An evening's entertainment
DESCRIPTION: Make a reservation at Marrakesh and you don't need to make any other plans for the evening. Dinner here requires a good 3 hours and is an experience unto itself. Your 7 courses are predetermined, with the lone choice being whether to have lamb or beef for your 3rd course (...or is it 4th? Who can remember?). If you're not into adventure you might want to stay away, but if the idea of sitting on low, backless banquettes and sharing food with your fingers for 3 hours while a belly dancer twirls above you sounds appealing, then make a reservation.
DATE: 2003-07-07
FOODRATING : 6
SERVICERATING : 8
AMBIANCERATING : 10
OVERALLRATING : 8
RECOMMENDED DISHES : There are few choices. Just sit back and go with the flow.

Marrakesh means
DESCRIPTION: Atmosphere was good; food, entertainment and service were just average. Marrakesh doesn't accept Credit Cards, which they don't tell anyone until the end of the event, so dozens of people waited in line at the ATM machine. What a terrible inconvenience, especially when a party of 20 (at $40/person) is expected to carry this amount of cash! Further, with a cash-only business and this type of business model (fixed-price), I find it hard to believe that all that income is being reported to the IRS. It is really very shady.
DATE: 2005-03-20
FOODRATING : 4
SERVICERATING : 4
AMBIANCERATING : 6
OVERALLRATING : 4

Beware Marrakesh
DESCRIPTION: As another reviewer states, Marrakesh is really shady. There's very little difference between going to Marrakesh and being mugged. Because they have no cash register and payment is cash only, patrons really have no recourse after the fact because there is no record of the transaction. The set menu of 7 courses is supposed to cost about $30 per person, plus tax and tip. Our waiter gave us a bill for $50 per person just for the meal (he had a separate bill for drinks), then he added another 28% for what he called a "DC entertainment and service tax." All totaled, he tried to extort more than $150 more than what we owed. We spent nearly 45 minutes arguing with him and it ruined our evening. We almost just paid it to get out of there; had he tried to rip us of by $20 or $30 bucks, we would have done, but $150??
DATE: 2006-05-05
FOODRATING : 4
SERVICERATING : 2
AMBIANCERATING : 2
OVERALLRATING : 2
RECOMMENDED DISHES : Do not go there

Great!
DESCRIPTION: Inexpensive, fresh food, great appetizers. Great pasta. Live (and very good) jazz on the Saturday night we were there, no cover. Smoking in the main, smaller dining are/bar and non smoking in the adjacent dining room. Cool decor and I've had good service the last 3 times I've been. Food available at bar. No tap beer though. Decent wine list. The coolest place in U Street and one of the more civilized but laid back places I've found in DC.
DATE: 2004-03-06
FOODRATING : 6
SERVICERATING : 8
AMBIANCERATING : 8
OVERALLRATING : 6
RECOMMENDED DISHES : Appetizers! Good pastas