By Bilal Mohammad

If you need to take a quick vacation, but you only have a lunch break to spare…then Café Mogador, located in the East Village, is the spot for you. When I walked into the Moroccan restaurant, I was drawn to the authentic design of the place. A quaint terrace, rustic wall treatments, and tiled mosaics all work to give the place a certain je ne se quois. On the inside, the restaurant feels very airy and breathable, despite being fairly busy during lunchtime.

I’ve found that I’ve grown bored with the fashion in which seafood is typically served at many New York restaurants. You can only eat grilled salmon over caesar salad or a fillet doused in lemon dressing so many times. I wanted to find a seafood entrée that was refreshing and scrumptious. I think I’ve found this in the Sautéed Salmon Crab Cake sandwich.

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Sometimes great restaurant finds start with Groupon.

At least, that was the case last weekend when my friend Asma was in the city. While we were trying to figure out what to eat, she told us about this halaal Moroccan restaurant she found on Groupon, Kiosk. I hadn’t heard about it since it’s all the way uptown (and by that I mean East Harlem uptown). I know exactly no restaurants there, so I was excited to check it out. And it didn’t hurt that when our friends Saqib and Jainal joined us, we got a ride up there too..Score!*
*Not that we just asked you guys to come along because you had a car, I’m just saying.

Draping curtains, dim lighting, and sketchings on the wall, and even one table sitting on a loft overlooking the restaurant, I was pretty taken at how much character was in such a small space.

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I’ve been passing by Nomad in the East Village almost every day this week and it always looks so warm and inviting inside. The Moroccan/French restaurant serves traditional plates and tapas and has the most gorgeous decor of jeweled lanterns, tiled tables and dim lighting. Man, even their bathroom is so pretty I almost took a picture, but that would be weird so I didn’t. In the back, they have a beautiful enclosed courtyard-like space. The food, I found, was equally impressive.

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In my defense, I’ve known about Cafe Mogador’s celebrated brunches for years, but just never had the chance to experience myself. Until last weekend. It was every bit as fantastic as I hoped. It’s easily now my favorite brunch spot in the city (definitely up there with Cafe Orlin!).

I’ve been there for dinner few times before, and it was good, but I I realize now that if you haven’t been there for brunch, you really haven’t experienced the best this place has to offer.

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The original plan was to visit Pulino’s, an inviting pizza/Italian restaurant I spotted on the corner of Bowery and Houston one night (more on that in a near-future post). But when Sarah and I got there after trekking 30 minutes in the pouring rain only to be told it was a 40-minute wait, we decided to wander around instead. Several round-about blocks later, we ran into another friend and a “local” who directed us to Cafe Gitane.

It’s a small, buzzy Northern Moroccan/French restaurant with a pretty fashionable crowd (couldn’t expect less in Nolita). By this time, we’re so hungry and everything looked great on the menu so we started off our 3-course meal with their baked feta with thyme, tomatoes and capers.

It was pretty good, but I think I may have OD’d on the feta/thyme combo with my own cooking at home. Sarah went for a chicken baguette sandwich and I ordered a baked pasta with gorgonzola and roasted tomatoes. Both ended up being a lot more bland than we had hoped for.

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This pastry shop in Paris looked so pretty from the outside, we had to stop in and see. Didn’t get to try anything this time but did manage to take some shots.

Store Info:
Masmoudi
Rue Dr. Ahmed Sekelli Sfax El Jadida – 3003 Sfax – Tunisie
216 74 400 753
Latin Quarter

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