Cous Cous Cafe was so new on my initial visit in January 2008 that it did not even have a sign in front indicating its location. I had read about it on an Internet discussion board, but even with the directions listed I went on a fruitless search several days before I actually found Cous Cous, being fooled by the sign in front indicating it was a pizza restaurant. The actual location of Cous Cous Cafe is about a block south of the Akin's store at N.W. 63rd St. & May Avenue. It is located in a small shopping center that is between Denny's and Golden Corral.

Cous Cous is also interesting because it is very near Zorba's Restaurant, with Cous Cous Cafe on the west side of May Avenue a short distance (maybe two blocks) north of Zorba's. My initial belief was that both restaurants offered Middle Eastern food and would be in competition with each other. Both have sandwiches and familiar items such as falafel. Zorba's is a large restaurant with a bar that caters to families and large groups, while Cous Cous is rather small with a few tables and no alcohol is served. Although Cous Cous looks more expensive from the decor, I do not believe it is actually priced any higher than Zorba's by the time you add up all the items that are typically ordered to make a full meal.

The main difference in the two restaurants, though, is in the food. Cous Cous Cafe serves food from Morocco while Zorba's has dishes from "Spain to Cyprus" (but I suspect some of the food at Zorba's is fairly Americanized, based on my experiences at Mediterranean restaurants in other cities). I am not an expert on Morocco, but I would be very surprised if the cuisine found there is very far different from the food served at Cous Cous Cafe.

Staying true to tradition includes serving French Bread rather than pita at Cous Cous Cafe. The bread tasted home made, and I was happy this was chosen to go with the meal.

The food choices at Cous Cous come from the menu (listed on the restaurant's web site) or daily specials. The owners said there are different nightly specials throughout the week, but they are repeated each week. They plan to add more specials in the future, and to keep the ones they already have.

Tajine plate of cobia fish fillet

My initial visit on a Saturday night had two specials, lamb or fish served in a tagine dish where the meat was served in sauce that resembled a stew. The one I chose was the Cobia Fish Fillet Tagine with a white, distinctly non-fishy tasting, mild fish (a great find for an inland city!). Cobia is popular in Morocco, and I think the tagine dish must be a traditional recipe. The sauce was made with prune, apricot, and honey, but was not as sweet as this may sound. Instead, this was one of the most well balanced, flavorful sauces I have ever tried, and paired with an excellent fish, made one of the all time best Mediterranean style dinners I have experienced.

There was no salad served with the meal, but with vegetables such as carrots and tomato cooked in the tagine, the dinner covered just about all of the food groups.

A Vegetable Tagine is also available, providing even larger quanties of vegetables. I thought it was quite good as well, but it seemed that this dish was really made to have a meat or fish to balance the vegetables.

Chicken tagine

Still not having exhausted the tagine choices, I ordered Chicken Tagine on a subsequent visit. This was probably as good as the fish, but there was something about the cobia being so different from the typical Oklahoma fish that made it my favorite of the dishes tried here. Still, I would recommend the chicken as well.

I have sampled other dishes besides the tagine plates, but so far nothing has been exceptional.

One definite highlight of Cous Cous Cafe, though, was the Moroccan Tea made with a traditional recipe of green tea and mint. The tea was slightly sweetened, and evidenced all the balance of flavors I found in the food. To me this tea is a special treat, especially since some other Mediterranean restaurants that used to serve similar tea have now discontinued it.

The down side to Cous Cous Cafe is that there is not a lot of choice in the menu items, and even less choice if you are looking for non-meat dishes. I am very impressed with the tagine dishes, but so far I have found the restaurant to be somewhat one-dimensional by not having other items that I think are as good as this one.

The tagine is so good, though, it really falls into my "special meal" category. The hot Moroccan tea makes it even better. I would highly encourage people to try Cous Cous Cafe if they can. The friendliness of the staff, comfortable decor, and reasonable prices for good quality food are additional reasons I can recommend it.