Moroccan Soup Bar

Just like entering the welcoming embrace of your grandma's kitchen, Morroccan Soup is a warm, bustling, scenty slice of heaven. No need to listen to the menu, jump in head first and go straight for the banquet option. Enormous portions will sate even the heartiest hunger, and the robust and soulful flavours of North Africa will have you moaning with delight.
Always full to capacity, it is best to arrive early. Coeliacs and the dairy and nut free diet are happily catered for. Bring your own containers for cheap take away!

The Moroccan Soup Bar isn’t a bar - they don’t serve alcohol, I’ve never seen anyone eating soup, they don’t have a written menu and don’t serve meat, however it’s one of my favourite Melbourne restaurants because of its quirkiness and mouth wateringly good vegetarian dishes. 

The restaurant is extremely well priced for what you get. I can highly recommend the banquet.  No matter how full I am, I always manage to find room to fit every last morsel of food in, even if the first button of my pants has to be undone in the process. 

After being seated, you will be served mint tea and asked by the waitress, or if you’re lucky the owner, who is a real character,  to gauge your hunger and whether you’d like the banquet. You’d be mad not to say yes. 

A wide array of foods is then brought out which will usually include – an entrée of dips, mixed olives, cold vegetables and pide, then for mains: fried eggplant and spicy rice, chickpeas in a tangy yoghurt sauce on pitta, couscous with large chunks of vegetable in a flavoursome stew, a potato based dish with of lemon and tahini and finally a plainer rice and lentil plate. A shot of Moroccan coffee with dessert finishes up the experience. There aren't many places where you can enjoy a three-course banquet for $17, but this is one of them.

You can book if there are six or more people. I would highly recommend doing this as the wait for a table most nights can be one hour or more, and that’s if you turn up early. However if you do find you have to wait, the Deco Wine bar just down the road is the best place to let the time pass. 

Clearly the chick-pea bake is the star dish, attracting people far and wide. It’s first thing everyone goes for when it comes out and their first port of call when they go back for seconds.

I'm generally not into vegetarian foods but damn if this doesn't make me want to change my carnivorous ways ... at least for an evening.  

It's not just food, it's a complete dining experience. The owner is usually on hand waiting tables along with the rest of the staff and with 'no menu' for newcomers it can be a bit of a shock. Staff will either rattle off the dishes available-or if you're game pay for the banquet (you have no idea how cheap it is!) and leave it in their hands. Be prepared for a total taste sensation that will have you reorganising your schedule to get back there again. The chick pea bake is to die for! They don't take bookings for less than four people and without a booking be prepared to wait - unless you get there early. But it's well worth the wait so be patient!

The Moroccan inspire vegetarian food reflects the warm and comforting décor of the restaurant. The atmosphere is rich and vibrant, you feel like you’ve been transported to a family kitchen table in Northern Africa. Odd furniture and mismatched crockery with walls splashed with warm reds, browns and greens.

The food is just as welcoming…once you are seated a mint tea arrives to warm up your taste buds. You’ll be approached by one of the waitress or better yet the owner herself. They deliver the menu by voice as there is no written menu. Whether you choose your dishes or order the banquet, the variety is mouth watering. A mixture of hummus and yogurt dips, marinated vegetables, lentils with rice and my personal favourite, the chick pea bake. The portions are generous and are presented to encourage sharing and eating together.

Moroccan Soup Bar is one of those 'Must Eat' places in Melbourne…a true gem in the heart of North Fitroy!

This is a top cheap eat - in my book, as well as in most guides to eating in Melbourne.

The formula is simple, the same round of delicious freshly prepared and slow cooked Moroccan casseroles do the rounds each night.  

As the reviewer before me notes, the chickpea bake is excellent. I have waxed lyrical about this chickpea bake (with lashings of real yogurt and toasty almost caramel pita chips) to many over the years. I think that bake is one of my Melbourne food must try experiences.

The place is not flash, but has a homely ambiance. You can’t book, so do as the locals do and put your name down for a table at the Moroccan then hop up the road to Deco wine bar while you wait.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/australia/melbourne/entertainment-nightlife/366417

The Moroccan Soup Bar food is good enough to turn even the most dedicated carnivore to vegetarianism. Highlights are the chickpea bake and the wonderful things they do with eggplant.