Tangierino

Hello everyone!

The day after we got engaged, we visited Tangierino to celebrate our first day as an engaged couple!

Many restaurants were in the running to be chosen for this particular event, but in the end, the exotic vibe of this restaurant won me over, so we took a little eating-trip to North Africa!  We got there pretty early for dinner, so we had the restaurant to ourselves for awhile, but it quickly filled up, so I would recommend making reservations beforehand if you plan on going at a more usual dinner time.

I am a sucker for having good atmosphere in restaurants, and I loved Tangierino's.  I know people sometimes complain about having to 'pay for the atmosphere' in restaurants, and Tangierino is definitely on the pricy side, but for us, it was worth it.  After all, we're only going to get engaged once! 

the fiancee =)

We went during restaurant week, so we didn't have to spend too much time poring over their extensive menu.  The waiter came, showed us a small list of 3 course meals being offered for the night, recommended most of the dishes that we ended up picking, and then we were left to chat and goof off (as we do) pretty soon thereafter. 

We began with 2 appetizers; a ground lamb dish with roasted egg plant and olives called "Merguez Tangierino" and something similar to a shepherd's pie with braised chicken, almonds, cinnamon, and mint yogurt called "Chicken B'stilla".

We felt bad about ripping into these, especially because it didn't keep its shape very well  haha  but we definitely didn't regret it!  It was the perfect introduction to the North African cuisine since this was our first time trying it.

For the main course, we picked 2 different dishes; one from the 'new world' and one from the 'old world'. The 'old world' dishes are the traditional North African cuisine, and the 'new world' dishes are fusion dishes that incorporate French, American, and other European flavors into the traditional dishes.

  

From the 'old world', we ordered Salmon Baha, and from the 'new world', the Trio Lamb Chop! Every anniversary, we order a lamb dish, and even though this wasn't an anniversary (do people even celebrate engagement anniversaries? haha) we still went ahead and ordered it in the spirit of celebration  =)  

We both really loved the lamb dish!  We even toyed with the idea that it might be the best one yet, though our last anniversary lamb dish from Nizuc may still hold the title..?  We'll just say that it tied =)  but it was pretty darn delicious, and you should definitely try it if you decide to go to Tangierino!

I didn't end up trying the salmon because my stomach has been rather finicky with seafood lately, but David has reported being less than impressed with the quality of the salmon, so maybe just stick with the lamb? or you could try the salmon and see if this night was just a randomly unfortunate evening for the salmon supply at Tangierino!

As we were enjoying the last of our main entree, we spotted a dancer out of the corner of our eyes!

She belly danced all around the restaurant, and graced us with her presence for a few minutes at our table.  I don't have very good pictures of her because it was quite dark in the restaurant, and she moved too quickly for my poor camera  haha   I am not very familiar with belly dancing, but she worked the crowd well, it was entertaining, and it definitely added to the 'exotic' factor!

By the time we turned our attention back to our food, the waiters had whisked away our main dishes and replaced them with our desserts!

It looks so good doesn't it?  we ordered the house-made cheese cake and the sherbet based upon the waiter's recommendation -"the cheesecake is to DIE for!!!" and perhaps because it was talked up so much, this ended up being the most disappointing part of our meal. 

The cheese cake was good, but nothing earth-shattering, and the sherbet was good too... the lime sherbet was seriously sour though haha!  it tasted like it was made from freshly squeezed limes though, so if you love limes, you're going to love this one!   We maybe in the minority with the cheese cake though since the waiter assured us that it's the best, and that it's a house favorite, so if you're a cheese cake lover, go ahead and try, and let us know what you think! 

Overall, we had a really great time at Tangierino.  The atmosphere was great, the waiters were -for the most part- very friendly and knowledgeable, and the appetizers and the lamb were fantastic!  We also liked that the tables weren't too crowded together, so that we could be in our own world doing silly things, and not feel too self conscious about people around us  haha

who are we kidding, we would still be like this even if other people were right next to us   ;)

If you have a special day coming up, or if you just feel like taking a foodie trip to North Africa, give Tangierino a try and let us know what you think!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful rest of the week!

--Janny