Casablanca is a Moroccan restaurant located in the heart of Saint-Sauveur village. While the…read moreinterior is small (and a little outdated), they have a great wraparound terrace that is quite spacious and perfect for summer. The wait staff was friendly, and the manager/owner was incredibly nice. He was really on top of his game and made a point of regularly checking in on all patrons to make sure everything was OK, and he made you feel like you were part of the family (in fact, he kept telling us Casablanca was our home!). I've dined at Casablanca in the past and it had been a while since I stopped in - one thing that I can say is that the menu hasn't changed very much in the last couple of year. That said, our meals were delicious.
First, they serve super fresh bread with the perfect type of margarine (I'm picky like that). No problem if you want more bread either - the wait staff will happily bring more. As well, my water glass was full all evening, which is something that I appreciate.
I opted for the Table d'hote, which was a 5-course meal. To start, I had the lentil soup. It was fragrant and VERY flavorful. The manager told me they use duck carcass, saffron and Tajine to make the soup (now, this Tajine bit was unclear to me so he may have been referencing to how the soup was cooked rather than an ingredient!). In any case, while I normally don't eat lentils, I couldn't skip this dish. Noms!
The soup was followed by a Moroccan salad; this was basically a house salad topped with a Moroccan-style bruschetta. The salad itself was nothing to write home about - Iceberg lettuce with some cucumber and radishes (it came with a creamy dressing but I asked for olive oil and Balsamic on the side), but the bruschetta topping was great. It had a bit of a kick to it but wasn't vinegary at all. Personally, I would showcase that by serving it on crisps or baguette.
After the salad, I opted for snail in a brown sauce with pastry. Now, the look of the dish isn't appetizing at ALL. I mean, it's brown. But the sauce/gravy was really good and worked very well with the shrimp, which were cooked to my liking. The pastry on the other hand, seemed old. It wasn't soft and flaky but rather a little tough.
My main dish was linguine with shrimp. I should mention that I rarely eat gluten anymore - but I'm glad I made the exception for this dish. The pasta was perfectly cooked (Al Dente) with olive oil and herbs. I'm not sure what was used, but it reminded me of a black olive tapenade (which I LOVE). It was topped with some fat shrimp and grilled tomatoes, with a side of garlic butter. I really enjoyed this dish. Apparently the chef used to work at Papa Luigi, which explains why the pasta dish was so good!
Dessert was included - there were two choices; one was a praline thing and one was a chocolate thing. Obviously I had the chocolate. The waitress told me dessert was made by a Moroccan bakery..... which may be the case, but neither dessert struck me as being particularly Moroccan. My dessert was very, very chocolatey. I enjoyed it but if you're not a fan of the overly sweet, you might want to pick something else. The praline was nice - nutty and not very sweet. I finished off with Moroccan tea that was positively fabulous! Green tea with fresh mint (whole sprigs) and honey. I drank the whole pot. Yummo.
My meal cost $26.95 +tax and that was a real bargain for everything I had. The only thing that wasn't included was the tea, which I found strange but I won't complain - my meal was a bargain.
The outdated decor lends to an 'old people' feel but just ignore the flowered chairs and enjoy the food - or sit outside on the awesome terrace!
