Restaurant Review - Ta-Zin Restaurant

Last week, two friends and I had dinner at Ta-Zin Restaurant on Jefferson Avenue in Miami Beach. The place is beautiful inside - and outside there's fake camel at the door! Needless to say a picture had to be taken. When we arrived we were seated at a big, beautiful booth - decorated with pillows and fringe and candles and Moroccan knick-knacks.

Our server came right over with water and delicious Moroccan home-made bread with seasoned olive oil and a small bowl of amazing potato salad. For appetizers we followed our server’s recommendation and ordered the Salad Sampler which turned out to be a great idea! It was a beautiful tray with many small dishes containing all the salads and dips they make. It included hummus, tahini, baba ganoush, olives, more of the yummy potato salad, tomatoes with cilantro and peppers, a stewed tomato dish, and several other items - one of which we were warned was very hot, and it was. The salad/appetizer platter was accompanied by warm pita bread. We also ordered a Chicken Pastilla, which is phyllo pastry stuffed with chicken, spices, almonds and saffron and topped with sugar and cinnamon - delicious! Our server came by several times asking us if we wanted more bread - we got more Moroccan bread. We accompanied the meal with Moroccan wine, two of us had Rosé and the other had Red - perfect!

The Web site said they had a couple of price fixe options, but they weren’t offered and we didn’t ask, so we ordered a la carte. For entrees, the menu is basically divided into four sections: On the Grill which are primarily kebabs; Fish and Sea with a nice selection that can be grilled, fried or baked; Couscous which you can get with a variety of toppings: meats, vegetables and fish; and finally Ta-zins, which we all ordered.

The server explained that a ta-zin is the clay pot in which all the items of the dish are cooked together directly on the fire or the oven. The ta-zins are also offered with a variety of toppings - I had the Sweet Lamb which was amazing! It was juicy, fall off the bone tender and covered with dates, almonds and a delicious sauce combining the meat juices with honey. One of my friends had the Vegetarian ta-zin with squash, carrots, peppers, onions, spices…also delicious. And my other friend ordered the Chicken Lemon ta-zin - again, the chicken was juicy and tender with a subtle but flavorful sauce. We all ordered a side dish of Couscous which, to be honest, we could have done with just one order for the three of us. It was very good, and clearly home-made.

For dessert they had two options: what our server called Moroccan Cookies - which he strongly recommended and something involving crepes which he wasn’t wild about. He also gushed about the Moroccan Tea. So we followed his advice once again and ordered the cookie sampler and the tea. Once again he was right! The cookie sampler turned out to be different pastries including biscotti, a type of sesame brittle, date balls, coconut balls, as well as several types of cookies. The sesame brittle and date ball were my favorites, but we all tried everything. The tea turned out to be a fantastic mint tea with other spices which was served in a beautiful Moroccan pitcher and small colored glasses.

We went on an early Sunday evening and there were several groups enjoying their dinner. Apparently later on some evenings there is a show with belly dancers and on the weekends after the show, the place turns into a club. The place is pretty big, nicely distributed and has a full bar, so I can only imagine it’s a good party spot.

For dinner I can definitely say that the service was spot on and the food, all of it, was delicious - there were no problems or complaints. We will definitely be back!