3.5 stars. Great service, but mediocre food on a street with other amazing food options.My friends and I went to Mekki for brunch on a Saturday. The waitress was very accommodating when we had to change seating because of the rain. We ordered a bunch of different dishes- Cheese Briwate, Mekki burger, shashouka. The brunch menu also had fried chicken and waffle, which was odd to find at a Mediterranean restaurant. When I asked the server, she said "it's DC, you have to have it" which I didn't appreciate! It just seemed like the dish was thrown on there because it "sells." Nothing was outstanding. The cheese briwate, especially, was an egg roll with cream cheese filling... I'm really torn when I give mediocre reviews for small businesses as such. However, I would not be going back again.
Chocolate City DC
Went to grab a quick bite to eat after getting my nails done. I ordered the kefta and was pleasantly surprised. The dish was packed with so much flavor and paired well with the bread.
Sophia H.
3.5 stars. - Taktouka (a Moroccan salad with fire roasted peppers) was unexpectedly cold, which really surprised us, as we thought it'd be warm because of the "fire" roasted pepper language. - Chicken pastillo was good but quite interesting because of the cinnamon present. Never had that combination before. That dish was both sweet (on the outside) and savory (on the inside). It was a bit dry--it's the filo which should be dry anyway and flaky, but I think it could've been a bit thinner so that the inside moistness could balance out the dryness outside. The chicken inside was cooked to perfection and very succulent. - Beef a la mekki (tagine) was absolutely delicious. The best dish of tonight! The beef was incredibly soft and velvety-smooth, and the accompanying braised prunes and apricots were great. - Milk pastillo was meh. I feel like it's not even a dessert. It's puffed filo with some cream, pistachios, and powder sugar, but the filo was basically just like chips. I love pistachios, so I ate a couple chips at the top with lots of pistachios sprinkled there, but that's about it. There wasn't much flavor, and it was pretty dry, and maybe it would've been better if there was a lot more cream accompanying the filo chips. We weren't impressed with this dessert. There was a belly dancer that came to dance around the floor every now and then. Pretty nice to have unique entertainment like that in DC!
mandy ross
I wanted to love this place.The photos of food looked really great but the service and food was subpar. We waited like 3 minutes to be seated and it was not busy. It was like we were invisible.Then we explained that we had not eaten there before and asked about the most popular dishes. The waitress seemed very disinterested in making recommendations but did tell us what she liked. We asked about drinks and my wife inquired if there was any tradional or sweet drinks and the waitress recommended a bitter old man drink with wiskey. Either she didn't understand or just wanted us to have a terrible experience.We ended up ordering several dishes and the main meal was a beef and potatoes dish. There were no potatoes and the beef was good but half of it was fat. Who eats fat? Not this girl.We won't go again and would not recommend Mekki to anyone.
Naomi D.
Food is fantastic! We had some salads, b'stilla, kefta, and for mains we had the chicken skewer, (amazing) and the chicken tagine and lamb tagine (both delicious). I do wish they provided bread of some sort to mop up the delicious tagine sauce. Will definitely go back for the food! The service was mixed: our server, a woman, was frankly terrible. She seemed as if she did not want to be there, was a bit surly, and was hard to flag down. I consider myself to be very understanding of waitstaff because it's a very tough job, but she was unfortunately pretty bad. Given other positive reviews of service, perhaps she was having a very bad day. Having said that, two men did stop by several times to check in on us (perhaps the owners or managers?) and they were wonderful. I'm not keen on the belly dancer (just not what I like at a restaurant) but others might enjoy. Overall, great food and the two men who came by to check were wonderful. One star knocked off for our server - but we will be back for the food and the two fantastic gentlemen who stopped by to check to see if everything was going well. Favorites of the night: chicken skewers, lamb tagine, and chicken tagine (meat falls off the bone and is amazingly tender).
Jay K.
