Mecca Bah

Location: 55a Newquay Promenade, Docklands

Link: www.meccabah.com

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Mecca Bah dips & bread

The dips were very interesting and quite tasty too. The bread was warm and crisp. The only problem was that the dips should have been served in individual dishes to avoid them merging into each other.

Prawn and salmon kibbeh

These were amazing. The seafood was soft and juicy, and very well flavoured. The outer casing was crunchy but also a little chewy. The mash that it sat on was very smooth and creamy, with just the right amount of salt and butter. By all counts, best dish of the night!

Spicy lamb kofte with carrot, onion, spring onion and yoghurt sauce

The lamb was soft and well-flavoured, with a little spice giving it a nice bite. The yoghurt sauce complemented it nicely.

Turkish pizza: tiger prawns with artichokes and lemon rocket salad

One thing to note - Turkish pizza is not like normal pizza. And this one wasn't even cut up into pieces. The base was different, more like Turkish bread, but the prawns on top were beautiful.

Turkish pizza: spiced chicken with eggplant, rocket & tahini sauce

This one was a little odd - the chicken had a strange taste to it, but it was edible.

Chicken with tomatoes, almond, sesame seeds & honey tagine

This was a new dish that none of us had ever had before, and it was, to quote the majority of the table that night, 'interesting'. The sauce was sweet and sticky, and went quite well with the chicken. However, the chicken served as one large piece - making sharing hard and also preventing the sauce from coating the chicken properly. I quite liked the sesame seeds and almond in the sauce, as it gave the dish a different texture and added some bite to the sauce.

Moroccan spiced calamari with Turkish bean salad

One member of our table decided to opt out of the tapas style eating and ordered his own dish. The main complaint was the serving size - something we found with most of the dishes at Mecca Bah was that you get a lot less than what you would expect for the price paid.

Turkish coffee

Reports were that the coffee was very good indeed, worth a try if you're a coffee fan.

Chocolate nut tart with chocolate sauce, vanilla ice-cream and sesame tuile

Description got your mouth watering? It's not quite the same when you try it. I expected a soft creamy chocolate and nutty centre, but was surprised with a solid centre and rock-hard tart casing. It had obviously been left in the fridge for too long. The tuile did not fit the description on Masterchef - there was no 'snap' and it was just a little bit too hard - perhaps too long in the fridge?

Vanilla pannacotta with raspberry coulis

I didn't try this one, but it looked pretty good as the pannacotta held its shape.

~Service~

I initially had a bad impression - we had booked but somehow they had managed to lose a booking for 6 people (even after Stace had called up to confirm numbers). Luckily for us, the waitress was able to set up a table for us after a 15 minute wait. The service throughout the night was generally lacking in friendliness and it was hard to catch their attention. YC had an interesting incident with one waiter regarding the glass his water had been served in.

~Atmosphere~

Very loud and busy. We were lucky to get a table towards the back against the window which overlooked the water and was slightly quieter.

~Price~

Very pricey given the serving sizes, but the food was generally good. I'd probably save this for special occasions than a regular eatery.

Overall Impression: 7.5/10

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