Hong Kong Cray !!! Moroccan Nights at Sahara Mezz Bar

By Nicole · On May 2, 2012 1

Combo of Mixed Grilled Meats

The Lowdown
Restaurant Name: Sahara Mezz Bar
Cuisine: Moroccan Food
Average Price per Person: $150 to $200 HKD or $20 to $25 USD
Location: SOHO, Central, Hong Kong (please refer to the map below for details)
Recommendations: Roasted Fresh Figs, Combo of Mixed Grilled Meats, Cod Tagine and Mint Tea
Ratings (out of 5)
Taste: 4
Creativity/Authenticity: 4.5
Atmosphere: 4.5
Service: 3
Bang for Buck: 3.5
Crayscale !!!

A good friend of mine and fellow Food Fest 4 Fatties member, Jenn Kong, recently recommended an awesome Moroccan restaurant called Sahara Mezz Bar. It’s a lively yet intimate restaurant located on Elgin Street in SOHO, Hong Kong. Sahara is known for their interpretation of Moroccan cuisine which they describe as an amalgamation of Berber, Arab, Moorish, Middle Eastern, African Mediterranean, Iberian and Jewish inspired food. Saraha’s cooking style is characterized by the incorporation of a variety of aromatic spices while bringing together the sweet with savory. Having never ventured to the area, I unfortunately didn’t have a strong reference to compare the impending night’s meal.

Sahara is a cool place to bring a group of friends for dinner so you can do it up family style albeit it’s not the roomiest restaurant (it never is in HK). They offer a wide selection of various tagines (slow-cooked clay pot dishes), huge platters filled with an assortment of Moroccan specialties, and a variety of cous cous dishes. Their dishes are fairly large and good for sharing. Sharing is caring!

Aside from the food, Sahara’s atmosphere is pretty laid-back and is a good place to unwind with drinks and shisha after a long work day or pre-gaming on the weekend. I’m not a big shisha smoker but I tried their Grape Mint Shisha, and I was feelin’ it! It had a sweet refreshing taste and felt smooth entering my lungs. It gave me a minor buzz and sort of mellowed me out a bit.

These olives are delicious! They mix in a little salsa to give the olives a little bit of a kick!

Good call on the Mint Tea Jenn! This extremely refreshing tea is packed with fresh mint leaves and has a sweet honey taste to it.

Mezze Platter: Hummus, Zaalouk, Falafel, Feta Cheese, Moroccan Cigars, and Salad.

Moroccan Cigars: filo pastry filled with feta cheese and mint.

I didn’t like the Falafel here. I thought it was a bit too dry.

Lamb Merguez is a North African influenced spicy sausage made of lamb, chili peppers, and other spices stuffed into a lamb-intestine casing. The merguez was my favorite element on the Mezze Platter. I loved the sharp flavors the peppers and spice brought to the lamb sausage.

Zaalouk, consisting of roasted eggplant pureed with garlic, coriander, fresh lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. I enjoyed both the Hummus and Zaalouk but between the 2 dips, Zaalouk FTW!

Hummus, made of pureed chick peas with herbs and spices, tahini, fresh lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.

The Sahara Bread was similar to a pita but soft and fluffy!

Roasted Fresh Figs in honey, with goat cheese, green salad and orange sauce. This was my absolute favorite dish of the night! The figs were SOOO effing good! The sweetness from the honey and figs paired amazingly with the creamy goat cheese. I liked this dish SOOO much so that I tried to replicate it at home the next day. DIY post coming up soon!

Combo of Mixed Grilled Meats – a mountain of Chicken and Lamb Shish Kebabs, Lamb Shanks, Lamb Merguez and vegetables. This thing was HUGE! You need at least 5 or 6 people to finish this meat feast. I thought the Lamb Shank was the best part of the mixed plate. I’m always weary about lamb, but I didn’t find it gamey at all. It was full of flavor, extremely succulent and fell off the bone. As for Shish Kebabs, I preferred the lamb over the chicken as the lamb was juicier and more tender.

Seabass Tagine: Seabass fillet with red bell pepper dressing, fresh chives and chermoula salsa. The seabass soaked up all the flavors of the chermoula salsa creating an incredibly flavorful, moist and delicate piece of fish. The fish was cooked perfectly and didn’t put up a fight when putting the fork to it.