We went to Washington DC for Spring break 2022. My wife, daughter and I took the metro out to Mekki DC for dinner after setting up a reservation. We got there and were seated right away. The music was a little loud, but the food and drinks were absolutely fabulous! Service was excellent. I had the Chicken Tangine and my wife had the Lamb Tangine. The meat was excellent, sauces were scrumptious. I raved all night about my drink. I got the Agadir which came with a large pine sprig. The drink was just great! One suggestion is that the drink NOT come with a straw. The floral scent of the pine fills your nose while taking a sip and it is SO good when mixed with the taste of the drink. Highly recommended.
Nakita S.
Ordered takeout. My husband waited forever to get the food and when he got it, it wasn't even hot. The food was tasteless and very bland.
Pia De Lima
Great ambience and friendly welcome. Long wait for food and when it turns up it is tepid and not piping hot. The egg plant is to die for but the tajines lacked flavour.
Mekki was delicious- I don't know why I haven't been before. Between us we have chicken skewers, chicken couscous and a lamb shank. All were quite tasty, and the couscous portion was huge! The place was quiet, the cocktail was quite good, and I'll be back for sure.
Imtiaz
Great service and amazing food. The pastilla and the Beef tagine were mouthwateringly delicious. It's been a few days and I still keep getting a hankering for the mint tea! Would return any time I'm in the area.
Great service and amazing food. The pastilla and the Beef tagine were mouthwateringly delicious. It's been a few days and I still keep getting a hankering for the mint tea! Would return any time I'm in the area.
Nishtha Iyer
My husband & myself celebrated our 25th anniversary with some amazing Moroccan food & some amazing hospitality. The owner Mekki went all out to make it super memorable as we ended the meal with an enormous slab of complimentary tiramisu, a Moroccan dessert made with fried phyllo & pistachios & that was topped with champagne!! What more can one ask for along with a great meal!Standouts were, the on the house shrimp chemoula, eggplant & bell pepper appetizer, the shrimp skewer & chicken tagine entree
Min Z.
A great Moroccan restaurant, the service was 5*, pleasant, courteous, and attentive. They all went out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable. The music was a bit loud, the prices were affordable, the food was delicious and great! We all enjoyed our dining experience here and definitely will come back again. 5*PASTILLA: Chicken + Honey-Amandine + Cinnamon + Filo There were nuts and was a tiny sweet taste. Everyone liked this unique dish. 5*MILK PASTILLA: Puffed filo + Creme on glaze + Roasted pistachio + Powder Sugar: sweet, light, flaky and crispy, a distinctive and delicious dessert. Must order for me. 4.2*KEFTA: Moroccan meatballs + Tomato sauce +Eggs: the meatballs were delicious with Moroccan sauce. 4*VEGGIE COUSCOUS: Fresh vegetables: healthy, tasty and a great dish. 4*SHRIMP BRIWATE: Made with Moroccan filo: fried crispy with lots of bean noodles inside. 4*HARIRA SOUP: Harira soup: included chickpeas and cilantro, with a tad spicy taste. 4*CHICKEN TAGINE: Olives + citron confits + lemon verbena + curcum: chicken were cooked well, the sauce was a bit salty but tasty. 4*CHEESE BRIWATE: Filo (crispy rolled Moroccan pastry) stuffed with cheese: they were like cheese egg rolls. 3.5*TAKTOUKA: Fire roasted peppers + sunny side up eggs: it's like Moroccan version of egg Benedict. 3*KHIZZO SALAD: Hierloom carrot | Royal honey | Curcum| Pistachio: it was a plain taste almost like a palate cleanser, but very healthy. If you have cholesterol concerns or heart problems, this is the dish for you. I was looking for taste, so it wasn't my kind of dish.
Sarah G.
One of the best taste of Morocco I've had! I highly recommend it for Moroccans and non Moroccans definitely an experience to have with North African tastes ! Go check it out. The chicken tagine is one of the best and the beef couscous is my favorite. The drinks are also very good I highly recommend the tangier cucumber drink.
MacKenzie G.
What an amazing restaurant! I came here with a group of eight this weekend for bottomless brunch and right off the bat the restaurant was very accommodating. I used to live in Morocco so I was very excited for the food. I ordered lots of food and enjoyed every bite of every bit. The food is very authentic and everyone that works here is Morrocan. The staff was incredibly friendly and ensured that we were comfortable and enjoyed our dining experience. I will definitely be returning here soon for dinner.
