quinoa, some spring rolls with Thai basil and ginger sauce, a Thai salad of spicy vegetables, a few potstickers and some shrimp shumai. Personally I thought the spider crab and quinoa was outstanding and pretty original. The potstickers were also very good and all of the sauces that came alongside were rich and deeply flavorful.
Appetizers
We decided to do te same thing for our main course and go with a sampling of smaller plates. Thai sliced beef with tamarind and coconut, grilled calamari with mixed vegetables and a chicken stir fry. We definitely preferred the appetizers to the mains so were happy that we had smaller portions.
Entrees
The dessert menu was also very impressive. We had to order 3 beautiful dishes. The first was a baked Alaska. This is not something you see on many menus because it is labor intensive and frankly, often not worth the effort. This gorgeous baked egg custard, came out with a flawless vanilla cream topped with a halo of spun sugar.
Baked Alaska
The figs are so succulent in Morocco that you have to order them when you see them on the menu. We had some deep red sliced figs with just a bit of vanilla ice cream.
Figs and Ice Cream
Lastly, we had their famous molten cake which was served with an almond cream, pistachio ice and a bitter chocolate ciger.
Molten Chocolate Cake
Straight off to bed for us.
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