Cous Cous Café

I love this cafe - it is really friendly and welcoming.

Our son lives nearby so when we go to visit this is a must-stop.

The food is excellent and very reasonably priced and best of all is the mint tea! The owner has the mint flown in from Morocco as English mint does not have the same flavour - no sun!!!!

Gwen (Unverified), 16/02/12

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I had lunch with a friend at the Cous Cous Café today (a chilly Wednesday in April) and can’t recommend it highly enough! As a vegetarian who can’t each much dairy I’m usually a nightmare to eat out with, but at this place I could choose from almost every item on the menu! Both the proprietor and the waitress were very friendly and accommodating – guiding us in our food choices (even encouraging us to get the best value for money) and accepting my refusal of mint tea and my companion’s request to have lots of extra sugar in hers.

We plumped for “tapas for two” which amounts to five (or six!) dishes to share, plus bread. For our tapas we had falafel (a favourite of both), stuffed vine leaves, mixed roasted veggies, green and black olives, mild hummus and a half-portion of two different aubergine tips. These came with an ample-sized bowl of pitta-style bread for dipping, scooping and general munching. Although the standout highlights for me were the zaalouk (a chunky aubergine dip), the falafel and the mild hummus, everything was delicious!

Our table was a cosy corner one next to shelves stocked with tagines and tapas plates for sale. Four other tables of two were occupied and several other groups popped in to purchase items to take away during our sitting. We were served both our drinks and food quickly – the key to any successful weekday lunch – and our total bill came to a very reasonable £15.80 (£12 for the tapas and bread, the rest for our teas; one traditional Moroccan mint tea, one standard English breakfast tea). My only regret is that I didn’t have enough time (or room in my tummy!) to sample a selection of the tempting sweet pastry treats on display on the counter.

Veggie Jen (Unverified), 13/04/11

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A really lovely place. Either chill out over mint tea and delicious homemade sweetmeats, share a selection of mezze or go for the authentic Moroccan cous cous experience. All served up with joy and eaten surrounded by lovely Moroccan decor and ceramics, glass and leather goods that you can buy. Also great for take aways and picnics.

foody C (Unverified), 11/06/10

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A little gem of a place!

A wintry, grey and drizzly evening in Oxford found us in search of somewhere to extinguish our growing hunger before the theatre, and the Couscous Café provided a perfect little Oasis for us last week, more than delivering on its promises of good Moroccan food.

The restaurant was empty and thus very quiet but still the atmosphere was warm and welcoming and a superb foil to the damp and dismal weather.

The owner (I presume) warm, friendly, funny, chatty and helpful and a real antidote to what had been a rather depressing week for me.

The food was just lovely: fresh, tasty and full of flavours, real honest Moroccan dishes, served with a dazzling smile and I have to admit to being quite charmed by the place.

My red lentil soup was moreish and utterly delicious, the Bastilla absolutely yummy ( I believe this is the most accurate word for it, if somewhat an inelegant term!) and our chicken Tajine was just perfect. The Hoummous and Moroccan pastries also fared extremely well and we left feeling replete and sated.. Flavours were well defined and the dishes had been put together with a real understanding of marrying ingredients effectively.

The mint tea was excellent too, sweet and yet not cloying which can often be the case.

Prices are extremely kind to the pocket, and all in all Couscous Café provides in my opinion a perfect little haven of character and tantalising flavours.

Oxford needs more places like this, and I wish it all the very best for a long and happy time in the city. May it prosper... independent restaurants are becoming thinner on the ground and I am always delighted to find one which manages to deliver both quality and character.

Pamplemousse (Unverified), 04/11/08

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A fantastic cross between a sandwich bar and Moroccan meze bar. Visited recently for lunch with a friend and was delighted with what I found. I had viewed the online menu and really fancied the chicken filo cinammon-y thing that one of the previous reviews talks about and also the merguez sausage sandwich they do. In reality there was so much choice I had to fore-go the latter of these.

Despite its rather drab look from the outside, the interior is bright and buzzy. The man behind the counter (the owner I would guess) was extremely helpful and friendly, recommending several dishes and helping us save money by opting for the multi-buy tapas option. We ordered some lovely mint tea to start (but a full range of the usual bottled soft drinks were available). This was sweet and just perfect for an autumnal lunch when there is a bit of a chill in the air. The dining room is very small with only about 3-4 tables of the traditional wobbly Morrocan/KazBar style complete with small but comfortable chairs. All around you are artefacts for sale including hooka pipes, incense lanterns and crockery. It feels comfortable on the whole but it clearly hasn't had the same budget as KazBar spent on it. (It's not really fair to compare the 2 of them as they're both very good at what they do.)

The food was very good overall and for relatively little money we had a banquet that left us both full. I thought the falafel was a little dry but that aside, the general standard was v good with the aforementioned chicken-filo-pastry-thing being brilliant and a real find. The baklava on the counter looked inviting but seemed expensive so I decided against this - there's plenty of competition for good baklava round here! It's often the little touches that get people to come back and I was impressed that the server brought us more bread free of charge for our houmous - a nice gesture.

Overall I would wholly recommend a visit, even if it's just for a takeaway sarnie or wrap whilst on a lunch break. I believe they may even let you smoke a hooka outside as well but this didn't appear to be advertised anywhere.

Joe B (Unverified), 24/10/08

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On a lovely late summer Sunday afternoon my partner and I were scouting out somewhere sunny to sit and have tea and settled on Cous Cous cafe. The atmosphere was wonderful - we basked in a puddle of sunlight by an open window, with the scent of apple shisha wafting through, leaning on decadent cushions and low tables. We had sweet Moroccan mint tea and an assortment of sweets and everything was fresh and delicious. Everything with honey was particularly amazing, and the pastries were light and crispy. It was the perfect way to laze away the last few hours of Sunday afternoon, and I can't wait to go back for lunch.

Kate (Unverified), 23/09/08

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