3.5 stars. Great service, but mediocre food on a street with other amazing food options.My friends and I went to Mekki for brunch on a Saturday. The waitress was very accommodating when we had to change seating because of the rain. We ordered a bunch of different dishes- Cheese Briwate, Mekki burger, shashouka. The brunch menu also had fried chicken and waffle, which was odd to find at a Mediterranean restaurant. When I asked the server, she said "it's DC, you have to have it" which I didn't appreciate! It just seemed like the dish was thrown on there because it "sells." Nothing was outstanding. The cheese briwate, especially, was an egg roll with cream cheese filling... I'm really torn when I give mediocre reviews for small businesses as such. However, I would not be going back again.
Went to grab a quick bite to eat after getting my nails done. I ordered the kefta and was pleasantly surprised. The dish was packed with so much flavor and paired well with the bread.
3.5 stars. - Taktouka (a Moroccan salad with fire roasted peppers) was unexpectedly cold, which really surprised us, as we thought it'd be warm because of the "fire" roasted pepper language. - Chicken pastillo was good but quite interesting because of the cinnamon present. Never had that combination before. That dish was both sweet (on the outside) and savory (on the inside). It was a bit dry--it's the filo which should be dry anyway and flaky, but I think it could've been a bit thinner so that the inside moistness could balance out the dryness outside. The chicken inside was cooked to perfection and very succulent. - Beef a la mekki (tagine) was absolutely delicious. The best dish of tonight! The beef was incredibly soft and velvety-smooth, and the accompanying braised prunes and apricots were great. - Milk pastillo was meh. I feel like it's not even a dessert. It's puffed filo with some cream, pistachios, and powder sugar, but the filo was basically just like chips. I love pistachios, so I ate a couple chips at the top with lots of pistachios sprinkled there, but that's about it. There wasn't much flavor, and it was pretty dry, and maybe it would've been better if there was a lot more cream accompanying the filo chips. We weren't impressed with this dessert. There was a belly dancer that came to dance around the floor every now and then. Pretty nice to have unique entertainment like that in DC!
I wanted to love this place.The photos of food looked really great but the service and food was subpar. We waited like 3 minutes to be seated and it was not busy. It was like we were invisible.Then we explained that we had not eaten there before and asked about the most popular dishes. The waitress seemed very disinterested in making recommendations but did tell us what she liked. We asked about drinks and my wife inquired if there was any tradional or sweet drinks and the waitress recommended a bitter old man drink with wiskey. Either she didn't understand or just wanted us to have a terrible experience.We ended up ordering several dishes and the main meal was a beef and potatoes dish. There were no potatoes and the beef was good but half of it was fat. Who eats fat? Not this girl.We won't go again and would not recommend Mekki to anyone.
Food is fantastic! We had some salads, b'stilla, kefta, and for mains we had the chicken skewer, (amazing) and the chicken tagine and lamb tagine (both delicious). I do wish they provided bread of some sort to mop up the delicious tagine sauce. Will definitely go back for the food! The service was mixed: our server, a woman, was frankly terrible. She seemed as if she did not want to be there, was a bit surly, and was hard to flag down. I consider myself to be very understanding of waitstaff because it's a very tough job, but she was unfortunately pretty bad. Given other positive reviews of service, perhaps she was having a very bad day. Having said that, two men did stop by several times to check in on us (perhaps the owners or managers?) and they were wonderful. I'm not keen on the belly dancer (just not what I like at a restaurant) but others might enjoy. Overall, great food and the two men who came by to check were wonderful. One star knocked off for our server - but we will be back for the food and the two fantastic gentlemen who stopped by to check to see if everything was going well. Favorites of the night: chicken skewers, lamb tagine, and chicken tagine (meat falls off the bone and is amazingly tender).
