On our way back from the Sahara, we stopped in Nkob for lunch at a spot creatively named Kasbah Nkob. The place had a pretty stellar view of the city and surrounding oasis, but you don’t want to know about that. You want to know about their food. And this food looked almost exactly like it was pulled from the book of generic Moroccan food for tourists. Except for one thing.

That one thing was a tajine, but unlike other tajines I had encountered thus far, this one was made with plum and almond and our waiter even called it a specialty. I like feeling special, so I ordered this one and was eager to see how it would differ from the usual lemons and onions. And it was certainly different, topped with some hard-boiled egg and the aforementioned plums and almonds. Of course, it still had onions for flavor and whatnot. Unfortunately, as far as the chicken went, it was probably one of the worst tajines in terms of flavor. Although I know it isn’t true, the chicken breast tasted like it was cooked separately and just kind of added to the mix. I liked the bites of almond and plum, and assume with more prep the chicken could have been better. But alas this was not the case.

I did, at least, get to taste and egg and kefta dish that my wife ordered and it tasted pretty great. Oh, and we also got a bunch of fries for the table, so you can’t really go wrong with those. Well I guess you can, but Kasbah Nkob didn’t.

Anyway, Kasbah Nkob seemed to subscribe to the notion that many places with good views don’t have to offer good food. It wasn’t bad, but at least the special didn’t live up to being special.

While “riad” may be a common word for “hotel” in Morocco, due to the French influence in the country, “auberge” comes up pretty often as well. So when we stayed right next to the Sahara in Merzouga our hotel was called Auberge Les Roches. Auberge Le Sable would probably have been a more appropriate name, but whatevsies. As with a couple other stops, our hotel was also our restaurant for the night and that could only mean one thing: tajine.

The tajine served at Auberge Les Roches was a variation of one I’d seen many times before, but never ordered by me. That’s because it was filled with about 7 or so different vegetables. Fortunately, buried beneath those that would ruin my meal was a bunch of chicken. And the chicken was fine, but it was really probably the least delicious of any I had eaten yet. It probably has something to do with a lack of awesome citrus flavors, but whatever the reason I will recommend Auberge Les Roches for the rooms and the view much more than the food.

On the way to the Sahara Desert, we stopped at a place called Restaurant Inass in Tinghir. Despite the name of the place, I assumed the was served in the mouth as opposed to…well…the name of the place. The restaurant had a deep back outdoor area and we found ourselves a seat. And before our meal came out, we were brought a nice little dish of noodles with nuts, cinnamon and sugar. But that’s not all.

We were also brought out some crushed lentil soup that was equally unexpected. Both of these were good and the lentil soup was even better when I added a bit of harissa to the stuff. As for my meal, despite the fact that Restaurant Inass had some Italian on the menu, I stuck with Moroccan for my meal. I ordered the Tajine with chicken, lemon and olives, because sometimes you just can’t get enough tajine.

The meal turned out to be pretty good and fortunately I was expected to eat it in the traditional way. Again, the chicken wasn’t as tender as I had had before and didn’t have quite as much flavor as the sauce itself, but it was certainly nothing to complain about. Well, especially considering how my dad reacted to the Italian food he ordered (hint: not a good reaction, but then my dad has an interesting taste in food).

It was a good stop considering the long road ahead of us to the Sahara. But if they could change their name I’m guessing they could do a whole lot better.