annichan
There's a platypus controlling me, he's underneath
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2008
Before starting, let me say that we did in fact have a few bites to eat here and there at the Food & Wine Festival booths already before this lunch. However, as we hit most of the booths after lunch (can you believe it? 
), I have decided to write them all up together in the next installment.
Anyway, back to our lunch at Marrakesh. I had very much wanted to eat here already during our last trip, but we ended up having to cancel as I was feeling poorly the day we were supposed to come here. This time, however, I made sure not to miss this place!
Please correct me if I am wrong as I may not be the most knowledgeable on my Disney trivia, but I believe that the Moroccan pavilion (unlike all the other Epcot "countries") was not designed by Disney alone, but the Moroccan royal family had a hand in this (both financing- and planning-wise) and made sure to present their country at its most beautiful.
Knowing this, I was not surprised to find that Marrakesh Restaurant is indeed outstandingly beautifully designed and decorated, and in there it truly feels like you're in the Middle East instead of in a theme park (at least that's what it feels like to someone like me, who may be reasonably well-traveled yet has never been to the Middle East
).
This is the foyer where the restaurant desk is situated:
And this is the restaurant proper:
Can you believe how empty it was? I had read that this is not exactly one of the most popular restaurants at WDW and that advance reservations wouldn't really be necessary, but I would never have thought it to be this empty at lunchtime!
Even the ceiling was really beautiful:
Anyway, back to our food we were served bread and butter which were not as beautiful as our surroundings (tasted ok, just did not look terribly inspired compared to what we had seen at other restaurants. And I dont believe this is a special Moroccan way of serving it, either!)
As we had spent all our table service credits by this time (can you believe it?), we would be paying out of pocket for this meal.
Therefore (or rather, not mainly because of the costs but because we wanted to leave some room for a little sampling tour of the Food & Wine Festival booths, and also due to our unwillingness to have any more three-course meals for about the rest of our lives
), we decided to just split two appetizers (we chose big appetizers to counter this shocking lack of food a little 
).
For drinks, we ordered Moroccan mint tea which was truly wonderful, some water and a light beer each.
These are both our appetizers:
In the back: The Appetizer Combination for Two Beef Brewat Rolls, Chicken Bastilla and Jasmina Salad.
In front: Goat Cheese with Crispy Bread for Two a Mixture of Cheese and Kalamata Olives served with Tabouleh, Red Pepper Sauce and Balsamic Vinegar Reduction.
We absolutely loved the goat cheese and crispy bread. Amazingly tasty, and a very good portion size too (a highly important fact for entree-skippers!
)
We had slightly mixed feelings about the Appetizer Combination, though: DH found the Jasmina Salad really bland and boring while I liked it, even though it did not taste especially exotic or oriental to me. Meanwhile, I did not care much for the beef rolls (dry pastry and very sparsely seasoned beef), but DH really enjoyed them.
The Chicken Bastilla, at least, we both liked
.
A closer look at the Appetizer Combo:
Halfway through our meal, a belly dancer came out and proceeded to dance cheerfully (and really very gracefully) to an almost empty restaurant:
All in all, this was a beautiful setting and an enjoyable meal (even though I cannot rate entrees or desserts). It was a bit dark in there (which my pictures don't really convey correctly as they adjusted the light level), and it did feel slightly weird that it was so extremely empty. Apart from that, everything was good, though and the mint tea was fantastic!
Coming up next: Shockingly even more lunch at the Food & Wine Festival
), I have decided to write them all up together in the next installment.Anyway, back to our lunch at Marrakesh. I had very much wanted to eat here already during our last trip, but we ended up having to cancel as I was feeling poorly the day we were supposed to come here. This time, however, I made sure not to miss this place!
Please correct me if I am wrong as I may not be the most knowledgeable on my Disney trivia, but I believe that the Moroccan pavilion (unlike all the other Epcot "countries") was not designed by Disney alone, but the Moroccan royal family had a hand in this (both financing- and planning-wise) and made sure to present their country at its most beautiful.
Knowing this, I was not surprised to find that Marrakesh Restaurant is indeed outstandingly beautifully designed and decorated, and in there it truly feels like you're in the Middle East instead of in a theme park (at least that's what it feels like to someone like me, who may be reasonably well-traveled yet has never been to the Middle East
).This is the foyer where the restaurant desk is situated:
And this is the restaurant proper:
Can you believe how empty it was? I had read that this is not exactly one of the most popular restaurants at WDW and that advance reservations wouldn't really be necessary, but I would never have thought it to be this empty at lunchtime!
Even the ceiling was really beautiful:
Anyway, back to our food we were served bread and butter which were not as beautiful as our surroundings (tasted ok, just did not look terribly inspired compared to what we had seen at other restaurants. And I dont believe this is a special Moroccan way of serving it, either!
)
As we had spent all our table service credits by this time (can you believe it?), we would be paying out of pocket for this meal.
Therefore (or rather, not mainly because of the costs but because we wanted to leave some room for a little sampling tour of the Food & Wine Festival booths, and also due to our unwillingness to have any more three-course meals for about the rest of our lives
), we decided to just split two appetizers (we chose big appetizers to counter this shocking lack of food a little ). For drinks, we ordered Moroccan mint tea which was truly wonderful, some water and a light beer each.
These are both our appetizers:
In the back: The Appetizer Combination for Two Beef Brewat Rolls, Chicken Bastilla and Jasmina Salad.
In front: Goat Cheese with Crispy Bread for Two a Mixture of Cheese and Kalamata Olives served with Tabouleh, Red Pepper Sauce and Balsamic Vinegar Reduction.
We absolutely loved the goat cheese and crispy bread. Amazingly tasty, and a very good portion size too (a highly important fact for entree-skippers!
)We had slightly mixed feelings about the Appetizer Combination, though: DH found the Jasmina Salad really bland and boring while I liked it, even though it did not taste especially exotic or oriental to me. Meanwhile, I did not care much for the beef rolls (dry pastry and very sparsely seasoned beef), but DH really enjoyed them.
The Chicken Bastilla, at least, we both liked
. A closer look at the Appetizer Combo:
Halfway through our meal, a belly dancer came out and proceeded to dance cheerfully (and really very gracefully) to an almost empty restaurant:
All in all, this was a beautiful setting and an enjoyable meal (even though I cannot rate entrees or desserts). It was a bit dark in there (which my pictures don't really convey correctly as they adjusted the light level), and it did feel slightly weird that it was so extremely empty. Apart from that, everything was good, though and the mint tea was fantastic!
Coming up next: Shockingly even more lunch at the Food & Wine Festival
).
.
).
): 
):
).
), I am no longer so certain that I may not end up back at those restaurants again. Therefore, I will only mention what has been our definite "Biggest Loser" restaurant:
. Only 