We went to Washington DC for Spring break 2022. My wife, daughter and I took the metro out to Mekki DC for dinner after setting up a reservation. We got there and were seated right away. The music was a little loud, but the food and drinks were absolutely fabulous! Service was excellent. I had the Chicken Tangine and my wife had the Lamb Tangine. The meat was excellent, sauces were scrumptious. I raved all night about my drink. I got the Agadir which came with a large pine sprig. The drink was just great! One suggestion is that the drink NOT come with a straw. The floral scent of the pine fills your nose while taking a sip and it is SO good when mixed with the taste of the drink. Highly recommended.
Ordered takeout. My husband waited forever to get the food and when he got it, it wasn't even hot. The food was tasteless and very bland.
Great ambience and friendly welcome. Long wait for food and when it turns up it is tepid and not piping hot. The egg plant is to die for but the tajines lacked flavour.
Mekki was delicious- I don't know why I haven't been before. Between us we have chicken skewers, chicken couscous and a lamb shank. All were quite tasty, and the couscous portion was huge! The place was quiet, the cocktail was quite good, and I'll be back for sure.
Great service and amazing food. The pastilla and the Beef tagine were mouthwateringly delicious. It's been a few days and I still keep getting a hankering for the mint tea! Would return any time I'm in the area.
Restaurantji Recommends
Great service and amazing food. The pastilla and the Beef tagine were mouthwateringly delicious. It's been a few days and I still keep getting a hankering for the mint tea! Would return any time I'm in the area.
My husband & myself celebrated our 25th anniversary with some amazing Moroccan food & some amazing hospitality. The owner Mekki went all out to make it super memorable as we ended the meal with an enormous slab of complimentary tiramisu, a Moroccan dessert made with fried phyllo & pistachios & that was topped with champagne!! What more can one ask for along with a great meal!Standouts were, the on the house shrimp chemoula, eggplant & bell pepper appetizer, the shrimp skewer & chicken tagine entree
A great Moroccan restaurant, the service was 5*, pleasant, courteous, and attentive. They all went out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable. The music was a bit loud, the prices were affordable, the food was delicious and great! We all enjoyed our dining experience here and definitely will come back again. 5*PASTILLA: Chicken + Honey-Amandine + Cinnamon + Filo There were nuts and was a tiny sweet taste. Everyone liked this unique dish. 5*MILK PASTILLA: Puffed filo + Creme on glaze + Roasted pistachio + Powder Sugar: sweet, light, flaky and crispy, a distinctive and delicious dessert. Must order for me. 4.2*KEFTA: Moroccan meatballs + Tomato sauce +Eggs: the meatballs were delicious with Moroccan sauce. 4*VEGGIE COUSCOUS: Fresh vegetables: healthy, tasty and a great dish. 4*SHRIMP BRIWATE: Made with Moroccan filo: fried crispy with lots of bean noodles inside. 4*HARIRA SOUP: Harira soup: included chickpeas and cilantro, with a tad spicy taste. 4*CHICKEN TAGINE: Olives + citron confits + lemon verbena + curcum: chicken were cooked well, the sauce was a bit salty but tasty. 4*CHEESE BRIWATE: Filo (crispy rolled Moroccan pastry) stuffed with cheese: they were like cheese egg rolls. 3.5*TAKTOUKA: Fire roasted peppers + sunny side up eggs: it's like Moroccan version of egg Benedict. 3*KHIZZO SALAD: Hierloom carrot | Royal honey | Curcum| Pistachio: it was a plain taste almost like a palate cleanser, but very healthy. If you have cholesterol concerns or heart problems, this is the dish for you. I was looking for taste, so it wasn't my kind of dish.
One of the best taste of Morocco I've had! I highly recommend it for Moroccans and non Moroccans definitely an experience to have with North African tastes ! Go check it out. The chicken tagine is one of the best and the beef couscous is my favorite. The drinks are also very good I highly recommend the tangier cucumber drink.
What an amazing restaurant! I came here with a group of eight this weekend for bottomless brunch and right off the bat the restaurant was very accommodating. I used to live in Morocco so I was very excited for the food. I ordered lots of food and enjoyed every bite of every bit. The food is very authentic and everyone that works here is Morrocan. The staff was incredibly friendly and ensured that we were comfortable and enjoyed our dining experience. I will definitely be returning here soon for dinner.