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| - Note #1: I strongly advise those who read this review of Kous Kous Cafe to MAKE A RESERVATION before even thinking of having dinner there. Much like Highland Park's Smiling Banana Leaf or Beaver's Biba, Kous Kous Cafe is a small restaurant with very limited seating. It was painful watching scores of patrons being turned away or asked to return later with no guarantee they'd be seated because they hadn't made prior arrangements. Kay and I ran into this very same problem weeks before and had to settle for Little Tokyo instead (blah. read my review if you care).
Note #2: KKC is BYOB.
Our experience at KKC was not without its glitches, each being a rough enough patch to force me to deduct one star from my rating. I'm wrestling with taking away another, but the food was exemplary enough to prevent me from being too unkind. Allow me to address said complications...
1-Our server, who was congenial and seemed to be doing her best in the face of a busy evening, only gave us one menu which we had to share.
2-Instead of being placed at an clearly open and readied table for two in the back of the dining room near the very visible kitchen where everything is made to order from scratch (how entertaining would it be to watch their cooks in action while dining?), we were directed to a table for four towards the front, right near a door that not only provided a dreadfully chilly draft, but was slammed 3 times into poor Kay by those entering and exiting! 2 of the three people who did so apologized. One monied, aging, callous asshole in an ugly sweater with a much younger trophy wife alongside him did not. Well, studies have shown...
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/feb/27/upper-class-people-behave-selfishly
http://www.livescience.com/18683-rich-people-lie-cheat-study.html
3-KKC is so tiny and cramped that there's no reception area. When we came in, we walked all the way to the back of the house before we were acknowledged and seated.
4-KKC was out of at least a third of their entrees that evening. Fortunately, they had plenty of the Duck In Apricot, my chosen dish for the evening.
Following a 45 minute wait (no complaints about that on my end considering the nature of the food's preparation) DIA is comprised of half a roasted, crispy, luscious bird, asparagus, and a variety of potatoes. Served in a decorative crock with a lid that is lifted upon service, the poultry was so affluently flavorsome that I savored each brittle-skinned, fatty morsel unhurriedly, ensuring that all of the meat was picked away from every bone.
Striking out twice with her initial choices, Kay was forced to go with the vegetarian Cauliflower Tagine, and what a meatless jubilee it was. Raisins, pine nuts, fresh sauteed spinach, potaotes, argan oil, and apple cream sauce accompanied the roasted cauliflower and with one sample briefly suppressed the carnivore within via its creamy composition and exotically spiced elements. Conjure the djinn and commandeer the magic carpet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaBG9n2s98Q
Our starter was Bastilla, a delicate pastry that is essentially a savory and sensational baklava. Chicken, onions, raisins and eggs are simmered in smoldering Moroccan spices, swaddled in feuille de brik (think phyllo dough), and left afloat in a lake of exquisite saffron cream like an abandoned infant king in what is a sturdy raft, surely to be found quickly.
For dessert, we skipped those that KKC buys from outside vendors (my employer's neighbor, Heineman Foods, coincidentally) and opted for what KKC makes in-house, that being the simple menace of their Chocolate Mousse.
A raspberry acts as a garnish, or is it a heart, a blood-besotted, beating heart that sits in the middle of the ebon pool to lure you to oblivion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4lO92b6x9Q
Possessed with a mystical coffee-infused flavor, the thick, heavy mire of cocoa slid down my throat, nearly suffocating me with its wanton, animate depravity.
KKC's faults aside, they are a worthwhile establishment, their mere presence further diversifying the Mount Lebanon restaurant scene. Their outstanding food will hopefully cement them into the landscape of the community if they can address and overcome their flaws.
P.S. Everything we had was so, so good, I must partly forgive the faults, and they were almost forgotten after our meal was finished. Bismillah, Kous Kous Cafe needs more space!
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