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El Cantara

by Jeanne Horak on March 18, 2011 8 Comments in London restaurants

ElCantara © J Horak-Druiff 2011

 

One of the best things about London is the variety of ethnic cuisines that are available at restaurant throughout the city.  Ethiopian? French? Malaysian? Thai? Lebanese? Greek?Moroccan?  Spanish? All are easily available. And we won’t even mention the myriad of Indian or Chinese restaurants for which parts of London are famous.  One of the cuisines that I don’t try nearly often enough is Moroccan – in fact I probably make more Moroccan food at home than I have eaten in restaurants all year.  I did have a spectacular meal at Momo about 18 months ago, so late last year when I was fortunate enough to be invited along with a group of bloggers as a guest of El Cantara (a new-ish restaurant in Soho, serving Spanish and Moroccan food) I was eager to see how it measured up.

My “date” was Michelle of Greedy Gourmet (we dine together so much people will begin to talk ;o)); and my neighbours at the table were Ms MarmiteLover and A Lady in London and also were in attendance were A Girl Has to Eat, Boon of The London Insider and a couple of other people whose names I did not catch.  Mea culpa! The decor is appealing – they have gone very much for the Moroccan side of the spectrum for the decor with brass-topped tables, a mosaic-tiled wall fountain and low banquettes strewn with richly coloured cushions. (A subsequent trip downstairs to the ladies’ did reveal a more Spanish-style room downstairs though.).  Service seemend a little distracted (odd, seeing as the restaurant was not particularly full), leaving us with unfilled glasses at regular intervals.  I also found the tables too low in relation to the banquettes for comfort, and although the multitude of cushions are pretty, they leave precious little space for… ummm… sitting! But it was early days and I was willing to withold judgement until the end of the meal.

 

ElCantaraCOllage2jpg

 

We ordered a selection of things off the starter menu, not all of which I got to sample.  The hummus got a good write-up from Michelle, as did the pastillas – sadly I got to sample neither.  I did try the olives which were delicious and the warm, fresh bread.  I started with the calamari rings which were good – light, crispy, tender and not too oily.  The albondigas (meatballs) were satistying and meaty but the mixed grill was underseasoned and dry.  Not a winner.

 

ElCantaraCOllage1

 

ElCantaraPaella

Main courses included two tagines (one lamb and one vegetarian) and a seafood paella. The portion was generous and the seafood plentiful and tasty, but the rice was overcooked and mushy and there was precious little evidence that any saffron had been harmed in the making of this dish.  It would be forgiveable (just about) if it were not priced at £14.90 PER PERSON! But even less impressive was the vegetarian tagine.  Let me sum it up like as follows: this dish proved my theory that kitchen staff harbour a secret hatred for non-meat-eaters.  Described as root and vine vegetables in an aromatic broth, in reality it was undercooked peppers, various unidentified lumps and completely misguided peas (frozen) in a flavourless and runny sauce.  Far more succesful and, indeed, the winner of the night was the lamb tagine which was a perfect marriage of tender cubes of meat, warming spices, and an array of sweet fruit (prunes, figs and apricots).  Heavenly.  For a lower price per person that the paella, this was the far better deal.

 

ElCantaraDesserts

 

Desserts were not a roaring success.  The plate of traditional Moroccan pastries was dry, tastless and possibly stale (a great pity as there are few things I like more than a good, syrupy baklawa).  The ice creams were clearly not home-made and not inspiring.  And although the date and chocolate pudding sounded like a good idea, it was stodgy and pedestrian.  Good thing I hadn’t been saving myself for dessert!

 

ElCantaraBathroom

My favourite parts of El Cantara were only revealed at the end of the meal.  Firstly, the rooftop has been converted to a semi-covered shisha terrace where you can lounge under the huge Moroccan lantern on summer evenings sipping cocktails and smoking shisha – it’s all terribly louche.  The other highlight for me were the bathrooms (pictured above) – but then I am a sucker for a gold washbasin 😉

Sadly, on this occasion, the decor definitely outshone the food, which was mostly very average – and the prices were not dirt cheap (starters around the £5 mark; mains around the £15 mark; and desserts for £5 each). Verdict:  you can do a lot better in London at that price – stick to the shisha terrace and tapas.  But you are unlikely to find prettier bathroom basins anywhere!

El Cantara
45 Frith Street
Soho
London W1D 4SD
Tel. 020 7734 6868
Fax 020 7494 9008
E-mail reservations@elcantara.co.uk

 

El Cantara Soho on Urbanspoon

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  1. Michelle @ Greedy Gourmet says

    March 18, 2011 at 8:33 am

    Well written as always. 🙂 £15 per person for those disastruous main courses??? I missed that detail. Very tempted to go and score El Cantara even lower in my review!

    Reply
  2. Lael Hazan @educatedpalate says

    March 18, 2011 at 11:24 am

    Thank you for giving your unbiased opinion about the restaurant. Thank you for taking a photo of the best part of the restaurant, the washbasins. They are very pretty.

    Reply
  3. Gourmet Chick says

    March 18, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    Ah yes another case of style over substance by the sound of it. Hard to find good Moroccan food in London.

    Reply
  4. norma says

    March 18, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    I am now so hungry.

    Reply
  5. Simone says

    March 18, 2011 at 4:02 pm

    O haha… when I am in London (I will be going to Foodblogger Connect!) I will try out the washbasins there, but pass on the food. Not sure if they will be happy with that though…

    Reply
  6. Herschelian says

    March 19, 2011 at 10:37 am

    How disappointing, though as ever, your photos are fabulous.
    Coincidentally we had a wonderful Moroccan meal here in Beijing on Wednesday evening. Run by a larger than life chap from Marrakesh (Who worked at La Perla in Seapoint!!!!) the food was fab but the decor only ma-ma hu-hu(so so)as the Chinese would say . If you are ever in BJ and need a break from Chinese food, Argana is the place to go.

    Reply
  7. kitchenvoyage says

    March 21, 2011 at 7:05 pm

    Yeap, like a expeert in spanish food i can tell that for the phots the paella and the calamaris wont taste nice. Look very poor quiity of “ingredientes” and for that price. If you go to madrid in calle infantas go to Sidreria el Tigre best quality of food free with your glass of sidra of beer (around 3€) Belive it or not. Anway make a 1kg of calamari cant cost much of 5 pounds!

    Reply
  8. kadirecipes says

    April 9, 2011 at 10:48 am

    wow looking at these photos make me so hungry.

    Reply
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Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

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