Original Tagines

Was quite nice and friendly. Food was tasty but portions for a mouse. Wine was pretty poor and although I liked the internal décor this place was pretty dead for a Friday evening.

We went back to this restaurant after 7 – 8 years absence last Saturday evening. The place was empty except the single diner. The same song was lopping non-​stop, driving us mad by the end of our visit, but he service was polite.
We started with Kefta Brioates (£6.50) — three small filo pastry filled with minced lamb, sprinkled with cinnamon and icing sugar. It was crunchy and wasn’t greasy but the filling lacked spice and herbs. The bread was stale, but the olives and fresh carrots were great.
Our mains, Cous Cous Lamb Kedra (£14.90) contained tender chunks of lamb and tons of carrots, and was topped with currants and onions. Tagine Lamb Prunes (£15.35) came piping hot, but instead of prunes, it had pears. So it was sent back to the kitchen. In less than 2 minutes it came back with 2 prunes and 2 halved boiled eggs minus almonds. It was served with slightly overcooked tomato-​flavoured bulgar wheat. Both dishes tasted fine but completely lacked spices and herbs. With those price tags, you would expect some authentic, decent, exotic flavours, but they miserably failed..

Had a lovely lunch here on a quick trip to London. Friendly waiter and great authentic food. The furniture is gorgeous and made me feel like I was eating somewhere a lot more exotic than rainy London! The mezze platter was delicious and let us try a little bit of a few dishes. I have a regular meeting in an office across the road and I’ll be going back here for lunch again.

I have eaten here a few times and I have always found the food tasty. The customer service is also very friendly… I would recommend.

I thought this restaurant was wonderful. The owner spent a great deal of time with us once he realized that we are american. He wanted to know how we heard of the restaurant and we talked about many things for quite a while. The service was great and I thought that the tangines were excellent!
Having recently moved from NYC to California, I was so happy to be back in a big city with amazing food. Original Tagines was no exception. YUM!

* A mixed bag *
A Vancouverite in London is likely going to want to get some food we don’t get a good selection of at home — so off to get Moroccan food it was!
Random side story: There was a rather sad couple dining at the same time. They clearly were on a first date. He was very proud of himself and trying to get her more interested by bragging about all of his wonderful accomplishments, if you know what I mean. She was having none of it. When they were getting ready to leave, there was another couple sitting at the table closest to the door, and the man’s chair was blocking the door (it is a narrow restaurant). The «big tough impressive guy» said something to his date but then didn’t have the guts to ask the other guy to move. He actually went and asked the server, «Could you please ask the man at the door to move so we can leave the restaurant?» Ridiculous. Couldn’t believe it. Neither could his date. But I digress…
This is a nice little spot with very friendly service. We started off with the broad bean salad (which had a lovely cumin overtone combined with a pungent garlic taste), and the aubergine zalook (which had a similar cumin overtone and tomato balancing out the garlic). They also served some carrot sticks which was a refreshing touch.
For the mains we tried 3 different tagines — lamb apricot (which had s strong black pepper flavour contrasting nicely with the grilled apricots — yet the lamb was not as tender as I would have hoped for), lamb souss (which had saffron and ginger overtones — yet again the lamb was not as tender as I would have preferred), and prawns (which was flavoured with saffron, raisins, peanuts, and garlic — this was my least favourite as the prawns were WAY past the proper cooking point).
Overall I was a bit disappointed in the tagines — one of the things I always love about tagines are how tender the meat is. Sadly the lamb wasn’t as tender as it should be, and the prawns were just rubbery. Oh well…
We did share a pleasant pot of mint tea to wrap the meal, which was poured similarly to how I remember everyone pouring it when I visited Morocco way back when (seeing how high the server can raise the pot and still not splash or spill).
I thankfully got my North African food fix a bit later in the trip at Restaurant Ghomrassen (
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I am a regular at this reasonably priced Moroccan place close to Baker St tube. Every time I go, the food is delicious and the staff very attentive.
I would definitely try some of the starters, including red pepper salad and grilled kefta. But make sure you are still hungry when you get to the main course — in my view the piece de resistance is the tagine chicken kedra — chunks of tender chicken with a delicious garnish of caramelised onions and raisins. The lamb dishes are also excellent.
The house wine is surprisingly drinkable and don’t miss out on the fresh mint tea which the waiters pour with great skilll.
I would recommend this place any day. The only downsides are a slightly kitschy décor and the small size of the restaurant — so it’s best for couples/​small groups of friends for an intimate but casual dinner.